Slide 1

Aim: What impact did the Harlem Renaissance have on American society in the 1920s and today?

Do Now: Read Langston Hughes description of the Harlem Renaissance and complete the 5Ws organizer?

Duke Ellington and his orchestra

Langston Hughes

Period of time when large numbers of African American musicians, artists , and writers settled in Harlem. During the Harlem Renaissance young black artists and some whites celebrated their African and American heritage.Renaissance= rebirth, new start.Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Zora Neale HurstonThe Harlem Renaissance:

2

What led to the Harlem Renaissance?

Movement of about 1.6 million African Americans who left the mostly rural South to migrate to the urban northern industrial cities. African Americans moved to cities like New York, Chicago, and St. Louis.

The Great Migration:

Document #1

According to The Crisis records, 77 Negroes were lynched during the year 1919. During the year 1918 64 Negroes were lynched.Georgia still leads with an increase in lynchings; Mississippi takes second place, instead of Texas with 5 more lynchings; the is Alabama.

Document #2

Document #3

Mobile, Ala., April, 26, 1917Dear Sir:

. . . I am writing to you for advice about coming north. I am a brickmason and I can do cement work. . . . [I need to]make a support for my self and family.

There is nothing here [in the South] for the colored man but a hard time which these southern crackers gives us. We has not had any work to do in 4 weeks.

Please help this brother.

Source: Deirdre Mullane, ed. Crossing the Danger Water: Three Hundred Years of African-American Writing (New York: Anchor Books, 1993), p. 458.Document #4

Document #5

Effects of the Harlem Renaissance:Increase in lynchingsIncrease in number of educated African AmericansAfrican Americans obtained better pay and working conditions than in the SouthIncrease in the number of the Ku Klux Klan membersGrowth of movements that promoted the interests of African Americans

Activity Complete the gallery walk to gain more understanding of the Harlem Renaissance period. For example

"Strange Fruit"Poem byAbel Meeropolin 1939

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze,

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant souththe bulging eyes and the twisted mouthscent of magnoliasweet and fresh

then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is a fruitfor the crows to pluckfor the rain to gatherfor the wind to suckfor the sun to rotfor the tree to dropHere is a strangeand bitter crop

Activity Complete the gallery walk to gain more understanding of the Harlem Renaissance period.

Closure: What impact did the Harlem Renaissance have on American society in the 1920s and today?