The Harlem Renaissance

Langston Hughes

“Born in Joplin, Missouri, James Langston Hughes was a member of an abolitionist family. He was the great-great-grandson of Charles Henry Langston, brother of John Mercer Langston, who was the first Black American to be elected to public office, in 1855. His parents divorced when he was a small child, and his father moved to Mexico. At the age of eight in Lincoln, Illinois, Hughes began writing poetry. His father didn't think he would be able to make a living at writing, and encouraged him to pursue a more practical career. After a short time, Langston dropped out of the program with a B+ average; all the while he continued writing poetry.

Langston Hughes was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, which was the African American artistic movement in the 1920s that celebrated black life and culture. Hughes's creative genius was influenced by his life in New York City's Harlem, a primarily African American neighborhood. His literary works helped shape American literature and politics. Hughes, like others active in the Harlem Renaissance, had a strong sense of racial pride. Through his poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children's books, he promoted equality, condemned racism and injustice, and celebrated African American culture, humor, and spirituality.

Hughes, who claimed Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman as his primary influences, is particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties. He wrote novels, short stories and plays, as well as poetry, and is also known for his engagement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing, as in "Montage of a Dream Deferred." His life and work were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Unlike other notable black poets of the period—Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, and Countee Cullen—Hughes refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of black America. He wanted to tell the stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language itself.

Langston Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer in May 22, 1967, in New York. In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem, New York City, has been given landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission, and East 127th Street has been renamed "Langston Hughes Place."

In addition to leaving us a large body of poetic work, Hughes wrote eleven plays and countless works of prose, including the well-known “Simple” books: Simple Speaks His Mind, Simple Stakes a Claim, Simple Takes a Wife, and Simple's Uncle Sam. He edited the anthologies The Poetry of the Negro and The Book of Negro Folklore, wrote an acclaimed autobiography (The Big Sea) and co-wrote the play Mule Bone with Zora Neale Hurston.”

Resources:

Langston Hughes biography and poetry. A history of Jazz before 1930.
http://www.redhotjazz.com/hughes.html
www.redhotjazz.com/hughes.html

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/83
www.poets.org/lhugh/

Short illustrated profile, along with a timeline that shows major events which shaped the writer's life.
www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/hughes
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/hughes

My Imaginary Giant

"Black Jack Johnson NYC R-O-C-K-I-N-G"- Mos Def

When ever I heard the name Jack Johnson, I never thought of the singer. In my head, he was this large dominating figure who, up until recently, was nothing more than a figment of my imagination. I had heard of a boxer from the early 20th century that went by the name, but never knew anything about him; come to find out he was "the world's first Black heavyweight champion" (Schomburg Center). Imagine my shock and delight from this newfound information. All this time I had actually though of a great black man who represented strength, was actually all of that and more...He was born in Galveston, Texas where, just as any black man in the early 1900's, he was forced to do manual labor once he was of age. realizing he was rather large for a normal maqn of that time, he began to train as a boxer. He built his career off of his sheer dominance and flare in the ring. He won the heavyweight title in 1908, after knocking out Tommy Burns. He fought and beat black and white fighters, the latter leading to bigotry, and racial hatred from prejudice whites. His mere beating of white men wasn't the only reason for the hatred being tossed his way. He openly dated and married white women which ultimately lead to his arrest for violating the Mann Act, crossing state lines with a woman for "immoral purposes" (Unforgivable Blackness, PBS). He fought overseas to make ends meet and to avoid going to jail, but he eventually came home and surrended to police. After jail, he fought here and there, but never gained the notoriety or fame he once had. He appeared in movies and opened nightclubs, and ennjoyed the recogniton he did recieve from people for his unbelievable achievement and career. He was probably the most popular figure of his time, black or white. He died in a car crash in 1946. His legacy would be put to film with movies such as "The Great White Hope" and the documentary "Unforgivable Blackness". He was more than a boxer, he was a giant amongst men.

"2027 Mann Act." Usdoj.Gov. Oct. 1997. 23 Oct. 2007 http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/crm02027.htm.

Burns, Ken. "Unforgivable Blackness: the Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson." Pbs.Com. Jan. 2005. 23 Oct. 2007 http://www.pbs.org/unforgivableblackness/.

