The Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural explosion of African Americans music, art, and literature that occurred predominantly during the 1920s.
The work celebrated African American culture and identify and spoke to their experiences in America as a minority, both the good and the bad.

Centered in the area of New York City known as Harlem, black musicians and artists brought forth both the tunes and tones of African American heritage.

Harlem, New York City, NY

The Great Migration

Prior to the Harlem Renaissance, large numbers of African Americans had started to move from the rural South to cities in the North and Midwest (~1916-1970).
This was due to racism and segregation, sharecropping debt, and a general lack of economic opportunity.
They were needed in these places as factories worked for the war effort.

Feeding the CUlture

Due to racism (the North was not immune to it), as well as personal choice, African Americans tended to lived in neighborhoods with other African Americans.
This allowed them the freedom to keep and grow their cultural idenity, even though it was a white-majority society.

One of the biggest things to come out of this movement was jazz. Everyone loved it, especially young people.
The Cotton Club was a famous spot for jazz music in Harlem.

Harlem Renaissance: Music

They Want Black Culture, but Not Black People

Unfortunately, the Cotton Club was white-only.
So, while many famous black jazz musicans performed there, black people couldn't hang out there, they could only perform (i.e. work) for the white audience.
You can connect this to how the history of jazz (and blues), black American-created genres, is often glossed over in favor of white artists (ex. Elvis) and white audiences.