During the Harlem Renaissance, many African Americans used their literature to combat negative stereotypes of Black people. African Americans wrote about the oppression, segregation, and racism that they experienced as well as the achievements, culture, and daily lives of Black people. What are some common themes of Harlem Renaissance literature? Who are some of the popular authors? Let's explore those questions and more!
The below chart lists terms that will be used in this article! If you come across a word or phrase that you don't understand, please refer here!
Term | Definition |
| Segregation | Separating people based on race |
| Jim Crow Laws | Legalized segregation in Southern America |
| White Supremacists | People who believe that the white race is superior to other races |
| Oral Tradition | Stories that are passed down by spoken language not written language |
| Vernacular | Spoken language of a people |
Harlem Renaissance Literature History
Harlem Renaissance literature was made and produced during the Harlem Renaissance which began in the 1920s and continued into the 1930s. Most African Americans lived in the South and dealt with Jim Crow laws, denial of their rights, and dangerous white supremacists. Many African Americans moved to the North to escape.
There was still racism, segregation, and violence in the North, but African Americans had better lives. They could safely vote, the children had better schools, and they could live in all Black communities that tended to be safer. As people moved to the North, they formed communities, like Harlem.
Fig. 1- Women During the Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a movement centered around Black excellence and Black culture. African Americans showed pride in their race by creating art, music, scholarly articles, and works of fiction. African Americans were given more chances to become published authors during the renaissance because Black newspapers and journals began to pop up.
Harlem Renaissance Literature Definition
Harlem Renaissance Literature was written by Black people during the 1920s and 1930s with the goal of finding an African American style of literature.
Harlem Renaissance Literature Styles
Literature of the Harlem Renaissance had different themes and styles depending on the author. Some people wrote about oppression and segregation while others focused on African American life and double consciousness. There were debates on what form of meter to write in and how African Americans should be presented.
Did You Know...
Double Consciousness
W. E. B. Du Bois coined this term in The Souls of the Black Folk. It is the way that African Americans see themselves from their own perspective and the perspectives that white society forced them to see themselves through. The "twoness" that they see in themselves is that of a Black person and an American.
Many of the works explored racism, oppression, segregation, and slavery. The goal was to create a new form of literature so while many of them shared themes they were different genres. Let's look at some African American authors of the Harlem Renaissance and their writing styles.
Harlem Renaissance Literature Authors
Fig 2: Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston is considered to be one of the most important women in African American women's literature. Hurston was an anthropologist who traveled to Haiti and Jamaica to research the lives and cultures of the Black people who lived there. Her goal was to change the African American narrative by depicting them in regular life.
Anthropologist:
A person who studies human culture and society
Hurston's most popular book Their Eyes Were Watching God received a lot of criticism from male critics. They complained that she didn't discuss politics, that her portrayal of African Americans was derogatory, and that a white audience would not understand it. Decades after Hurston's death, African American female historians began researching her works and found that she was not derogatory but focused on the struggles of African American women more than politics.
Fig 3: Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes was greatly influenced by the African American oral tradition that his grandmother passed down to him. He combined classical traditions with African American folklore while writing in a casual vernacular. All of this combined made his writing accessible to the everyday working person. Hughes began to create a racial consciousness that even influenced Black Europeans.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
-"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes2
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" is one of Hughes's most popular poems. Hughes wrote this poem right after graduating high school! In it, he gives up his sense of self to tell a story that began with his ancestors in Africa and ends with himself. By using active verbs, he gave agency to the oppressed African Americans.
Fig 4: Claude McKay
The last author that we are going to highlight is Claude McKay. Unlike the before mentioned authors, McKay did not finish college. He was a Jamaican immigrant who focused on the difficulties of being a Black person living in a white society. In Home to Harlem, McKay wrote about the prostitution and gambling that went on there. Critics of this book did not like that McKay put a spotlight on these issues because it made Harlem look bad, but McKay won the Harlem Gold Award for Literature because of it.
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
-"If We Must Die" by Claude McKay.3
"If We Must Die" was written in response to the Red Summer. McKay threatens that if violence against Black people continues then they will fight back. By using unusual sentence structure in the phrase "let us show us brave" McKay emphasized the bravery of the African Americans. After his death, McKay was given the title of the National Poet of Jamaica.
What was the Red Summer?
In 1919 there were race riots across America that resulted in the deaths of over 250 African Americans. Black laborers were used during the war and were paid less than their white counterparts. When African American veterans returned from the war, they wanted the respect that they had earned during the war. White veterans were angry because they found that their jobs had been filled by African Americans while they were away.
White mobs began to riot, attacking and destroying the businesses of African Americans. White police officers refused to aid the Black people so African American World War I veterans began to do so. The chaos didn't die down until the President sent in troops. This resulted in African Americans losing trust in white authority.
Harlem Renaissance Literature Facts
The literature of the Harlem Renaissance was very different but shared some common ideas. It was about the shared experience of African Americans with the goal of creating African American literature. The authors of this era successfully took what they liked best from classical white storytelling techniques and then combined it with African American traditions to create something new.
Harlem Renaissance Literature - Key takeaways
- Black literature showcased Black excellence, culture, and history.
- Common themes in Black Literature included oppression, segregation, double consciousness, and the lifestyles of African Americans
- Events like the Red Summer influenced writers during the Harlem Renaissance
- Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, and Langston Hughes are a few of the prolific writers of this era
References
- Fig. 1 Women During the Harlem Renaissance (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Three_Harlem_Women,_ca._1925.png) by Unknown, digitalized by Goszei, licensed by SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en).
- Langston Hughes, The Collected Works of Langston Hughes (2002).
- Claude McKay, Selected Poems of Claude McKay (1953).
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