The New Negro and the Harlem Renaissance

In 1925 the editors of the magazine Survey Graphic invited Howard University sociologist Alain Locke to compile a special issue dedicated to Harlem. Locke did not suffer from a lack of source material, as the years following World War I had witnessed an unprecedented flowering of political activism and art in this majority-black section of New York City. The issue was an instant success, and Locke expanded it into a book, The New Negro, published that same year. Locke’s writing confirmed that in the aftermath of World War I, African Americans would not be silent.

The intense activity in 1920s Harlem, which came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance, found expression in many different ways. Followers of Marcus Garvey endorsed not only black pride but also separatism. Democratic socialists such as A. Philip Randolph demanded full economic, political, and social equality for the New Negro (Document 21.5). Black writers broke ground in technique and subject matter. No topic was off-limits. Writers questioned the meaning of the American dream, as well as the significance of their shared African heritage. Poets examined African American history in all of its violence and challenged American blacks to confront the seemingly continuous rise of white supremacy in their home country. Black women challenged the gender conventions of both races. Writers and poets such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, and Nella Larsen entered the canon of American literature (Documents 21.6 and 21.7).

The following documents offer only a glimpse of the ideas, writing, art (Document 21.8), and music (Document 21.9) that African Americans produced during the post–World War I years. As you read, pay particular attention to the context in which these writers, artists, and performers worked. How did the past and present shape their work?