Xavien Mitchell

The Harlem Renaissance was a period of cultural, social, and artistic flourishing for the Harlem African American community in the early 20th century. It was a time of immense creativity and progress that saw the celebration of Black culture and a critique of centuries of racism and segregation.

The movement began in Harlem, New York City, where a diverse group of writers, musicians, artists, actors, and activists gathered to express their ideas through art. This creative energy spread throughout the nation, inspiring African Americans to stand up against inequality and fight for civil rights. The impact of the Harlem Renaissance was far-reaching, giving rise not only to an incredible array of Black talent but also serving as a catalyst for political action.

Despite enduring what is referred to as one of the worst periods of human bondage that nations across the world have ever witnessed, African Americans in Harlem fostered a vibrant culture rooted in African traditions and incubated in American southern customs. By this point, tens of thousands of African Americans had migrated away from inexplicable and violent oppression in the South to a land of opportunity where they would seek freedom in artistic, literary, and musical expression. Many sought social asylum in a compact sub-sector of New York City known as Harlem. They created the “New Negro” movement and sparked America's first taste of the sights and sounds of a liberated people.

The emancipation proclamation officially freed enslaved people in America in 1865. In the late 19th century, Black Americans had to start from scratch compared to white Americans who had significant financial and social advantages. Thanks to Jim Crow Laws, Black people in the South continued to work jobs synonymous with slavery, as field hands, maids, and sharecroppers, while also combating obstacles such as the 13th amendment, the Klu Klux Klan, voting restrictions, and more. The oppressed became increasingly politicized regardless of the consequences and backlash from white America, growing weary of the strain and torment of existing in a society that considered them second-class citizens. Many even began forcefully advocating for their civil and political rights by occupying spaces in local governments, which would have been an absurd idea decades prior. Many Black Americans began to market, socialize, and invest within their sub-communities in the northern United States.

From 1916 to 1970, during the Great Migration, it is estimated that some six million Black Southerners relocated to urban areas in the North and West, with an estimated one hundred and seventy-five thousand relocating to a small neighborhood in New York City known as Harlem. This influx of Black Americans transformed the small community of lower-class minorities into the highest concentration of Black Americans known to man. A high population of people sharing the same ethnic background and the same social and economic struggles, in such a small area, is bound to spark a new embodiment of creative and artistic expression. The arts of Harlem felt unlike anything mainstream America had seen before. Innovative creativity poured out of the community, and artists and musicians flourished within the haven that was Harlem. Considering the social status of the average Black American a few decades prior, profound Black philosophers, such as Alain Locke and W.E.B Du Bois, examined the idea of a "New Negro" in America.

Three avenues of expression led the movement: musical arts, visual arts, and literary arts, drawing attention to Harlem on a national and international scale. Music is one of the most moving forms of expression, with different combinations of sound invoking feelings of all emotions. Musicians of the Harlem Renaissance were considered ahead of their time, creating a sound new to America with big-time jazz, blues, swing, ragtime, and more, producing some of the most influential and innovative music the world had ever seen. Musicians such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith played a vital role in the recognition of musical arts not only in the Black community but also among female artists of the Black community. They sang about their experiences living in a country that refused to uphold the principles of its constitution and performed songs of love, lust, freedom, and heartbreak, speaking their truths. This platform only grew, with Black female musicians rising to stardom even beyond the bounds of Harlem. Their success demonstrated what it meant to be a Black woman in America. Author Amy Helene Kirschke writes about how important it is to consider the intersection of race and gender in the history of Harlem. She notes that women artists of the Harlem Renaissance faced unique issues based on their gender and race. They encountered racial prejudice, which limited their ability to obtain training and to be taken seriously as working artists, as well as prevailing sexism, which often proved an even more significant barrier.

The visual arts were fundamental to the Harlem Renaissance. Contemporary audiences still marvel at the skill and technique of the movement’s artists. Most Black artists of the time did not have access to professional training as a result of institutional racism, and yet many persevered to achieve success and found mentorship within their own community. One of the most distinguished and well-known works of art associated with the movement became the cover of the monthly illustrated issue of "Survey" magazine, a social work journal published in the 1920s, known as "Survey Graphic." Paul Kellogg, the magazine's editor, invited Alain Leroy Locke to design and edit a special edition in November 1924 that would focus on the African American "Renaissance" taking place in Harlem. Locke expanded upon the idea that artists of the Harlem Renaissance were met with a bifurcated career path – they could choose to stay true to their roots by employing Afrocentric characteristics and looking to African artistic forms for inspiration, or they could choose to confine their artistic styles to what was sought after in mainstream white America.