R. Lindo, Nashormeh N. "Exhibition: Jack (John Arthur) Johnson." Harlem 1900-1940 an African-American Community. 1991. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. 23 Oct. 2007 http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/text/jajohnson.html.

Marcus Garvey - A Black Crusader

Marcus Mosiah Garvey was born in St. Anne’s Bay in Jamaica on August 17, 1887. Garvey was actually a descendent of the Maroons, who were Jamaica’s first fighters for freedom. Garvey loved to read books and educate himself. At the age of 14, Garvey left Jamaica in pursuit of financial stability. It is a common tradition in Jamaica to relocate and strive for a better future. Garvey relocated in Costa Rica with a family member and worked on a sugarcane plantation. His position there did not last for long and soon enough Garvey was working for a news paper called “The Nation”. This newspaper was unique because it catered to the needs of immigrants, this was a controversial newspaper.

Garvey was a well traveled man. He then went on to visit Europe and worked on the harbor in England. He then traveled to France, Germany, Italy and Austria. In all of these countries Garvey worked in publishing and wrote for many newspapers. In 1914 Garvey returned to Jamaica where he became on of the founders of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). This organization like its title focused on the improvement of the African American. The goal of this organization was to unify all of the black people into one county, with one government. The motto of this organization was “One God! One Aim! One Destiny”.

Garvey was best known for his “Back to Africa” movement. Garvey’s main goal was to “uplift the race”, redeem African and remove European colonial powers in Africa. He had an idea that black people should return back to Africa. Garvey also organized a company called Black Star Line, in which there was international trade between black Africans in efforts to eventually return all African Americans back to Africa. Garvey believed that Africa was the ancestral home and he believed in the spirituality that existed in the Africa.

Garvey was a prominent figure in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance. This era was filled with artist, intellectuals, fine art, and literature. Harlem was the perfect place for Garvey to express his ideas and gain support from African Americans. Garvey encouraged black people to have self love and to be proud of their history.

Resources:

ARTSEDGE, March 2003, http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/exploring/harlem/faces/garvey_text.html

http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Garvey_Marcus_Mosiah.html

The Black Collegian Magazine, 2007 http://www.black-collegian.com/issues/35thAnn/garvey.shtml

Harlem Renaissance--Williams Edward Burghardt Dubois

Williams Edward Burghardt Dubois, an outstanding writer, educator andcivil right activist, is considered one of the most influential andimportant civil rights figures of the twentieth century. WilliamsEdward Burghardt Dubois, born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington,Massachusetts. He got his first bachelor's degree at Fisk Universityand second from Harvard University. He also was the first AfricanAmerican to receive a Ph. D. from Harvard in 1896.

Dubois was one of the founder of the National Association for theAdvancement of Colored People in 1909 which known as NAACP-the largestand oldest civil rights organization in America. He served as directorof publication of NAACP and an editor of The Crisis magazine until 1934.As editors, he was able to expand his voice and encouraged many blackfemales writers, artists, poets and novelists, featuring their works inThe Crisis. He was one of the civil rights leaders who recognize theproblems of gender discrimination. Some of his works are: TheSuppression of the Slave Trade, 1896; John Brown, 1909; Darkwater, 1920;Color and Democracy, 1945; The World and Africa, 1947; and In Battle forPeace, 1952.

He receipted the World Peace Council Price in 1952 and the Soviet LeninPeace in 1959 for his outspoken advocate about civil rights. Hesupported equal rights for everyone regardless of race then he becomeinterested in Communism. Because of his disillusion with the UnitedStates, he moved to Ghana and became as a member of Communist party in1961. He renounced his American citizenship a year later. In Ghana heserved as director of the Encyclopedia Africana before pass away onAugust 27, 1963.
http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96feb/dubois.html<http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96feb/dubois.html>

http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/dubois_w.htm<http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/dubois_w.htm>

http://americancorner.org.tw/AmericasLibrary/category/page/aa/activists/dubois.htm<http://americancorner.org.tw/AmericasLibrary/category/page/aa/activists/dubois.htm>

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/african-americans/resource/4431.html<http://www.teachervision.fen.com/african-americans/resource/4431.html> americans/resource/4431.html>

