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Harlem Ren.

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Harlem Ren.
David Runyon 4-13-12
4th period
Harlem Renaissance Essay
The Harlem Renaissance was a movement by African Americans to prosper and achieve new highs as a race in mostly the creative arts and music. One major reason for the renaissance was the migration from the rural southern states to the northern urban environment. At the end of slavery, the emancipated African American longed for civic perception, political equality, and economic and cultural self-determination. It contributed to the civil rights movement majorly. It was a time for cultural awakening since African Americans had experience centuries of slavery and strived for abolition. The end of slavery did not bring the promise that many dreamed of. White supremacy legally and violently erupted where most African Americans lived. Around 1890 African Americans migrated in large numbers to the north. The Harlem Renaissance was a phase of Negro movement that in many always ushered in that civil rights movement of the late nineteen- forties and early nineteen- fifties Hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the south were relocated to the North. Past experience and present circumstances bonded them. This ignited cultural pride. The African American culture was reborn in the Harlem Renaissance. (Drop Me Off In Harlem 1, Wallace Thurman 1)

Langston Hughes was an African American poet, essayist, novelist, playwright, and journalist. He was born Joplin, Missouri. His grandfather was a zealous abolitionist. His grandmother instilled in him great devotion for social justice. After his grandmother 's death, he lived a short time with his mother in Illinois and later with his father in Mexico. He enrolled in Columbia University in 1921, but dropped out and became a seaman and traveled to Africa and Europe. After returning to the United States, he worked in Washington, DC, then moved to Harlem. He was a great writer , but he was best known for his poems which express the anguish of unfulfilled



Cited: "Drop Me Off in Harlem." ARTSEDGE: The Kennedy Center 's Arts Education Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013. <http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/interactives/harlem/faces/thurman_text.html>. Favorites. "Langston Hughes Poems - Classic Famous Poet - All Poetry. ." Publish your poems with all poetry - poets write poems free. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013. <http://allpoetry.com/Langston_Hughes>. "Poet: Langston Hughes - All poems of Langston Hughes." PoemHunter.Com - Thousands of poems and poets. Poetry Search Engine. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013. http://www.poemhunter.com/langston-hughes/ . "Wallace Thurman, Literary Critic, Editor, Author, Playwright ." African American Literature - Author Profiles, Book & Film Reviews, Interviews, Articles and More. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013. <http://aalbc.com/authors/wallace.htm>.

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