The Harlem Renaissance

~ 1910-1930 ~

“The Harlem Renaissance transformed African-American identity and history, but it also transformed

American culture in general. Never before had so many Americans read the thoughts of African-Americans and embraced the African-American

community’s productions, expressions, and style.”

The Harlem Renaissance

• The Harlem Renaissance was also known as “The New Negro Movement.”

• This movement resulted from the Great Migration that brought nearly three million African Americans to the North between 1900 and 1930 seeking racial equality and economic opportunity.

• The Harlem Renaissance redefined African American expression and was considered a celebration of heritage.

• The Harlem Renaissance gave birth to many notable African American performers, artists, and authors.

Jazz

• Began in New Orleans during the late 1800’s

• Stemmed from Negro spirituals and grew into a more formalized type of music

• Jazz is largely improvisation with musicians creating the rhythm as they play.

• During the Harlem Renaissance, jazz made a geographical move to the North as more publishing companies opened in New York and more opportunities for band appearances became available.

Authors• As with the art and music of the Harlem

Renaissance, many authors produced novels, short stories, poems, and plays that reflected pride in being a “black American” and expressed concerns with racism.

• Publishing houses that primarily published and marketed white authors began recognizing the quality literature coming from African American writers. Not only did they begin publishing these works, they promoted the material to white audiences. This had been unheard of prior to the Harlem Renaissance.

Zora Neale Hurston• Birthdate: Jan. 7, 1891 (or 1903!) in

Notasulga, Alabama• Zora was the fifth of eight children• Parents: Lucy Potts and John Hurston• Her father was a Baptist preacher,

carpenter, and sharecropper.• When Zora was three, her family moved to

Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated black township in America. Her father would eventually become mayor.

Zora Neale Hurston

Eatonville, Florida

• Zora considered Eatonville a utopia,

glorified in her stories as a place

where black Americans could

live as they desired,

independent of prejudice in all its

ways.

Zora Neale Hurston

• Zora’s mother died when Zora was 13 years old. After her mother’s death, Zora’s family passed her around the family for several years.

• As a young adult, Zora worked as a waitress and manicurist.

• Zora graduated from Barnard College, an affiliate of Columbia University, in 1928.

• Hurston published many magazine articles, short stories, and plays during the era of the Harlem Renaissance. Foremost, she was considered a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God was

Hurston’s second novel and was published in 1937. Hurston wrote

the novel in seven weeks while living in

Haiti.

The novel is the coming of age story of Janie and

the three men who ultimately shape her

character.

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora spent her last years in poverty and

obscurity. She suffered a stroke in

1959, after which she was committed to the

Saint Lucie County Welfare Home in Fort Pierce, Florida. She

died there on January 28, 1960, at the age

of 69.

Zora Neale Hurston

When Hurston died, she was so poor that a collection was taken to give her a proper funeral. There

wasn’t enough money left to purchase a headstone for her

grave.

In 1973, Alice Walker located Hurston’s

grave and placed a headstone there as a tribute to Hurston’s impact on African

American literature.

Dialect• In Their Eyes Were Watching God,

Hurston’s characters speak in a distinct dialect.

• Dialect is a special way of speaking a language. (Ex. Southern, Creole, etc.)

• Because the book’s character’s are African American and their culture has long spoken in a rich, folk-style, Hurston’s use of dialect makes her characters more realistic.