The Harlem Renaissance in Perspective

By Marsha Lewis

While most history books assert that the Harlem Renaissance began in 1900, it is my opinion that the Harlem Renaissance began on a slave ship. Men, women and children; crammed into every available space; denied adequate room, food or breathing space. For the entire voyage, (those that survived such ruthless circumstances) were kept hostage; subjected to rape and torture, and other revolting acts. Some even jumped overboard, choosing death over slavery.

Those survivors were bought, sold, and worked under harsh conditions, while they were considered 3/5ths of a person. This went on for over 400 years. During these trying times for blacks, they struggled to hold on to the oral tradition they brought with them from the motherland, while risking their life, to learn how to read and write their master’s language, English. Although a law was passed in 1832, prohibiting blacks to learn how to read and write, blacks not only dared to learn how to read and write, but they wrote books, essays and journals, some of which have become prominent works of literature. Thus, over time, through risk-taking, and strife, emerged the Harlem Renaissance.

Slavery’s technical end was in the year 1865, but the persecution of blacks never quite came to an end. In fact, between the years 1884 and 1900, the number of black persons lynched in the United States was 1,678. The barbaric practice of lynching was still common enough during the Harlem Renaissance. Lynching and white hostility seemed so unyielding, that George S. Schuyler mused sarcastically in his 1927 short story, “Lynching For Profit” that white southern leaders could simply start regulating a cottage industry of lynching, down to selling tickets (which actually did occur in Waco Texas, in 1919). As that sadistic “Red Summer of 1919” erupted, hundreds of blacks were killed in dozens of race riots. Millions of Blacks were trapped in the corrupt systems of sharecropping, tenant farming, and wage slavery.

The Harlem Renaissance’s birth signified a direct social protest. Langston Hughes proclaimed, “We younger Negro Artists who create now, intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame.” The Renaissance artiste created works that were free of apologetics, free of the inhibiting morality of another period. Negro artists of the 1920s were interested in demonstrating their humanity, in altering images of themselves that they knew were false. They felt free within themselves; they shared a sense of liberation from the confining standards of the past; but in the expression of their renewed self-respect and self-dependence, they were singular artists who used their own models of expression. The Harlem Renaissance strived to end the minstrel shows, public humiliation, and allow my people to freely express themselves.

In light of the fact that the Harlem Renaissance began 45 years after slavery legally ended in America, the amount of writers and artists that surfaced is baffling: Langston Hughes, ‘Dream Deferred’; Countee Cullen, ‘Yet Do I Marvel’; Angelina W. Grimke, ‘The Black Finger’; Jessica Redmon Faust, ‘Dead Fires’; James Weldon Johnson, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, Zora Neal Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Marion Vera Cuthbert, The Progress of Afro-American Women; Ida B. Wells-Barnett, The Memphis Diary of Ida B. Wells; Anne Spencer, ‘Black Man O’ Mine’; Arna Bontemps, ‘A Black Man Talks of Reaping’; Jean Toomer, Cane; Marcus Garvey, The Black Star Line, W. E. B. DuBois, Educator; Wallace Thurman, Writer and Editor; Sterling Brown, Writer and Poet; Rudolph Fisher, Doctor and Writer, Nella Larsen, Novelist; George Schuyler, Journalist and Writer; Gwendolyn Bennett, ’To A Dark Girl’; Helene Johnson, Poet; Georgia Douglas Johnson, Poet, James Baldwin, Novelist; Marita O. Bonner, Writer and Teacher; William Count Basie, Musician; Josephine Baker, Performer; Benny Carter, Musician; Carrie W. Clifford, Women’s Rights Activist; Clarissa M. Scott Delany, Social Worker and Poet; Charlotte H. Brown, The Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum; Alice Dunbar Nelson, Give Us Each Day: The Diary of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Angelina Weld Grimke, Negro Caravan; W.C. Handy, Musician; Palmer Hayden, Painter; Fletcher Henderson, The Fletcher Henderson Quartet; Billie Holiday, ‘Strange Fruit’, Ferd “Jelly Roll” Morton, Musician; Alain Leroy Locke, Educator and Arts Advocate; Ma Rainey, Singer; A. Philip Randolph, Civil Rights Leader; Paul Robeson, Actor and Performer; Agusta Savage, Sculptor and Educator; Addison Scurlock, Scurlock Photographic Studios, Bessie Smith, Performer; Anne Bethel Spencer, Poet; Wallace Thurman, Novelist; James Van Der Zee, Photographer; Sarah Breedlove AKA MADAM C.J. WALKER, Inventor; Fats Waller, Musician; Ethel Waters, Singer; Meta Warrick Fuller, Sculptor; Sargent Claude Johnson, Artist; Palmer Hayden, Artist; Dox Thrash, Printmaker; Aaron Douglas, Painter; Lois Mailou Jones, Painter; Walter Francis White, Civil Rights Advocate; Louis Armstrong, Musician; James Weldon Johnson, ‘Lift Every Voice And Sing’; Esther Popel, ‘Flag Salute’, among many, many others.

The Harlem Renaissance, named by Alain Locke, meant “rebirth.” Despite what critics believe, or how it may appear, there is no such thing as “the period after the Harlem Renaissance.” Much of what is Black expression continues today. Some are in it to for fame, (50 CENT) while others are in to infiltrate (EMINEM.) Some want to awaken us (TUPAC) while others are in it to destroy. (NELLY)

The Renaissance has expanded to include many kinds of writing: Sonya Sanchez, Terry McMillan, Nicki Giovanni, August Wilson, Charles Johnson, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, Paule Marshall, Dorothy West, Rita Dove, Chester Himes, Ralph Ellison, and even myself.
In the realm of entertainment: Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Public Enemy, India Airie, Stevie Wonder, Tupac, Dead Prez, X-Plane, Hugh Masekela, Carlos Santana, Celia Cruz, Miriam Makeba, Gregory Hines, Alvin Ailey, Savion Glover. In the realm of art: Pat Ward Williams, Houston Conwill, Allison Saar, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Maren Hassinger, Martin Puryear, Robert Colescott, among so many more. They were all lead by those before us.

Black historian Dr. John Henrik Clarke once said,
"The events which transpired five thousand years ago; Five years ago or five minutes ago, have determined
what will happen five minutes from now; five years
From now or five thousand years from now.
All history is a current event."

Some current artists are misled, but who am I to judge? I can only hope that while Nelly’s sliding the credit card down the crack of a black woman’s behind, that one of our ancestors taps him on the shoulder, and reminds him…how we got here.

Black expression reflects the disappointments, fears, angers, and frustrations produced by America’s failure to fulfill its promises of freedom, and equality. It’s failure to see black people as more than 3/5 ths of a person. Its failure to simply show us what Aretha sang about:
R-E-S-P-E-C-T.