Harlem Renaissance 1919-1940 Essay

More than fifty years after the slaves were freed; they were still fighting for equality. In an effort to bring impartiality to their race, The Harlem Renaissance, a flurry of activates by black artists, express their displeasure through their work, notably in Literature.
The Harlem Renaissance was propagated as a result of the atrocities that were still being metered out to African-American community despite abolition of slavery. The Harlem Renaissance, a movement between 1919 and 1940 was an era of great explosion of black artist who express themselves through music, dance, poetry, drama, essay, painting, and sculpture. This was an era of “expressive art or a high quality as a primary response to their social conditions, as an affirmation of their dignity and humanity in the face of poverty and racism. Despite the fact that it bears the name “Harlem Renaissance,” not all of its contributors were from Harlem; these activates were also taking place in other major cities of the North. Harlem was developed for the Whites but because too many buildings were constructed, blacks were able to live in Harlem. Blacks in the South were treated badly; lynching, segregation, created an influx of Blacks to the north and one of their main city of choice was Harlem.
During this time there were many African American Writers who wrote about their culture and their oppression. Claude McKay was the first to publish, with his sonnet “If we Must Die,” published in 1919; this poem was not meant to be a racial poem but Blacks saw it that way. In 1922, James Weldon Johnson publishes his anthology of verse, Book of American Negro Poetry, In his writing he addresses the dialect verse that black poets often used and encourages them to express themselves more with imagery and idioms through “the peculiar turn of thought, and the distinctive humor of pathos of African Americans that could nevertheless also give voice to ‘the deepest and highest emotions and aspirations’ and the ‘widest range of subject and the widest scope of the Harlem Renaissance treatment.” Other renowned writers of The Harlem Renaissance were Langston Hughes whose play “Mulatto,” runs the longest on Broadway until Larraine Hansberry “Raisin in the Sun.” Many of the Harlem writers’ work are still being read as Literature throughout the country.
Whether or not the writers of The Harlem Renaissance withstood time in Literature, they had one common denominator, bringing an end to inequality. Blacks in America were not given the equality that they were promised with the abolition of slavery and self-expression was an idea that they were afraid to utilize because the whites never let them forget their assumed-inferiorly. The movement of The Harlem Renaissance gave writers the courage and the opportunity to write about the atrocities that blacks still suffer. They wrote about the culture of the African American people and the social norms that affect them. The movement woke up the blacks and gave them the bravery to fight to for their rights; it also woke up the whites to the creativity of the black people; more than that it scared them to reevaluate their attitude towards blacks. Whereas The Harlem Renaissance gives blacks a voice, it was the conscience of the whites.
Seventy-six years after the abolition of slavery, blacks were still held in captivity; and even at the end of The Harlem Renaissance, another twenty-one years, they were still fighting for their rights. Nonetheless, the movement was a great innovator for African Americans to display their resourcefulness.