The Harlem Renaissance = Great Thinkers

An educated Black middle class began to emerge in the early 20th century, and not only in Harlem.   A similar renaissance occurred in Chicago, and on the international community of Caribbeans and Africans in Paris. The explosion of creativity produced by highly productive artists and musicians in the early 20th Century is now referred to as the Harlem Renaissance.  While Black theatre, dance, music, and all mediums of art , fascinated America who could not get enough of its irresistible jazz and ragtime, Harlem also produced great thinkers.

In 1925, Harvard University professor Alaine Locke, (sometimes called The Father of The Harlem Renaissance) argued that African Americans should shake off their past as slaves and embrace their unique culture.

Langston Hughes made us laugh with his witty writing, but also drew attention to the
"Other America" that Black Americans experienced.
His poems A Dream Deferred and   I, Too, Sing America, are on every high high school curriculum.

Countee Cullen, and Sterling Brown (who wrote in both Standard English and Vernacular), turned their experiences into poetry.  W.E B DuBois wrote about "twoness"  the dilemma of being Black and American.

Claude McKay was born in Jamaica, travelled to Russia and London, and ended up in Harlem.  He also wrote about the African experience in the Americas and his response to intense racial violence was to explore the philosophies of radical groups.

Booker T Washington was born in slavery and recounts in his autobiography Up From Slavery how remarkable it seemed to him that there was a time and place for eating, and sleeping, and not just as opportunity presented.  His Tuskeegee Institute was highly organized, focusing on order and industry.   He was criticized by some Black activists of his time who thought he should have been more radical in his call for social change, but his institute gave many free Black Americans an opportunity for education, most famously the Tuskeegee Airmen.