The Harlem Renaissance or the Negro Movement was most celebrated for the outgrowth of the great African American Literature. It began at the beginning of the World War 1 when the powers of the African American were centered at Harlem ( Wintz seven ) . It “displayed a important longevity” and it ended during the Depression epoch together with the dark times of desperation and poorness that befell the United States ( Huggins 9 ) . The motion was centred in Harlem City. a black vicinity in upper Manhattan. New York which has the largest black community in the United States.
Historian James Weldon Johnson referred to the Harlem Renaissance as “the Mecca for the excursionist. the pleasure-seeker. the funny. the adventuresome. the enterprising. the ambitious. and the talented of the full Negro universe ( qtd in Earle 120 ) . ” The motion inspired non merely the inkinesss but besides the remainder of the universe to appreciate the Afro-american heritage. history and civilization ( Witcover 10 ) . Among the factors that contributed to this singular motion in the history of the black people is their migration from the South to the industrialised metropoliss of the North right after World War 1.
In add-on. there were besides an increased figure of educated and rational inkinesss as their educational chances increased every bit good. This moreover resulted to a realisation of a “new radicalism” among the African-Americans that sparked “new consciousness” sing racial individualities. Among the outstanding authors that tackle racial issues and other of import facets of black individuality are Countee Cullen. Langston Hughes. Claude Mckay. and most significantly Zora Nealse Hurtson.
These authors proliferated the thought of the demand for “economic and societal equality” among the Blacks in the United States that brought about a “sense of pride” among them ( McElrath ) . For case. Countee Cullen helped integrate the construct of race in American Literature. Hurtson. on one manus. is one of the superb rational that wrote narratives articles. and novels that provided inspiration for a batch of black and white creative person. authors. and militants ( Earle 120 ) .
However. the most of import thing to cognize about the Harlem Renaissance is that it is a phenomenon in the history of African Americans that marks more than the literary accomplishments of the outstanding African American authors but besides started the realisation of black release and edification. While the “”Emancipation Proclamation” of President Abraham Lincoln came earlier. it has been in consequence denied by most Americans. Palpable still is the favoritism towards the black.
The “New Negro Proclamation” is a motion that came truly from the black intellectuals that affirmed the earlier Emancipation Proclamation but this clip they made it certain that they will no longer be ignored. Harlem Renaissance symbolizes something more than the tangent organic structure of art and literature that has been produced by black creative persons ; most significantly it signifies a instead deep feeling of emancipation and jubilation of the Negro individuality that has ne’er been known before by themselves. the Americans. and the remainder of the universe ( Huggins 3-4 ) .
It can be recalled that prior to World War 1 and the black migration from the South to the North. there has non been a opposition of white domination in the portion of the inkinesss. Their discontentedness and docility have been aired by them through standing their land against dictatorship and by endeavoring their manner towards autonomy. The World War “dislodged the inkinesss throughout the world” . They have become cognizant of each others existence as a colonial topic and found in each other a sense of black integrity that help them in constructing their dreams to form themselves and African-american individualities ( Huggins 6 )
