Compare and Contrast: Harlem Renaissance vs. Civil Rights Movement

Both periods represent a time cultural upheaval throughout the black population. African Americans wanted to be recognized as equal, yet each movement has different qualities.

The Harlem Renaissance was a concentrated movement, that happened mostly in New York City and some parts of Chicago. On the other hand, the Civil rights movement spread all throughout America. It attracted black and white reformers, and created enough power to influence legislation like the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Also, the Harlem Renaissance was more of an artistic/cultural movement were as the Civil Rights Movement was more political. African Americans explored jazz music and the blues, and influenced many famous writers. Obliviously both periods had artist, music, and literature, but the Harlem Renaissance was a time to redefine the culture of African Americans.

Though the Harlem Renaissance may seem much smaller than the Civil Rights Movement, both are equally important. Without the Harlem Renaissance, which gave the black population something to be proud about, the next generation of civil righters would never have been ready to take on the task they did. Both movements are interconnected because they represent the struggle to win equal freedom for all.

Civil Rights Writer: Ralph Ellison

Ralph Ellison, an African American author, became famous for his novel Invisible Man (1952).
The book describes a blackmans quest to be accepted and find his place in the harsh society.
Also Ellison dives into problems that blacks experience in their search for responsibility, dignity, and equality before the time of the Civil Rights Movement.

Civil Rights Artist: Elizabeth Catlett

Elizabeth Catlette was a sculptist and artist who produced most of her work through the 1960's and 1970's. Her art expressed the black plight at the timed and her work was said to be politically charged. In this picture, Head of a Woman, it portrays the power of black women through the intensity of her eyes. Also the picture is in black and whites as if to say there is no difference in color.

Civil Rights Musician: Joan Baez

Joan Baez, a white folksinger born in 1941, is very well known for her music during the sixties. She played with great artist such as Bob Dylan and at Woodstock in 1969. But her activism at the time of the Civil Rights Movement is what separated her from other artist. Her famous song "Oh Freedom" was sung for the first time on the day of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech in Washington, DC. This song quickly became popular and like an anthem to civil rights reformers. "Oh Freedom" was originally sung by slaves in the south dreaming for freedom to end, but Baez's rendition is what made it so famous.

Oh, freedom,
Oh, freedom,
Oh freedom over me.
And before I'd be a slave
I'd be buried in my grave
And go home to my
Lord and be free.
No more moanin' etc.
No more weepin' etc.
No more shootin' etc.
There'll be singing

Harlem Renaissance Female Writer: Zora Neale Hurston

Hurston, a very well known African American writer, is known for her close ties to the Harlem Renaissance. Most of her work portrays the distinct dialect and vernacular of the black population at the time and also the revived black culture. Other works by Hurston are, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Every Tounge Got to Confess.

Mule Bone is a play written partly by Hurston and partly by Langston Hughes. Both writers wanted the play to represent authentic black comedy.

Mule Bone takes place in Eatonville, Florida, the setting of many of Hurston's stories. This energetic play centers on Jim and Dave, a two-man song-and-dance team, and Daisy, the woman who comes between them. As the men fight over the girl, Jim hits Dave with a mule bone and the town splits over whos side to be on: the Methodists, who want to forgive Jim; and the Baptists, who want to kick him out for his crime.

This play explores the life of a small black town and the hilarious experiences and stories the people there have to share. Literature like Mule Bone tries to bring out the fun in life and bridge the gap between white and black through light hearted stories such as this.

Harlem Renaissance Writer: Langston Hughes

is particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties

important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s

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

The Weary Blues 1923

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway . . .
He did a lazy sway . . .
To the tune o' those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man's soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan--
"Ain't got nobody in all this world,
Ain't got nobody but ma self.
I's gwine to quit ma frownin'
And put ma troubles on the shelf."

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
He played a few chords then he sang some more--
"I got the Weary Blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can't be satisfied--
I ain't happy no mo'
And I wish that I had died."
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.

