Change In American Literature

During World War I, Black Americans living in the South flocked to northern cities such as New York in the 1920s, in pursuit of a new life consisting of fairer treatment and better pay. This migration posed a new opportunity for African-Americans; a platform for self expression. As a result of this migration, it was not long until the borough of Harlem, New York became a hub of cultural explosion. Historians such as Howard Zinn argue that the economic situation at the time was responsible for sparking such a movement. This is view is agreeable because Harlem truly changed during events such as the American Civil War and World War I when it was subjected to much reconstruction.

After WWI more than one million African-Americans moved from the South to Northern cities beginning in 1915 in what became known as the Great Migration. There were several push and pull factors that contributed to the Great Migration. Blacks sought to escape poverty, Jim Crow, and racism as a new KKK formed. Northern cities attracted a new generation of black men because of enfranchisement, jobs created by industrialization and WWI, and media outlets such as The Crisis.

It revolves around the African American community in Harlem, New York, but had a profound influence in art, music, literature and social thought. Langston Hughes is the most well-known writer of the Harlem Renaissance. The civil rights movement was the fourth phase. Many African Americans began to migrate during World War I, reaching its high point during World War II. During this Great Migration, Black people fled racism and lack of opportunities in the American South and settled in northern cities like Chicago.

The Great Migration began because of a "push" and a "pull." The push and the pull may have led many African Americans having hope for a new and better life up north. To have a better life for them and their families. Hate groups

Craftsmen, for example, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, and Faith Ringgold portrayed the thirties and the area of Harlem as a subject. The social and imaginative atmosphere of the Harlem Renaissance likewise made ready for later improvements, for example,

African Americans lived in a world of racial injustices and cultural restrictions until the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a time where there is an African American literary and art movement in the uptown Manhattan neighborhood. It is the turning point in African American culture, as well as their place in America. The African Americans were starting to become equal in American society. While the Renaissance built on earlier traditions of African American culture, it was greatly affected by the trends of the Europeans and white Americans.

Harlem became the cultural center for African Americans to express their artistic talent. In Harlem, writing, art, music, and theater became more important to African Americans, to express their culture

Both philosophies were very similar to each other since the two movements were a reaction against the contemporary strict traditions, laws, and religious rules. They both placed a huge emphasis on the individual as well as inspiration from nature. In the following, I will discuss American Transcendentalism and Romanticism in relation to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay ‘The American Scholar’ and Walt Whitman’s poem ‘Song of Myself’. Emerson was an American poet, essayist and lecturer. He is known as one of the people who took a leading part in the Transcendentalist movement, including a champion of individualism.

This gave black people hope for a new better life in the Northern states where those laws weren’t enforced. This renaissance was a cultural party that helped expose black writers, musicians, poets, artists, etc. This changed the culture forever and the talent started to spillover within the black community. Art was pushed to its limits and was a form of a statement and representation.

The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “a revival of art and literature under the influence of classical models throughout the period.” The Harlem Renaissance, which involved the migration of African Americans, was a period of time where African Americans moved up north and had the opportunity to finally express themselves through their cultural arts. These arts were not only broadcasted as entertainment, but as well as a civil rights movement. With African Americans still fighting for their recognition and rights in America, they wanted to show what they were really capable of. This lead to the Renaissance being a phenomenal and inspiring cultural awakening for the African Americans which lead to social change.