The Harlem Renaissance

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Starting in the early 1900s, millions of African Americans decided to relocate from the rural south to the urban north.

This was known as the Great Migration. This huge migration was a result of a dream for a better future. They hoped that future would include more equality, as well as better economic and social opportunities.

The reality of the Jim Crow south meant that African Americans faced legal discrimination in schools, in jobs, and in public. Jim Crow laws included all legislation enacted after the Civil War to maintain segregation in the south.

Most schools were still segregated, African Americans were often relegated to low-paying jobs, and certain laws made it more difficult for them to vote.

Take a look at The Geography of the Great Migration map to identify some of the popular cities that African Americans migrated to.

Harlem, in New York City, became a hotspot for thousands of intellectuals.

At this time, jazz musicians, novelists, poets, and artists living in Harlem began to celebrate African American culture. This time period became known as the Harlem Renaissance. The word renaissance means rebirth or revival.

While you are investigating these resources, take notes so you can consider how this question could be answered.

• In what ways did the contributions of the writers and musicians of the Harlem Renaissance impact Americans living during that era, and how to do they continue to impact Americans living today?

First, watch the video below.

Read over A Brief Guide to the Harlem Renaissance.

Many famous African American artists and intellectuals emerged during the Harlem Renaissance, included jazz musicians like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.

Watch Duke Ellington singing and playing his own song in the video below.

Here is a picture of Louis Armstrong, famous for songs like "What a Wonderful World."

Blues singer Bessie Smith became the highest-paid African American entertainer of the 1920s. Here is a picture of her.

Poet Langston Hughes wrote about what if felt like to be African American. In this audio clip, Hughes reads his own poem, "I, Too."

Zora Neale Hurston was another powerful writer, well-known today for her collection of folk tales and her novel, "Their Eyes Were Watching God." She is pictured below.

Think about what stands out most to you about what you have learned about the Harlem Renaissance, then continue on to the Got It? section to review what you have learned so far.