TOPIC 3.11
The New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 3.11.A
Describe ways the New Negro movement emphasized self-definition, racial pride, andcultural innovation.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
EK 3.11.A.1
The New Negro movement encouraged
African Americans to define their own identity
and to advocate for themselves politically in
the midst of the nadir’s atrocities.
EK 3.11.A.2
The New Negro movement pursued
the creation of a Black aesthetic, which
was reflected in the artistic and cultural
achievements of Black creators.
EK 3.11.A.3
The New Negro movement produced
innovations in music (e.g., blues and
jazz), art, and literature that served as
counternarratives to prevailing racial
stereotypes. These artistic innovations
reflected the migrations of African Americans
from the South to urban centers in the North
and Midwest.
EK 3.11.A.4
The New Negro movement encompassed
several political and cultural movements,
including the Harlem Renaissance. The
Harlem Renaissance was a flourishing of
Black literary, artistic, and intellectual life that
created a cultural revolution in the United
States in the 1920s and 1930s.This movement highlighted the contributions of African American artists, writers, and musicians, leading to a greater appreciation of Black culture and identity.
§ The New Negro movement began in the late nineteenth century, evolving and
assuming various and often contradictory forms, ranging from Booker T. Washington’s
accommodationist strategies to Marcus Garvey’s claims that his movement was the
embodiment of The New Negro. Alain Locke redefined the trope in terms of an aesthetic
movement.
§ Black aesthetics were central to self-definition among African Americans. In The New
Negro: An Interpretation, Alain Locke encourages young Black artists to reject the burden
of being the sole representative of a race. He emphasizes that the value of creating a Black
aesthetic lies not in creating tangible cultural artifacts but rather in a shift of the “inner
mastery of mood and spirit” (in “Negro Youth Speaks”).
§ Alain Locke became the first African American Rhodes Scholar in 1907.
TOPIC 3.12
Photography and Social Change
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 3.12.A
Explain how African Americans
used visual media in the
twentieth century to enact
social change.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
EK 3.12.A.1
African American scholars, artists, and
activists turned to photography to counter
racist representations that were used to
justify their mistreatment and Jim Crow
segregation.
EK 3.12.A.2
During the New Negro movement, African
American photographers, seeking to create
a distinctive Black aesthetic, grounded their
work in the beauty of everyday Black life,
history, folk culture, and pride in an African
heritage.
EK 3.12.A.3
African American photographers, such as
James Van Der Zee, recast global perceptions
of African Americans by further illustrating
the qualities of the “new negro.” They
documented Black expression, labor, leisure,
study, worship, and home life, and highlighted
the liberated spirit, beauty, and dignity of
Black people.
§ James Van Der Zee is best known for his photographs of Black Harlemites, particularly
the Black middle class. He often used props (including luxury items) and special poses to
capture the vibrant personalities of everyday African Americans and leading figures such
as Marcus Garvey and Mamie Smith.
§ At the 1900 Paris Exposition, the Exhibit of American Negroes, curated by W.E.B. Du Bois,
displayed more than 300 photographs of African Americans. The exhibit demonstrated
the diversity and achievements of African Americans. It included dozens of charts and
infographics in English and French with data grounded in demographic, scientific, and
sociological research on the status of African Americans. The exhibit was visited by 45
million people and increased the global reach of the New Negro movement. The success of this exhibit not only highlighted the cultural contributions of African Americans but also fostered a greater understanding of their historical and contemporary challenges.
TOPIC 3.13
Envisioning Africa in Harlem Renaissance Poetry
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 3.13.A
Explain how Harlem
Renaissance poets express
their relationships to Africa in
their poetry.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
EK 3.13.A.1
Harlem Renaissance writers, artists, and
scholars explored connections to and
detachments from their African heritage as a
response to the legacies of colonialism and
Atlantic slavery.
EK 3.13.A.2
Some Harlem Renaissance poets used
imagery to counter negative stereotypes
about Africa’s people and landscapes.
EK 3.13.A.3
Some Harlem Renaissance poets explored
the relationship between Africa and African
American identity and heritage through
personal reflection.
TOPIC 3.14
Symphony in Black: Black Performance in Music, Theater, and Film
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 3.14.A
Describe African Americans’
contributions to American
music in the 1930s and 1940s.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
EK 3.14.A.1
In the early decades of the twentieth century,
the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age
opened opportunities for African American
record labels, musicians, and vocalists to gain
a wider audience. The rise of radio broadcast
African American genres including blues,
gospel, and jazz across the nation.
EK 3.14.A.2
Blues music has its roots in slavery. Beginning
as acoustic music in the American South,
a new, electric version evolved as African
Americans moved north during the Great
Migration. The heightened emotion of blues
music conveys themes such as despair and
hope, love, and loss, using repetition, call and
response, and vernacular language.
