How Did African Americans Influence The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a movement that had prospered during the World War I from 1918 until the 30’s America had been involved the evolution of the culture, social connections, and the artistic boom that started in the town of Harlem. Throughout this paper I will discuss the influence artists had on the Harlem Renaissance, how they have influenced, motivated, and excelled in the culture, and what their accomplishments in this era. During this time, Harlem was the center of culture where it had brought in African American artists, musicians, poets, photographers, and scholars. At this time, it was also noticed as the “New Negro Movement” after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke. The majority of the artists involved had lived in the South, absconding from the despotic class system in search for a place where they were free to reveal their talents. One perspective estimates that roughly half a million Blacks had migrated to the Northern Cities in 1915 and 1920, between 750,000 and one million had left the South in the 1920’s. The Great
Johnson, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Ma Rainey, Billy Strayhorn, Bessie Smith, Nat King Cole and his Trio, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Adelaide Hall, and Ivie Anderson, had strong influences towards this African American movement. W.E.B. Dubois was a major influence for many of the artists, voicing his opinion of encouragement to artists who had fled the South to prosper a new land towards freedom, equality, and acknowledgement. Many of these artists had played in jazz clubs in order for recognition and substantial pay, some of these being the Cotton Club and Minton’s Playhouse. For the first time the impact of African American culture could not keep white America from looking away; possibly due to the strong percussion and the strong vocals bringing forth such great energy through the