The Harlem Renaissance

Their Eyes Were Watching God was published in1937, several years after the heyday of the HarlemRenaissance. But the novel should be read with thecontext of the "New Negro" in mind since Hurstonwas an influential member of the Harlem literati.

Thousands of African Americans migrated north atthe beginning of the twentieth century. According tothe Schomberg Center for Research in BlackCulture, “between 1910 and 1920, New York’s blackpopulation increased by 66 percent, Chicago’s by148 percent, Philadelphia by 500 percent. Detroitexperienced an amazing growth rate of 611 percent.”This exodus heightened black intellectual output incities like New York and Chicago. While newindustry (like Henry Ford’s automotive factories)supplied jobs to these new arrivals, artists withinthese communities gave voice to the new challengesof the African-American experience. Ralph Ellisoncaptures this journey in his 1952 novel, InvisibleMan. In this story, the main character migrates fromhis boyhood south to New York City. An educatedyoung man’s dreams transform as urban life bringsbetrayal and racial strife.

Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City,became the center for African-American artistsfrom 1910-1930. These artists produced anastounding array of internationally acclaimedworks. Harlem Renaissance literary greats includedpoet Langston Hughes, author Zora NealeHurston, writer Richard Wright, and politicalthinker W.E.B. DuBois. At the same time, a host ofmusicians would make an indelible mark on the

evolution of American music. These artistsincluded Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, EllaFitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, BennyGoodman and Bessie Smith. Since racial prejudicedominated mainstream America, some artists, likeactress and dancer Josephine Baker, met with moresuccess in Europe. International audiences alsoprovided artists with an opportunity to experimentmore freely with their art form.

While American society was still segregated, artisticcollaborations between blacks and whites wouldprovide a foundation for improving interracialrelations. Zora Neale Hurston, a trainedanthropologist as well as novelist, called whitessupporting this artistic movement “Negrotarian.”Jazz musicians from New Orleans to New York toCalifornia overcame racial differences to embracepotent musical collaborations. Literary works,plays, paintings and political commentary providedall Americans with new, positive, and realisticallycomplex images of the African American. As aresult, there was great debate within African-American communities as to what would properlyrepresent the race. W.E.B. DuBois would rejectBessie Smith’s music as inappropriate. RichardWright and Alain Locke would criticize Hurston’suse of language as failing the African American byrepresenting him/her as uneducated. The gusto andtriumph of the Harlem Renaissance was fedprecisely by tensions that forced artists to come toterms with new definitions of race made possible inand through a variety of art forms.

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National Endowment for the Arts THE BIG READ • 17