EK 3.14.A.3
Jazz has been described as the United
States’ most distinctive contribution to
the arts. Like blues, jazz originated among
African American communities in the South
(New Orleans) and developed new styles
following migration to the North, Midwest, and
West. From big band to free jazz, the genre
continues to evolve in the present day.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 3.14.B
Describe African Americans’
contributions to American
theater and film in the 1930s
and 1940s.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
EK 3.14.B.1
Black performers flourished in cabarets, on
Broadway, and in film in the early twentieth
century. Hollywood also produced all-Black
musicals, such as Cabin in the Sky (1943)
featuring prominent Black actors, musicians,
and dancers*. Ethel Waters was the first
African American to star in her own television
show (1939).
sources:
§ Duke Ellington – “It Don’t Mean a Thing” (1943) (video, 2:45)
§ Katherine Dunham, Cabin in the Sky, 1940
§ Ethel Waters in Cabin in the Sky, 1943
§ Cast of Cabin in the Sky, 1943
Duke Ellington produced the short musical film Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro
Life (1934) depicting various scenes of African American life including work, love, and
religious scenes.
TOPIC 3.15
Black History Education and African American Studies
SOURCES
§ “The Negro Digs Up His Past” by Arturo A. Schomburg, in The New Negro: An
Interpretation edited by Alain Locke, 1925
§ The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter Godwin Woodson, 1933
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 3.15.A
Explain why New Negro
movement writers, artists, and
educators strove to research
and disseminate Black history
to Black students.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
EK 3.15.A.1
New Negro movement writers, artists, and
educators believed that United States
schools reinforced the idea that Black
people had made no meaningful cultural
contributions and were thus inferior. They
urged African Americans to become agents
of their own education and study the history
and experiences of Black people to inform
their future advancement.
EK 3.15.A.2
Artists, writers, and intellectuals of the New
Negro movement refuted the idea that African
Americans were people without history or
culture and created a body of literature and
educational resources to show otherwise. The
early push to place Black history in schools
allowed the contributions of the New Negro
movement to reach Black students of all ages.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 3.15.B
Describe the development and
aims of the Black intellectual
tradition that predates
the formal integration of
African American Studies
into American colleges
and universities in the mid-
twentieth century.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
EK 3.15.B.1
The Black intellectual tradition in the United
States began two centuries before the formal
introduction of the field of African American
Studies in the late 1960s. It emerged through
the work of Black activists, educators, writers,
and archivists who documented Black
experiences.
EK 3.15.B.2
Beginning in the late eighteenth century,
the African Free School provided an
education to the children of enslaved and
free Black people in New York. The school
helped prepare early Black abolitionists for
leadership.
EK 3.15.B.3
The Black Puerto Rican bibliophile Arturo
Schomburg’s collection, donated to The New
York Public Library, became the basis of the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture.
EK 3.15.B.4
The sociologist and activist W.E.B. Du Bois’s
research and writings produced some of
the earliest sociological surveys of African
Americans.
EK 3.15.B.5
Anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston’s writings
documented forms of African American
culture and linguistic expression.
EK 3.15.B.6
The historian Carter Godwin Woodson
founded what became Black History Month, in
addition to publishing many works chronicling
Black experiences and perspectives in
history.
The son of formerly enslaved people, Carter Godwin Woodson became the founder of
what is now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH);
created Negro History Week, which became Black History Month; and published many
works of African American history that started with African origins through the early
twentieth century.
§ Arturo Schomburg’s collection included rare artifacts that reflected the diverse artistic,
literary, and political contributions of the African diaspora, including correspondence
that belonged to Toussaint L’Ouverture, newspapers originally published by Frederick
Douglass, and poems by Phillis Wheatley.
TOPIC 3.16
The Great Migration
SOURCE
§ Anonymous Letter Beckoning African Americans to leave the South, published in
The Messenger, March 1920, in Call and Response, 258
§ The Migration Series by Jacob Lawrence, 1940–1941 (various panels, in particular
Panel No. 1)
§ Map of The Great Migration
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 3.16.A
Describe the causes of the
Great Migration.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
EK 3.16.A.1
The Great Migration was one of the largest
internal migrations in United States history.
Six million African Americans relocated in
waves from the South to the North, Midwest,
and western United States from the 1910s
to 1970s.
EK 3.16.A.2
Labor shortages in the North during the First
World War and Second World War increased
job opportunities in northern industrial cities,
appealing to African Americans in search of
economic opportunities.
EK 3.16.A.3
Environmental factors, such as floods, boll
weevils, and spoiled crops, left many Black
Southerners impoverished.
EK 3.16.A.4
African Americans relocated in search of
safety for their families. The dangers of
unmitigated lynching and racial violence
prompted many Black people to leave the Jim
Crow South.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
EK 3.16.A.5
A new railway system and the Black press
made the Great Migration possible. Trains
offered a means to travel, and the Black press
provided encouragement and instructions for
African Americans leaving the South.