This poem is Hughes decription of a blues or jazz singer in Harlem during the twenties. The poem creates a somber or melancholy mood with the "piano moaning", and he "crooned the tune." It also sounds like the man was drinking as he sang the song which makes it seem like the man is more laid back. The man was not afraid to walk down Lenox street singing or speaking his mind becuase artist and singers were living in a time of great cultural upheaval.

Harlem Renaissance Artist, Aaron Douglas: Into Bondage

http://www.mshogue.com/English_11/Harlem/bond[1].gif

Douglas explored African themes and sought to make his cultural heritage relevant to contemporary African-American experience

His illustrations appeared with Reiss's in the 1925 book, The New Negro; this volume is said to have played an important role in giving an identity to the literary circle of the Harlem Renaissance. As a member of the Renaissance circle, Douglas illustrated books by Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and James Weldon Johnson. His illustrations also appeared in Vanity Fair, Theatre Arts, and American Mercury.

Peice of Art: Into Bondage
This picture shows African soon to be slaves getting onto ships going to the new world. The men and the tropical trees (to represent Africa) are blue, but the chains around the hand of the man are a contrasting pale orange. The is also a light looking down into the eyes of one of the black men, suggesting that someone is watching over the men. That they live under the same sky and higher as everyone else, and should be treated equally.

Harlem Renaissance Musician

Louis Armstrong

Armstrong is known as one of the best jazz players of all time. He grew up poor in New Orleans where he learned to play music then moved to New York later on in his career. The records by Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Hot Sevens are some of the most famous jazz music.

Wrote "What did I do to be so black and blue"

Cold, empty bed,
Springs hard as lead,
Pains in my head,
Feel like old Ned.
What did I do To be so black and blue?

No joys for me,
No company,
Even the mouse
Ran from my house,
All my life through
I've been so Black and blue.

I'm so forlorn,
Life's just a thorn,
My heart is torn,
Why was I born?
What did I do to be so Black and blue?
I'm white inside,
But that don't help my case.
Cause I can't hide
What is on my face

What Louis Armstrong is saying in this song is how there were still so many differences in the treatment of blacks compared to whites. He said he was "black and blue" as if to metaphorically say that he is treated just as badly as black slaves were 60 years earlier. The blacks life was hard at this time, he even calls is "just a thorn." Also, he directly addresses that he is equal, or "white inside", but still recieves ill treatment becuase "what is on his face", or the color of his skin.

This time period was based on the desire to overcome white supremacy and for blacks to find a name and place for themselves. Jazz, and other music was a way to voice the beleifs and break some of the restraints of 1920s society.

Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement was a time of racial upheaval from 1955-1965. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, giving basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race, after a decade of nonviolent protests and marches. Some of the major events of this time were the bus sit-ins and boycotts, Little Rock protest, the March on Washington, and thousands of walks and protest by African Americans.

It took many years for action to be taken against segregation and prejudice (some would never go away). The American Civil Rights Movement refers to the reform movements in the US aimed at abolishing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring suffrage in Southern states. The movement was particularly concentrated in the South, where tensions were the worst dating back to the beginnings of slavery. The movement created great heroes like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., but also created the leftist Black Power Movement which pushed for racial dignity, economic and political self sufficiency, and freedom from White domination.

Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance was an era of written and artistic creativity among African-Americans occuring between World War I and the 1930s Depression.

It began with the migration of African-Americans to the northern cities. Large numbers of black Americans left their rural southern states homes to move to urban centers such as New York City, Chicago, and Washington, DC. The Roaring Twenties were boom times for the United States, and there were many jobs to go around especially in the North. Between 1920 and 1930, almost 750,000 African Americans left the South, and many of them seeking a better life a less racially tense environment.

This movement brought new creative activity in writing, art, and music and redefined expressions of African-Americans and created a black cultural identity. Many African American artists, writers and musicians flocked to a district of Manhattan called Harlem.