UNIVERSIDADE DE BRASÍLIA

INSTITUTO DE LETRAS – IL
DEPARTAMENTO DE TEORIA LITERÁRIA E LITERATURAS-TEL
Literatura Norte-Americana III
1°/2020
Professora: Cintia Carla Moreira Schwantes
Estudante: Júlia Cristina Valverde da Silva

A review on Harlem Renaissance

The text upon which this review is based outlines the historical events that led to the
Harlem Renaissance, a Black-culture movement that spanned over all artistic levels, from
literature to music and performance arts. After the secession war, in which Southern and
Northern American states sought to be independent of one another due to economic
disagreements, the Reconstruction period began. This period is of utmost importance since it
marks the grant of civil rights to former slaves. The Reconstruction period also staged a series
of structural changes in terms of institutions and infrastructure in the Southern states, which
had been the most harmed owing to the previous civil war. Following this period of
institutional reestablishment, the Southern states could once again create their legislation
which was unsurprisingly racist and segregationist. Those laws intended to curb Black
people’s rights and proscribed interracial marriage and set some other provisions which
hindered the role and opportunities of Black People in society. This body of laws which
limited the right to vote and set separate spaces for White and Black was called the Jim Crow
Laws.
Another event that exacerbated racist conduct in the USA was World War I. Black
people enlisted to prove themselves before the American stricken by aversion to Black
people; nonetheless, there were separated platoons and dorms. Upon returning from the war,
the acknowledgment Black People had so longed for didn’t come, rather, they were brutally
welcomed, with some being lynched and hanged still in their military uniforms. The
heightening of tensions led to the Great Migration where a gigantic migratory flow of Black
people headed North in order to flee from the violent regime against Black people that had
been installed in the South. After the WWI came the Great Depression, an international
economic crisis of unprecedented proportions which, despite the assistance sent by the
government, hit Black communities the hardest.
 The Harlem Renaissance, which extended through the ’30s, was a cultural movement
of prominent Black writers, artists, and musicians. Owing to the migration to the North, Black
People were able to get access to better education and reach influential positions. Conversely,
Black people back in the South were once again oppressed by so-called laws that veiled a
deep-rooted racist standing toward Black people, who were at the slightest infraction
convicted of murder, rape, and similar crimes. The Harlem Renaissance movement sought to
get Black artists seen and acknowledged. However, the most significant outcome of this
movement was that it paved the way for the fight for civil rights which would unfold in the
later decades. One of the champions for the civil rights movement was the dancer Josephine
Baker, who helped to spread the African-American culture and relentlessly fought for equal
rights. The Harlem Renaissance was such a heterogeneous movement that one cannot pinpoint
overall artistic features, nonetheless a shared trait was the cry for equality and end of violence
against Black. The music of the movement is characterized by melodic rhythms, touching
lyrics, and voices dripping with a single desire: to be free.