Music of the New Century

Define the Harlem Renaissance

• A flourishing of Black arts and intellectual life in Harlem during the 1920s and early 1930s.

• The Great Migration and post–World War I demands for equality helped shape the Renaissance.

  • The Great Migration brought Black communities together in cities, including New York's Harlem neighborhood.

  • Black soldiers fought for their country during World War I yet still faced racial prejudice and segregation.

  • Demands for equal treatment and dignity encouraged expressions of Black pride and cultural value through art.

Harlem Renaissance: dances, music, poets, and venues

• Writers included Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.
• Jazz was associated with Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.
• Swing music and dances such as the Lindy Hop flourished at the Savoy Ballroom.
• Cotton Club and Savoy Ballroom:
  • The Cotton Club promoted Black performers in a segregated environment, primarily for white audiences.
  • The Savoy Ballroom promoted interracial participation and the development of swing music and dance.

Who were some of the Black intellectuals?

• Booker T. Washington
• John Hope
• W. E. B. Du Bois
• Mary McLeod Bethune
• George Washington Carver

What were their positions on African American advancement?

• Booker T. Washington:
  • Emphasized vocational education and economic advancement, with a gradualist approach to racial change.
• W. E. B. Du Bois:
  • Demanded full civil and political rights and access to higher education.
  • Associated with the Niagara Movement, NAACP, and The Crisis.
• John Hope:
  • Supported liberal arts education and civil rights.
  • Worked with Du Bois and the Niagara Movement.
• Mary McLeod Bethune:
  • Linked education, institution building, and women's leadership to racial advancement.
• George Washington Carver:
  • Used agricultural science and practical education to improve rural livelihoods.

What role did the mob play in the furtherance of jazz music?

• Prohibition made illegal alcohol highly profitable; organized crime figures financed or controlled nightclubs and speakeasies.
  • Created jobs, performance opportunities, and publicity for jazz musicians while profiting from entertainment.
• Gangster Owney Madden's organization was associated with the Cotton Club.
  • Expanded exposure but also exploited performers and reinforced racial restrictions.
• Mob-controlled venues helped jazz flourish while often maintaining segregation.

Discuss the dynamics of the Cotton Club

• A Harlem nightclub famous for Black performers entertaining primarily white audiences.
• Duke Ellington's orchestra gained national exposure through radio broadcasts.
  • Ellington was a pianist, composer, and major jazz orchestra leader.
• Provided important work and visibility for musicians while maintaining racial exclusion and stereotyped presentations of Black life.
• In comparison, the Savoy Ballroom welcomed Black and white dancers, combining musical opportunities with interracial participation.

Langston Hughes

• Poet, writer, and dramatist central to the Harlem Renaissance.
• Drew on everyday Black life and the rhythms of blues and jazz.
  • Affirmed Black experience rather than shaping his art to satisfy white expectations.
  • Wrote truthfully about Black daily life.

Zora Neale Hurston

• Writer, anthropologist, and folklorist associated with the Harlem Renaissance.
• Collected Black songs, stories, speech, and cultural practices, treating them as rich sources of knowledge and art.
• Her documentation helped preserve Black history and traditions across generations.
  • Her work went beyond novels: she documented oral traditions through fieldwork, writing, and recordings.

Marcus Garvey

• Jamaican-born leader who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
• Promoted Black pride, economic self-reliance, political independence, and worldwide Black unity.
• The Black Star Line reflected his ambitions for Black-controlled commerce and connections with Africa.
  • A Black-owned shipping company founded and led by Garvey.
  • Owned collectively by shareholders, not solely by Garvey.
• Garvey emphasized Black independence and worldwide unity; Du Bois emphasized equal citizenship and civil rights in the United States.
  • Du Bois also supported Pan-Africanism; the contrast concerns their strategies, not whether they valued connections with Afric