The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance In the early 1900s, particularly in the 20s and early 30s, African American literature, art, music, and dance began to flourish in Harlem, a section of New York City. Variously known as the New Negro movement, the New Negro Renaissance, and the Negro Renaissance, the movement emerged toward the end of World War I in 1918. The Harlem Renaissance marked the first time that mainstream publishers and critics took African American literature seriously …

…shattered Harlem's intellectual, peaceful image. The Harlem Renaissance permanently changed African American arts and literature in the United States. The writers that followed in the 1930s and 1940s found that publishers and the public were more open to African American literature than they had been at the beginning of the century. For thousands of African Americans around the world, the Harlem Renaissance was proof that the white race did not hold total power over culture.