Dr. Alain Locke, The Harmon Foundation Collection: Kenneth Space Photographs of the Activities of Southern Black Americans, c. 1936 – 1937

Alain Locke was known as a trailblazer in the advancement of African American culture during the Harlem Renaissance. During his lifetime, Locke was a significant philosopher of race and culture, in addition to being a renowned scholar and educator. The creation of the concept of "ethnic race," which was Locke's conception of race as essentially a question of social and cultural heredity rather than biological heredity, was the most significant of his contributions in these fields. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, otherwise known as W.E.B Du Bois, was also a significant philosophical voice during the Harlem Renaissance. He was an American sociologist, historian, author, editor, and activist. He shared in the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. These two great minds exchanged ideas and concepts resulting in one of the most iconic and esteemed debates of African American cultural history.

Dr. W.E.B Du Bois, 1907, gelatin silver print carte-de-visite by James E. Purdy. National Portrait Gallery.

Alain Locke and W.E.B Du Bois shared the same overall motives: the advancement of African American people. However, they had different perspectives on the growing arts and what route should be taken to elevate African Americans by way of these arts. The two scholars exchanged ideas, offering valid points on their specific perspectives. Du Bois believed that all art is propaganda, and if Black Americans wanted to be full-fledged Americans with the rights that all other Americans had, they would have to create art with a strong message of social uplift. Du Bois expounded upon his standpoint in the NAACP's magazine under the title “Criteria of Negro Art.” Du Bois discussed the political position of African American art in firm political terms in this widely distributed paper. Its most contentious passage stated: “All art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists. I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has been used always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy. I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda.” In some ways, Du Bois pushed for artists of the Harlem Renaissance to stray away from composing art that was only personal expression or only appealed to Black audiences. All art must rather be in pursuit of the progress of African American status in society. He felt that by limiting themselves to art that only they could enjoy and understand, they were hindering themselves from achieving full equality.

Locke, on the other hand, criticized Du Bois’s narrative of what art should mean to African Americans living in Harlem. Locke believed that art is the expression of self, and that an artist's primary responsibility should be to exhibit what drives them to create, whether it be negative, positive, or indifferent: “My chief objection to propaganda, apart from its besetting sin of monotony and disproportion, is that it perpetuates the position of group inferiority even in crying out against it. For it leaves and speaks under the shadow of a dominant majority whom it harangues, cajoles, threatens, or supplicates. It is too extroverted for balance or poise or inner dignity and self-respect. Art in the best sense is rooted in self-expression and whether naive or sophisticated is self-contained. In our spiritual growth genius and talent must increasingly choose the role of group expression, or even at times the role of free individualistic expression - in a word, must choose art and put aside propaganda.” Locke firmly believed that African American artists should not conform to what society deemed respectable in art, nor should they be confined to producing work that only counteracted negative stereotypes in order to achieve social progress. His response to Du Bois encouraged artists to express their individuality. This could mean utilizing references to African culture to establish a modern and personal style, or creating murals that confronted viewers with the history of racism as told from a Black perspective.

It is evident that the advancement of African Americans was the common goal for both ideologies. Both essentially allowed room for Art to be used as a political weapon. The concepts of filtering out art that cannot be consumed by people outside of the Black community versus staying true to one's roots regardless of the racial dynamic of the country were both reasonable perspectives in the context of their time, and these debates continue to inform contemporary practices. Art is a key reflection of the times, and with the country's growing endeavors racially, economically, and politically, one must consider and appreciate the triumph of the Harlem Renaissance. To understand the art from the Harlem Renaissance, the viewer must also understand the dynamic of the country concerning Black people in Harlem, NY. The art of the time reflected resilience and was a message to America that Black people were here too. The Harlem Renaissance wasn’t just about the books, the musicians, the singers, and the dancers; it was also centered around the larger political messages that were conveyed both on the stage, the canvas, and the page.

References

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia. "Human migration". Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Oct. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-migration. Accessed 10 December 2022.

Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. “Criteria of Negro Art.” The Crisis, 1926, pp. 290–297.

Gooding-Williams, Robert. “W.E.B. Du Bois.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 13 Sept. 2017, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dubois/.

Kirschke, Amy Helene. Women Artists of the Harlem Renaissance. University Press of Mississippi, 2016.

Locke, Alain LeRoy. “Art or Propaganda.” The New Negro: An Interpretation, 1st ed., vol. 1, Atheneum, New York City, New York, 1926, pp. 1–1.

To cite this essay:
Mitchell, Xavien. “The Harlem Renaissance and its Impact of the Black Community.” Journal of Art & Theatre, vol. 2.1 (2023) 1-6.