Streets, Sounds and Identity in Interwar Harlem, Essay Example

The Harlem Renaissance occurred during the 1920s and 1930s and was centered around Harlem, New York. It has also been referred to as the “New Negro Movement, named after a work published by Alain Lock. The Harlem Renaissance was inspired by Marcus Garvey, Alain Locke, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Many other prominent black authors, musicians, and educators of the time were active participants. During this time frame, African American accomplishments were celebrated. This was the first time that African American life was portrayed in a positive way. The Harlem Renaissance served as an integrate igniting force that changed the way that African Americans viewed themselves ,as well as the way white society viewed them. The Harlem Renaissance gave African American the opportunity to positively express themselves through art and literature; before this time, African-Americans were negatively depicted through art and literature.

The Harlem Renaissance helped African Americans express themselves in ways that had never been possible. Zora Neal Hurston’s How it Feels to be Colored Meexpresses how it felt to be colored in the 1920s. Unlike many of the day, Hurston embraced being colored and offered no excuses for her African features. She says, “I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother’s side was not an Indian chief.” Hurston uses her essay to convey to the readers that essentially all humans are the same regardless to color. Through the Harlem Renaissance, blacks are able to express themselves as human beings to the world around them. They were able to show that they enjoyed music, art, and literature just as white society did. Not only were they able to express their enjoyment of it, they were able to show that they were talented in these areas as well. For example, Concord (2007) discusses how the noises of Harlem were conveyed by members of white society and black society. To most members of white society, the sounds coming from Harlem during the renaissance were just noise, but to members of black society it represented so much more. Hurston expresses this in her essay when she can’t understand why the white patron did not feel what she felt when listening to the music. Harlem represented freedom to blacks. Just being able to sing or make noises in the street was something that was prohibited by Jim Crow laws in the South.

Creating a new image for blacks was very important to African-Americans during the Harlem Renaissance. Dr. Alain Locke was one of the promoters of the Harlem Renaissance. He promoted this new image by encouraging racial pride through black art. In the 1910s he coined the term “New Negro”. He believed that the New Negro was no longer defined by racial stereotypes. Locke defined what he called the new Negro in his work:

“The intelligent Negro of to-day is resolved not to make discrimination an extenuation for his shortcomings in performance, individual or collective; he is trying to hold himself at par, neither inflated by sentimental allowances nor depreciated by current social discounts. For this he must know himself and be known for precisely what he is, and for that reason he welcomes the new scientific rather than the old sentimental interest. Sentimental interest in the Negro has ebbed. We used to lament this as the falling off of our friends; now we rejoice and pray to be delivered both from self-pity and condescension” (Locke).

However, there were some that didn’t have such a positive effect on the image of blacks during the Harlem Renaissance. Lutenski (2008)criticizes Jean Toomer because he believes that he denounced his Negro background and essentially just became a “mouth-piece for the race”. He spoke one thing, but lived another. Toomer even moved to Mexico and married a white woman. All of which was a disgraceful act for a black man during the Harlem Renaissance-a time in which African-Americans were trying to change the perspective of the Negro race. Advocates of the Harlem Renaissance were outraged. When James Weldon Johnson wrote Toomer asking for permission to add some of his poetry in the Book of Negro Poetry, Toomer refused.

The Harlem Renaissance represented the frustrations that blacks had endured for so many years.  Consequently, Harris (2009) discusses McKay famous poem If We Must Die. He believes this is a representation of how many blacks felt during the Harlem Renaissance. They were so tired of being repressed and oppressed; they were willing to die for freedom because living in oppression was a metaphorical death each day. He discusses the style McKay wrote the poem in because McKay felt affluent blacks were accustomed to reading a certain caliber of writing. So, he used a certain style to reach the people he wanted to reach. Yet, other scholars feel he has totally defeated the purpose of eliminating hierarchy within the race. Although African Americans wanted to create equality within their race, they were still unknowingly created class systems (Lutenski, 2008).

The Negro in America has been dealing with colorism for centuries, and many scholars would argue that it is still a present struggle in the African-American community today. Colorism is a term used to define an aesthetic preference of light skin and other Anglo Saxon features over visible African features. With this belief, African-Americans were only offered racial improvement through racial genetic integration (Jordan, 2011). During this time, the children of black white unions were called “mulattoes”, which was thought to be superior to full-blood Negroes, but still inferior to whites. These beliefs created a social hierarchy within the black communities. Many blacks expressed their desire to be of a lighter or brown complexion to be socially accepted by other blacks. However, this hierocracy did not exist for whites; they simply saw a Negro and paid little regard to the skin complexion. One of the aims of the Harlem Renaissance was to eliminate such thinking and unite the black race. Organizers of the Harlem Renaissance wanted to transform the identity of the Negro. For example, the new Negros that emerged during the Harlem Renaissance wanted a prestigious image. Jordan (2011) discussed several photos in his article and how they represented the image that blacks wanted people to have of them. They were stylish and dignified. The images were so important that many pictures were hand photo-shopped to correct errors like crooked teeth are frayed clothing and other skin imperfections. (Jordan, 2011).

