Harlem Renaissance Research Paper

Harlem Renaissance After World War I, the Harlem Renaissance dramatically changed life in the 1920s for African Americans. The Harlem Renaissance influenced artistic development, racial pride, and political organization. The Harlem Renaissance was an era of artistic development where African American literature and music perpetually evolved. African Americans writers such as Langston Hughes and Claude McKay wrote about inequitable discrimination towards blacks that occurred in their society. Additionally, artists broke away from the traditional way of art that had been used for hundreds of years and brought their own cultural twist and made their art unique in their individual style. Not only was the Harlem Renaissance a time for African
Americans to establish themselves but also, claim their new developed style of the arts. Another example of artistic development was the evolution of African American music in the 1920s. Bessie Smith was known for her remarkable gift of soulfully mastering the blues, she was also known as “Empress of the Blues”. The blues was a soulful style of music that was adapted from African Americans spirituals. This new kind of music was eventually accepted into Americans popular music. African American’s were able to express themselves in their literature and music after the Harlem Renaissance. This brought fame to African American arts and marked a milestone in history where the first public appreciation of African American arts was accepted.
Racial Pride spectacularly changed after the Harlem Renaissance.
Two famous writers that encouraged racial pride were W.E.B Du Bois and Alain Locke. Du Boise wrote about racism toward African Americans and reflected the problems they faced in the 20th century. Du Bois believed that education was imperative for blacks to associate themselves with, encouraging racial pride for themselves. Du Bois was one of the first African American leaders to inquire for complete equal rights towards African Americans. His writings essentially brought forward racial pride by reconstructing how blacks thought about themselves. Du Bois inspired blacks and was a leader and voice for African Americans in the Harlem Renaissance in the first steps toward equal rights. Alain Locke was also a philosopher and a writer like Du Bois and used his ideas of equal rights to also inspire African Americans to claim equal rights. Alain published an encouraging book called The New Negro and once it was published its affects made whites take African American writing seriously. Both W.E.B Du Bois and Alain Locke were inspirational and motivating figures to African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance and are known for developing the begging of racial pride during that
time.
The Harlem Renaissance triggered new ideas about political involvement. A famous leader that led African Americans into politics was Marcus Garvey. Garvey believed that by educating themselves, African Americans would be able to acquire financial and political power. Garvey’s movement brought African Americans together and made them believe they had power and could make a difference. The Great Migration led to a great population of African Americans in the North. African Americans discovered they held a lot of power through voting blocs. One of their greatest accomplishments was electing Oscar DePriest. DePriest was one of the first African American representatives to be elected in Congress. This was when Africans Americans really started to believe that they could come together to make a difference. The Harlem Renaissance validated that African Americans would be able to express themselves in their political involvement to get their voices to be heard to claim their equal rights.
The Harlem Renaissance was a great opportunity for African Americans to live freely and express themselves through the arts, government and their pride. The Renaissance sparked artistic development where African Americans brought their own kind of style to art and changed it forever. After the Harlem Renaissance, African Americans realized that they could stand up for the equal rights they deserved and racial pride was developed. African Americans were able to group together and enable themselves to have a great affect on the outcomes of elections. Their lives changed so dramatically because they were able to live freely and establish themselves. The Harlem Renaissance greatly influenced African Americans lives and it was a time where they were able to claim their deserved rights.