Información General de la Carrera de Administración de Empresas

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others. . . . One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." --W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) The Souls of Black Folk (1903) The workings of the human heart are the profoundest mystery of the universe.

One moment they make us despair of our kind, and the next we see in them the reflection of the divine image." - Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) The Marrow of Tradition (1901)

"We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered." -- James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) "Lift Every Voice and Sing", stanza 2 (1900)

Harlem Renaissance was a remarkable time when African American artists created positive and memorable standards in all the arts. Challenging white paternalism and racism, African American artists and intellectuals snubbed mere imitation of the styles of Europeans and white Americans and instead celebrated black pride and creativity. Declaring their freedom to express themselves as artists and intellectuals, they explored their identities as black Americans, celebrating the black culture that had emerged out of slavery and their cultural ties to Africa. The

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images created during the Harlem Renaissance and represented African American culture served as inspiration and comfort to the black artists that succeeded the movement.

In their works, African American writers confronted difficult conflicts regarding black identity, black art and the political role of culture. For example, writers taking part in the renaissance held conflicting views as to how important African heritage should be to African American writers.

Langston Hughes, for example, suggested that ―racial commitment on the part of the black artist‖

was an idea that black artists should not soon forget, whereas Cullen suggested ―that Africa was a source of confusion and ambivalence‖ (―Africa and the Hyphenated Man in America: The Harlem Rennaisance‖, web.) for black artists. Regardless of their opinions on the matter, both Hughes and Cullen believed that black writers should stay away from too much focus on the political constraints that an older generation had emphasised.

The Road by Helena Johnson

Ah, little road all whirry in the breeze, A leaping clay hill lost among the trees, The bleeding note of rapture streaming thrush Caught in a drowsy hush

And stretched out in a single singing line of dusky song, Ah little road, brown as my race is brown,

Your trodden beauty like our trodden pride, Dusk of the dust, they must not bruise you down, Rise to one brimming golden, spilling cry!

110 (Culled from The New Negro, 1927:300)

James Weldon Johnson states in his article ‗Harlem: The Culture Capital‘ that Harlem is not merely a Negro colony or community, to him; Harlem is a ―city within a city, that is, the greatest Negro city in the world. It is not a slum or a fringe, it is the …the most beautiful and healthy sections of the city‖ (The New Negro, 1927:301).

Harlem offered African Americans more advantages and opportunities than any other city in the United States, and, of course, it was the intellectual, cultural and the financial center for African Americans across America and beyond and it will remain a vital influence on African Americans for a long time. It is not only a place where the black race must live and move and have their beings amidst difficulties and vicissitudes of the tangled issues of race adjustment, it is a place for Negroes to express their ambition and high-mindedness. According to Kelly Miller (cited in The New Negro, 1927:322), ―Pessimism enfeebles the faculties, paralyzes the energies and sours the soul‖. Hence, the African American must be redeemed from self-surrender, rather he must be strong, courageous, firm and direct everything that concerns him with the ideals of God, country and truth. Harlem provided this avenue for the African American to fully realise and express his true self even if this ‗self‘ is conflicting.

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Langston Hughes

Women of the Harlem Renaissance

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W.E.B. Du Bois, co-founder of the NAACP, created The Crisis Magazine, which spoke to the injustices that African Americans faced during the Harlem

113 4.6 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENTS

 Write an essay on the Lasting Legacy of the Harlem Renaissance.

 Compare and contrast the circumstances of African Americans and whites at this time, especially in relation to race.

 Consider what factors influenced the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North and Midwest.

 Why do you think the arts are an effective means through which individuals and groups can express their history, their frustrations and their hopes for the future?

Give contemporary examples.

 How did the creative expression of African Americans in the 1920s and 1930s lead to a new black cultural identity?

 How did the Harlem Renaissance help Americans to understand the history and culture of African Americans?