Madam C.J. Walker - Heroine, Conqueror

I've often wondered at how different a world it would be if all or even most of us were to trample

the obstacles, real or perceived, and exploit our full potential as innovators. It's possible that

mankind is decades behind where we could be socially, technologically or spiritually, because so

many of us have been guilty of not pulling our weight even as we rationalize the reasons for our

deficits. I'll concede that there might be merit in the theory that things are perhaps the way

they ought to be, that the disc-jockey, the astronomer, the milkman, the street urchin, are

fulfilling their destinies, are fulfilling an integral part in maintaining the order of things. But

everyone loves a heroine, the unlikely figure who arms herself for the fight against ancient foes

and emerges triumphant. Such a figure is Madam C.J. Walker.


Born Sarah Breedlove in 1987, Madam Walker accomplished the improbable in her mere 51

years of life. She was employed in the cotton fields of Louisiana at age five, a child bride who

married age age fourteen, bore her daughter at age 17, and was a widow by the time she was

just nineteen years of age. She was born to slaves and lived in poverty, in a society that was

hostile to non-whites such as herself. American in her day was a country where ignoring posted

"Whites Only" signs could result in death and lynching for perceived infractions was the order of

the day. No mention is made of her having had any formal education, yet, she died a corporate

mogul, and America's first self-made woman millionaire.

Madam Walker earned her millions as a result of a formula that's often taught in business

schools, that the key to launching a successful product or service is to identify a need, then meet

it. While a washerwoman, she'd begun thinking of a beauty treatment for her thinning hair. With

no background as a chemist or even a cosmetologist, she simply experimented with a formula

that had come to her in a dream until she landed upon a mixture of natural products that had a

tremendously resorative and beautifying effect on her hair. Savvy enough to realize the

potential impact of her discovery and that a huge market for it existed, she determined that

she'd market her product. She built an industry on this product and became a landowner,

employer and philanthropist.


Underscoring the several roles she developed for herself was a quality of fearlessness, and of

vision. When her ex-husband thought that minor success was sufficient, Madam Walker realized

bigger ambitions and started a mail-order arm of the business, launched a formidable national

sales team including women across a broad swath of backgrounds, and taught them how to run

their own successful businesses which would expand her market. She opened a factory, salons

and a training school. She broke ground for a building to occupy a city block to house a theatre

and cultural center that would be an oasis where blacks could feel welcome. She relocated her

business to Colorado, New York and Indianapolis as it seemed prudent. She was a woman of

action if ever there was one.


The fruits of Madam C.J. Walker's victorious conquests still exist today. Her products are still

being manufactured. Also, the Madam Walker Theatre Center building named for her still exists

and operates in Indianapolis today as a cultural and recreational facility. She not only changed

the apparent course of her own life but also impacted the lives of several employees and

associates and most certainly, their future generations. If only her drive and vision could be

bottled and made available as was her brainchild hair care product. But she evidenced the worth

of striving for accomplishment despite even tremendous odds. She defied the stereotypes and

even dangers posed for African-Americans of her time and laid a blueprint for success that

transcends race, gender or socio-economic background. She's my concept of a true heroine.



Sources:
http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/timex/1916.html
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/walker/walker.htm
http://www.walkertheatre.com/facts.htm
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/walker/WAfacts1.htm

Nadav's Harlem Renaissance Intro

Black Renaissance – Joshua Johnson

Joshua Johnson (1765 - 1830), whose name is written both as Johnson and Johnston, is reportedly America’s first professional black artist that was a free man. He was one of few successful African-American portrait painters and the first to become established as a portrait painter. His style was derived from the conventional English portrait style of bust-length poses and arranged backdrops. William Johnson, as called by owners of his portraits, was a Freeman, or freed slave, who may have earned his freedom through the sale of his artworks. He worked in Baltimore for over 30 years, from 1795 – 1825.
Not much known about Johnson since he moved so often throughout Baltimore and its Fells Point neighborhood. Scholar J. Hall Pleasants surmises that Johnson was probably once a slave, a house servant of a portrait painter, to Polk or Charles Willson or Rembrandt Peale. Pleasants associates Johnson’s style with that of the Peale-Polk family of portraits for its hard, linear, well-executed and attractive painting.
Johnson has thirteen known works in existence. Nine of his thirteen paintings are of children or of families with children. Pleasants has analyzed Johnson’s portraits and discovered the following characteristics: there is a “peculiar rigidity” of arms, hands legs and feet; the subjects’ faces are shown in three-quarter view; their eyes directed upward and their mouths drawn together tightly with no facial expression; the subjects often hold objects, such as books, riding crops, letters, basket, parasol, pencil, sextant, fruit or cake; brass tacks were used in upholstered settees or chairs of Sheraton type; the backgrounds of his compositions are dark and somber; and dark or red curtains are shown.