The Harlem Renaissance challenged the common idea of the Negro intellectual aptitude. For years, the Negro had been portrayed to only have two senses: sexual desire and hunger. In 1924, Charles S. Johnson wrote an article Mental Measurements of Negro Groups. In this article he conveyed that there was a difference in the intellectual abilities of southern and northern Negroes. According to their study, a northern Negro had the intellectual capacity of an 11 year old white boy and southern Negro had the intellectual capacity of a nine year old white boy(Price, 2005). Hurston counters this negative view in her essay Characteristics of Negro Expression. In this essay, Hurston discusses several outlets that African American people used to express themselves. For example, she used drama, dancing, and folklore as ways of expression. She shows a direct comparison of the way blacks expressed themselves versus the way whites expressed themselves. Although whites saw these modes of expression as entertainment, she wanted others to understand that it was so much more. Living under this concept placed all Negroes at an educational disadvantage from the beginning because the Negro felt intellectually inferior and others perceived him as intellectually inferior.However, Hurston expressed that whites could not duplicate what blacks were doing, and when they tried to they made a mockery of themselves.

For the first time, education was accessible to the Negro. Both formal and informal schools were developed by blacks to educate the new Negro. They taught illiterates to read, write, and do basic mathematics. By early 1900, about 57 percent of the black population was attending normal or industrial schools (Price, 2005). This fact alone separated the new Negro from the old Negro who was unable to read or write. Negro students worked hard and demonstrated that blacks had intellectual capacity equal to that of their white counterparts. This disproved eugenics theory that Negroes could not exceed the mental capacity of children unless through genetic evolution. Locke countered this belief by saying that the new Negro simply cannot be swathed in” the older formula for black identity; instead, “the younger generation is vibrant with a new psychology; the new spirit is awake in the masses, and under the very eyes of the professional observer is transforming what has been a perennial problem into the progressive phases of contemporary Negro Life.”

The New Negro searcher for his cultural foundation. Marcus Garvey’s speech Africans to Africa was met with mixed emotions by Negroes of the time. He expressed his belief that all men should be free to work for whatever they believed in by creating and maintaining their own cultural heritage. He was pleading with the so called “white world” to give Negroes and other nationalities a place where they would be free. He only wanted Americans of African descent to return to African. In Garvey’s opinion, no black person was “good enough” to govern whites and likewise, no whites were “good enough” to govern blacks. Consequently, each race should be separated and left to their own government.

A person’s name identifies them and gives them individuality. Over the years, African Americans have been given various names to identify them- colored, Negro, African, blacks, Afro-American, etc. Often these terms were used interchangeably, while others were prominent during certain time frames in history. Early in the 1900s, many blacks migrated to northern states and urban areas. Once there, they wanted to create a new image of themselves and their culture. Marcus Garvey said, “Let white and black stop deceiving themselves. Let the white race stop deceiving themselves. Let the white race stop thinking that all black men are dogs and not to be considered as human beings”. The various name changing for the race brought on harsh criticism. Nonetheless, one must consider the degree of confusion the African American race has endured. To totally understand this, one must understand the effect that slavery had on the African family culture and identity.  The separation of families forever disconnected traditions and cultures while infusing and infiltrating traditions from other cultures. As a result, many African Americans were in search of their history. They were making attempts to find a connection in an unfamiliar world. The first way to do this was to give themselves a name; thus separating themselves from the slave masters.

The Harlem Renaissance gave a new aspect of beauty for blacks. Arthur Schomburg is famous for saying, “The American Negro must remake his past in order to make his future. History must restore what slavery took away”. Schomburg collected books, manuscripts, photos, letters and all other evidence about African history he could locate. His collection formed what is now known as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.Price (2005) discusses how the older generations of the times are often so disconnected with members of the hip hop culture. This fact is just as true today as it was during the Harlem Renaissance. Price reflects on the Harlem Renaissance and how this time frame awakened black aesthetics. Many of the hegemogenic notions were dispelled by prominent member of the Harlem Renaissance. For example, Price discusses The Souls of Black Folks written by Du Bois. He dispelled the prominent belief that blacks had no souls because they were not all human. Many other areas were addressed, like spirituality, family values, and love. In order to form the new Negro, the old Negro had to be discovered.

The Harlem Renaissance helped to transform the image of the Negro in America; although it was characterized as a cultural movement, it was so much more.  During this time, Harlem became home to the first middle class Negro community. Although the Harlem Renaissance was intended to unite the race of African Americans, in some ways it created more racial barriers within the race. For example, during this time the music style was changing rapidly. A piano style called Harlem Stride Style was created and it created a social barrier between poor Negroes and elite Negroes. Traditionally, Jazz was composed of only brass instruments, but the piano was considered an instrument of the elite group. Consequenlty, this musical style became more popular with whites than blacks. Nonetheless, the Harlem Renaissance was the catalyst that led African Americans to self-discovery, expression, and self-worth. The expression of pride was conveyed through music, art, and literature. People in America got their first glimpse of the talents that the Negro possessed.  This awakening laid the foundation for future African Americans to become productive, proud members of society.

Works Cited

Corbould, C. (2007). Streets, Sounds and Identity in Interwar Harlem. Journal of Social History, 40(4), 859-894.

Harris, L.A. (2009). What’s in a Name? That Which We Call Brilliance by Any Other Name Would Read Festus McKay. Radical History Review, (103) 236-243.

Jordan, G. (2011). Re-membering the African American Past. Cultural Studies, 25(6), 848-891.

Lutenski, E. (2008). A Small Man in Big Spaces: The New Negro, the Mestizo, and Jean Toomer’s Southwestern Writing. Melus, 33(1), 11-32.

Price, J. J. (2005). Hegemony, Hope, and the Harlem Renaissance: Taking Hip Hop Culture Seriously. Convergence, 38(2), 55-64