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The Harlem Renaissance
How does the artist use symbolism to describe the
Renaissance?
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Mets Lose Here!!
Yankees Buy Pennant Here!!
Giants Stink Here!
Can you see any evidence from this map that this
is an African American community?
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(No Transcript)
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Harlem in the early 1930s
Based on these pictures, describe what life was
like in Harlem in the early 1930s.
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Causes
What events and movements do you think may have
helped lead to the Renaissance?
Great Migration the movement of hundreds of
thousands of African Americans from rural areas
in the South to urban areas in both he North and
South.
Dont let it be you!!!
What push factors led to the migration? What
pull factors led to the migration?
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Causes
Growing African American Middle Class developed
as a result of improved educational and
employment opportunities for African Americans.
The Harlem section of New York became the center
of this new African American class.
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Causes
Political Agenda For Civil Rights by African
Americans leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois,
Marcus Garvey and the NAACP helped to inspire
racial pride in the middle and working class.
Marcus Garvey pushed for the Back to Africa
movement
Du Bois, author of The Souls of Black Folks, was
instrumental in the foundation of the NAACP.
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The NAACP published The Crisis, a journal used to
share the literary works of African Americans.
Du Bois believed that artistic and literary work
could be used as a form of propaganda to help
combat racial stereotypes and gain new respect
for the race.
What message does this song, written by an
African American, send to the general public?
How do images like this hinder the efforts of
African Americans like Du Bois?
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Du Bois also believed in the talented tenth.
This was the idea that a small percentage of the
African American population who were
exceptionally skilled should be designated and
educated as artistic and cultural leaders. He
proposed absolute equality for the "talented
tenth" and technical training for the black
masses.
In what ways does Du Bois talented tenth idea
combine Washingtons ideas with his own?
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Dubois Influence on Literature
The Negro Speaks of Rivers Langston Hughes I've
known rivers I've known rivers ancient as the
world and older than the flow of human blood
in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the
rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were
young. I built my hut near the Congo and it
lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and
raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing
of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went
down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset. I've known
rivers Ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown
deep like the rivers.
Incident Countee Cullen Once riding in old
Baltimore,Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,I
saw a BaltimoreanKeep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,And he was no
whit bigger,And so I smiled, but he poked
outHis tongue, and called me, "Nigger." I saw
the whole of BaltimoreFrom May until
DecemberOf all the things that happened
thereThat's all that I remember.
How can these poems (and others we will examine)
be seen as propaganda?
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The 369th Hell Fighters were rewarded the Croix
de Guerre for gallantry in battle and returned to
the U.S. as heroes to African Americans.
Although the French recognized the courage and
skill of the regiment, the U.S. government
downplayed their role and even tried to convince
the French to do the same.
We must not eat with themshake hands or seek
to talk or meet with them outside of the
requirements of military dutyWe must not commend
too highly the black troops excerpts from a
memorandum entitled Secret Information
Concerning the Black American Troops.
How do you think the American public will treat
African American soldiers upon their return?
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Causes
Red Summer of 1919
There were 25 major race riots and at least 83
African Americans were lynched.
The Ku Klux Klan held over 200 meeting to
increase enrollment.
In response to the gains by African Americans,
many whites fought back during the summer of 1919.
What are the psychological effects of lynching
and cross burning on aspiring African Americans?
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African American Poet, Claude McKay memorialized
the bloody summer of 1919 with the poem, If We
Must Die, which was published in the magazine
Liberator.
If We Must Die If we must die--let it not be like
hogsHunted and penned in an inglorious
spot,While round us bark the mad and hungry
dogs,Making their mock at our accursed lot.If
we must die--oh, let us nobly die,So that our
precious blood may not be shedIn vain then even
the monsters we defyShall be constrained to
honor us though dead!Oh, Kinsmen! We must meet
the common foeThough far outnumbered, let us
show us brave,And for their thousand blows deal
one deathblow!What though before us lies the
open grave?Like men we'll face the murderous,
cowardly pack,Pressed to the wall, dying, but
fighting back!
What is the imagery used in the poem?
What message is the author sending to African
Americans?
Do you agree or disagree with the author? Why?
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Impact
The Harlem section of New York City was
transformed from a deteriorating area into a
thriving middle class community.
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Modernism the Harlem Renaissance

• Blacks view surge in art, music and literature as
  the creation of a new cultural identity.
• Whites see it as another new, exotic, and trendy
  form of entertainment.

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As Modern Artists look to make it new they turn
to the New Negro arts movement.
How does the modernist trend towards
primitivism impact this?
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Jazz Shapes American Culture
How did the following artists impact American
popular music?
Can you identify their music and differentiate it
from Early Jazz?
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Differences in Artistic Vision

• Dubois Locke
• Thus all art is propaganda and ever must be
  despite the wailing of the purists.
• The great social gain in this is the releasing
  of our talented group from the arid fields of
  controversy and debate to the productive fields
  of creative expression.

• Hughes Hurston
• We younger Negro artists who create now intend
  to express our individual dark-skinned selves
  without fear or shame. If white people are
  pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesnt
  matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly
  too.

What do you believe was more important fighting
racial prejudice and stereotyping, or true
personal expression? (Read The Negro Artist and
the Racial Mountain by Langston Hughes for HW)