References:
1) AskArt.com. “Joshua Johnson”, 10 October 2007, <http://www.askart.com/AskART/J/joshua_johnson/joshua_johnson.aspx?ID=21306>.

2) MarylandArtSource.org. “Joshua Johnson”, 10 October 2007,
<http://www.marylandartsource.org/artists/detail_000000091.html>.

3) MDHS.org. Joshua Johnson: Freeman and early American portrait painter”, Maryland Historical Society. 10, October 2007,
<http://www.mdhs.org/kids/joshua.html>.

Duke Ellington

.“Duke” Ellington was born in Washington DC. 1989, he got “Duke” name by classmate because of his elegant manners. As a child Duke showed interest for music. When he was seven years old he started playing piano. Duke attended Armstrong Manual Training School studying commercial art. At that time he liked to listen to ragtime pianists all over Washington. In Philadelphia he arranged to meet Harvey Brooks, a very popular pianist. Mr. Brooks showed him some pianistic tricks and short cuts on the piano. Brooks impressed Duke so much so that he decided that he would become a good piano player himself. He had two very important piano teachers after meeting Harvey Books. They were Oliver Perry and Louis Brown who taught him how to read music and help him improve his overall piano playing skills. Duke dropped out of his commercial art high school three months before graduation. In 1917 he formed his own group named the Duke’s Serenaders. He was in charge of this band. He played with his group in Washington and Virginia area, usually for private society balls and embassy parties. Duke married in 1919 and soon his son Mercer was born.
In 1923 he left Washington for New York and in New York with his group newly named “Washingtonians” started to play in many clubs, such as Exclusive Club, Connie’s Inn, the Hollywood Club Ciro’s and most importantly he played in Cotton Club. It was from this Cotton Club that his music was broadcasted live across the nation under the title” From the Cotton Club”. The radio broadcasts were responsible for great popularity of the Duke band music.
In 1928 Ellington signed an agreement with Irving Mills who produced Ellington’s music. There were other recording companies such as Columbia and Victor who further spread Ellington’s band music not only in U.S. but also in the world.
Duke Ellington became one of the leading figures in jazz in the world he continued to be a leading jazz composer, musician and bandleader until his dead in 1974. Starting in 1924 his band recorded under the names Jungle Band, the Whoopee Makers and Harlem Footwormers .
In the late 1920 he also started to play in Broadway and movies. He was responsible in making jazz a great musical form because he introduce “special effects “, using instruments in new ways and infusing African and Latin elements in to his music”.
Another innovation he came up with was the use concerto form in his work as in “Concerto for Cootie”, named for Charles “Cootie” Williams, and member of the band.
Ellington was influenced by few pianists and there were many musicians who collaborated with him in his composing and arranging. The most famous of his compositions are: “Mood Indigo”, “Sophisticated Lady” and “ In a Sentimental Mood”.
His band had many fine musicians some of them played in his band for decades after his dad his son Mercer Ellington to be the leader of his band. Duke Ellington composed about 2000 compositions. He played all over the U.S. and the world (New York, New Delhi, Cairo, Paris, London). He played with such great artist as Miles Davis, Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and Louis Armstrong. He played for Queen Elizabeth II and President Nixon. Only Armstrong was the one who had such long carrier as Ellington but “Armstrong failed to be in the artistic vanguard after 1930’s”.
The French government honored him with their highest award, the Legion of Honor. President Johnson gave him a gold medal he received many numerous honors including 16 honorary doctorates from American university. His fame continues to grow, he continues to inspire many artists, and people all over the world continue to like his music.

Reference:
http://www.dukeellington com/about /bio.htm

http://redhotjazz.com.html

http://pbskids.org/jazz/nowthen/duke.html

http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/text/ellington.html