Harlem Renaissance: Photos From the African American Cultural Explosion
From jazz and blues to poetry and prose to dance and theater, the Harlem Renaissance of the early 20th century was electric with creative expression by African American artists.
The New York City neighborhood of Harlem was the center of a cultural explosion from late 1910s through the mid-1930s. During the Great Migration, Harlem became a destination neighborhood, particularly for African Americans who had left the south in search of new opportunities. At this time, the Harlem section of Manhattan drew nearly 175,000 African Americans to its neighborhood of just three square miles.
The influx of people to the area led to a period of groundbreaking contributions in what became known as a the Harlem Renaissance. Some of the history’s greatest artists and scholars, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes and Louis Armstrong, among many others, generated a wide array of art, including music, theater, visual art, poetry and literature.
Uniting the explosion in artistic expression was a renewed pride in African American culture. As Hughes wrote in his manifesto, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain," "We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual, dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful."
Take a look at photos from one of the most significant eras of cultural expression in the nation’s history.
Cootie Williams plays his trumpet in a crowded Harlem ballroom with Duke Ellington's band in the 1930s. The Harlem Renaissance produced groundbreaking contributions to the arts in the early 20th century. With the new music came a vibrant nightlife throughout the New York neighborhood.
American vocalist Bessie Smith became known as "Empress of the Blues."
Children play on a Harlem street in the 1920's. Harlem became a destination for African American families of all backgrounds.
The Cotton Club, at 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem, was one of the most successful nightlife venues of the Harlem Renaissance. Here it is seen in 1927.
A troupe of showgirls as they pose in costume on stage in Harlem, New York, circa 1920.
Jazz musician and composer Duke Ellington frequently performed at the Cotton Club, along with singer, dancer and bandleader Cab Calloway.
In the 1920s, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five made more than 60 records, which are now regarded as some of the most important and influential recordings in jazz history.
A colorized group portrait of members of a chorus line in Harlem, New York, circa 1920s.
Clayton Bates began dancing when he was 5, then he lost a leg in cotton-seed mill accident at age 12. Bates became known as "Peg Leg" and was a featured tapper at such top Harlem nightclubs as the Cotton Club, Connie's Inn and Club Zanzibar.
Langston Hughes took jobs as a busboy to support himself early in his career. His writing came to define the era, not only by breaking artistic boundaries, but by taking a stand to make sure black Americans were recognized for their cultural contributions.
Zora Neale Hurston, anthropologist and folklorist pictured here in 1937, captured the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance through her works, including Their Eyes Were Watching God and "Sweat."
A photograph of a parade organized by the United Negro Improvement Association, UNIA, in the streets of Harlem. One car displays a sign that reads 'The New Negro Has No Fear.'
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