Explain the impact of the
Great Migration on Black
communities and American
culture.
EK 3.16.B.1
The effects of the Great Migration
transformed American cities, Black
communities, and Black cultural movements.
The migration infused American cities such
as New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Los
Angeles with Black Southern culture, creating
a shared culture among African American
communities across the country.
EK 3.16.B.2
The Great Migration transformed African
Americans from primarily rural people to
primarily urban dwellers. Black Southerners
forged new connections to their northern
environment, such as engaging with nature
for leisure rather than livelihood/labor.
EK 3.16.B.3
As underpaid and disempowered Black
laborers began to leave the South, racial
tensions increased. Employers often resisted
the flight of African Americans and at times
had them unjustly arrested.
EK 3.16.B.4
The National Urban League was founded
in New York City in 1910 as an interracial
organization. The Urban League assisted
African Americans migrating from the rural
South during the Great Migration, helping
them acclimate to northern urban life and
secure housing and jobs. The Urban League
would later support A. Philip Randolph’s
1941 March on Washington and work directly
with the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference during the Civil Rights movement.
In The Migration Series, artist Jacob Lawrence chronicles African Americans’ hopes and
challenges during the Great Migration. His work is known for its social realism due to his
use of visual art to depict historical moments, social issues, and the everyday lives of
African Americans.
TOPIC 3.17
Afro-Caribbean Migration
SOURCES
§ “Restricted West Indian Immigration and the American Negro” by Wilfred A.
Domingo, 1924 (published in Opportunity, Oct. 1924, pp. 298–299)
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 3.17.A
Explain the reasons for the
increase in Black Caribbean
migration to the United States
during the first half of the
twentieth century.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
EK 3.17.A.1
Afro-Caribbeans were affected by the decline
of Caribbean economies during the First
World War, and the expansion of United
States political and economic interests in
the Caribbean, such as the acquisition of
the Panama Canal (1903)*. They came to the
United States for economic, political, and
educational opportunities.
Describe the effects of Afro-
Caribbean migration to the
United States in the early
twentieth century and the
migration’s effect on African
American communities.
EK 3.17.B.1
More than 140,000 Afro-Caribbean
immigrants arrived between 1899 and 1937.
Most settled in Florida and New York.
EK 3.17.B.2
The arrival of Afro-Caribbean immigrants
to African American communities sparked
tensions but also created new blends of Black
culture in the United States.
EK 3.17.B.3
Afro-Caribbean migration to the United
States increased the religious and linguistic
diversity of African American communities in
the United States, as many of the new arrivals
were Catholic, Anglican, and Episcopalian and
hailed from non-English-speaking islands.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
EK 3.17.B.4
Afro-Caribbean intellectuals also contributed
to the radicalization of Black thought in
the twentieth century by infusing their
experiences of Black empowerment and
autonomy into the radical Black social
movements of the time.
Source Notes
§ Africans and their descendants born in the West Indies first arrived in what became the
United States in the seventeenth century when enslaved people from Barbados, Jamaica,
and other British colonies in the Caribbean were brought to British North American
colonies to work on plantations. In the early nineteenth century, in the wake of the Haitian
Revolution, formerly enslaved people found refuge in cities like New Orleans, Charleston,
Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.
§ Prominent early twentieth-century, Afro-Caribbean immigrants include Claude McKay
(Jamaica), Arturo Schomburg (Puerto Rico), and Marcus Garvey (Jamaica).
TOPIC 3.18
The Universal Negro Improvement Association
SOURCES
§ “Address to the Second UNIA Convention” by Marcus Garvey, 1921
§ Marcus Garvey at His Desk, 1924
§ Marcus Garvey in Harlem, 1924
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 3.18.A
Describe the mission and
methods of the Universal
Negro Improvement
Association (UNIA).
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
EK 3.18.A.1
Marcus Garvey led the largest pan-African
movement in African American history as
founder of the UNIA. The UNIA aimed to unite
all Black people and maintained thousands
of members in countries throughout the
Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa.
EK 3.18.A.2
Marcus Garvey’s Back-to-Africa movement
popularized the phrase “Africa for the
Africans” and founded a steamship company,
the Black Star Line, to repatriate African
Americans to Africa.
LO 3.18.B
Describe the impact of
Marcus Garvey and the
Universal Negro Improvement
Association (UNIA) on political
thought throughout the African
diaspora.
EK 3.18.B.1
Garvey inspired African Americans, who
had faced intense racial violence and
discrimination, to embrace their shared
African heritage. He championed the ideals
of industrial, political, and educational
advancement and self-determination through
separatist Black institutions.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
EK 3.18.B.2
Garvey outlined the UNIA’s objective to
achieve Black liberation from colonialism
across the African diaspora. This framework
became the model for subsequent Black
nationalist movements throughout the
twentieth century. The UNIA’s red, black, and
green flag continues to be used by advocates
of Black solidarity and freedom worldwide.