Civil Rights Movement + American Renaissance

“Red Summer” and The Great Migration

  • Black folks were hesitant to go back to America where they felt lesser

  • April 13th: Racist clashes start in Georgia

  • April 19th: Black students tarred and feathers at University of Maine

  • May 10th: White men incite riot in Charleston

  • July: Racist violence erupts in Texas, Arizona, Indiana, Washington DC

  • July 27th-August 12th: Chicago Riots

Historical Harlem

  • Always been an African American presence in Harlem since the 1630s

    • Sustained Black presence [300+ years]

  • Heavy Eastern European population since Civil War; Harlem renowned as a sophisticated cultural area

    • Some came from other parts of New York or Northern United States

  • 1893-1904

    • Real estate in Harlem gets cheap

  • 1914: More than 50k Black people living in Harlem

James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)

  • Born to Caribbean parents in Jacksonville, Florida

    • 1894: Graduated from Clark-Atlanta University

    • 1898: First Black man admitted to Florida Bar since Reconstruction

  • Known as the author of the Black anthem

    • Wrote “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” in 1900

  • Moved to Harlem in 1901 to compose songs for musical theatre

  • Became key Renaissance figure and civil rights activist

    • 1916: Joined NAACP as field secretary

“New Negroes” of The 20th Century

  • Alain LeRoy Locke (1885-1954)

    • Born in Philadelphia to educators

    • 1918: Earned PhD in Philosophy from Harvard

    • Taught at Howard university; joined NAACP

    • Afraid of African heritage

    • Identified as gay to his friends, but never publicly

  • The New Negro: An Interpretation (1925) propelled the Harlem Renaissance

    • Inspired the racial infighting to comment on how if white folks harm black folks, dead white folks will drop

  • Claude McKay (1889-1948)

    • Born in Jamaica; moved to Harlem in 1914

    • Poetry and novels portrayed working-class life

      • 1933: Romance in Marseille

  • Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1959)

    • Raised in Eatonville, Florida

    • Folklorist, anthropologist who became central in the Renaissance

      • 1937: published Their Eyes Were Watching God

  • Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

    • Queer man born in Missouri as James Hughes

    • Was a writer from a young age

      • Potentially on the spectrum

    • 1921-25: Published in The Crisis; worked as personal assistant to Carter G. Woodson for the ASALH

    • 1926: published The Weary Blues

  • Countee Cullen (1903-1946)

    • Born in Louisville, Kentucky; moved to Harlem as a kid

    • 1920: poems published in magazines, including The Crisis

      • 1925: Published Colors

Ma Rainey: Mother of the Blues

  • Gertrude Pridgett “Ma Rainey”

    • Born in Alabama in 1882

    • 1904: William Rainey and the Rabbit Foot Minstrels

    • First Black woman to be recorded

    • Portrayed working-class Black life for the masses—never happened before

      • Feminist Anthem: See-See Rider

      • Lesbian anthems: Prove It on Me

Mary McLeod Bethune

  • “Baddest Woman in Washington”

  • Lifelong educator; founded Daytona industrial school for negro girls

    • Today, Bethune-Cookman college (Florida)

  • Organized Roosevelt’s Federal Council of Negro Affairs (The Black Cabinet)

  • President of the National Youth Association (NYA)

    • Aimed at college students + tech/trade school

    • Worked in cafeteria, janitorial, and library

Black Higher Education And the Depression

  • HBCUs consolidated resources and formed consortiums

    • Created United Negro college fund with help of white philanthropy

  • Murray vs Maryland (1936)

    • Donald Gaines Murray, represented by the NAACP

    • Sued university of Maryland Law school and won; first Black grad in 1938

  • Missouri, etc al, Gaines Vs. Canada, Registrar of University, Et al (1938)

    • Lloyd Gaines, repped by NAACP