Harlem Renaissance versus Civil Rights Movement

The Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement are similar in that they both were a time where African Americans were trying to find who they were and where they should stand in the world. These time periods are also similar in that one caused the other. The Harlem Renaissance caused the Civil Rights Movement in that the Harlem Renaissance gave African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement motivation to fight for their rights. The Harlem Renaissance gave inspiration in the form of literature, music, and art to the future generation that would being about the Civil Rights Movement.

The Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement are different in that the Harlem Renaissance dealt with expressing the struggles the African Americans had been through by literature, music, and art, while the Civil Rights Movement dealt with African Americans pushing towards a future where black and whites were equal on all levels, politically and socially. The Harlem Renaissance was about looking into the past and seeing how far African Americans had gone, while the Civil Rights Movement was about looking forward and seeing how far they could go.

Ralph Ellison

Ralph Ellison was a very famous author during the Civil Rights Movement. His use of racial issues but avoidance of a straightforward political stand made him very popular. In his book, The Invisible Man, he explores the theme of identity. In this book the main character, tries to find who he is, much like the African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. They were trying to find themselves so they could in turn get rights they had deserved for years.

For more of Ralph Ellison, you can click on the link below:

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rellison.htm

Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger was a famous musician of the Civil Rights Movement. Although he was white, he fixed "I Shall Overcome" to "We Shall Overcome" which caused the songs popularity to change drastically. It was originally a deeply rooted African American song, but when Seeger changed the "I" to "We" it became the theme song to the Civil Rights Movement. The change from "I" to "We" gave African Americans a since that they were all in this together. They were all fighting for a common cause, their rights. This song embodied the time because it is a song about fighting for what one believes in.

"We Shall Overcome" by Pete Seeger



For the top 10 songs from the Civil Rights Movement click on the link below:
http://folkmusic.about.com/od/toptens/tp/CivilRightsSong.htm

Charles Searles

Charles Searles was an African American sculptor and painter. He based his sculptures and paintings around African American figures and the human genre. Searles abstract painting in Untitled (Nigerian Impressions), shows how unique Africans are. This embodied the time because it shows that even though Africans may look different than white, they deserve the same rights as white Americans.

Untitled (Nigerian Impressions) by Charles Searles

Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement was a time between 1954 and 1965 where blacks were finally fighting back to get the rights they had deserved after all these years. It all started when in 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. After this happened the Montgomery Bus Boycott occurred along with the introduction of the idea of sit-ins. After the non-violent tries at black rights failed, violence became the next answer. Many African Americans were injured and killed in these protests and attempts.

For a complete time line of the Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to today go to:

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html

James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson was a poet from New York. He published many poems in magazines such as Century Magazine and The Independent. In 1912, he anonymously published The Autobiography of an Ex-colored Man which talked about racial identity. Racial identity was a very big part of the Harlem Renaissance. It troubled many Africans because they were not exactly sure how to show that they were proud of their culture and their African American heritage.


http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/harlemrenaissance/a/harlem_writers.htm
^Link to learn more about Harlem Renaissance writers

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston, though not at the time, became an increasingly influential author from the Harlem Renaissance time. One of her greatest books, Their Eyes Were Watching God, helped push Africans to see how far they had come since the time if slavery. Their Eyes Were Watching God was about a former African slave who found freedom and escaped to find a better life for herself. This is exactly what many African Americans wanted for themselves during this time, a better life. This book, along with many others, became a beacon of hope for many Africans and helped push them to find a better life.



http://www.zoranealehurston.com/
^Go here to listen to three of Zora Neale Hurston's books.

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was a female artist of the Harlem Renaissance time. Many songs of hers told of the trials and tribulations that African Americans, especially females, had to go through during that period of time. Her song "Strange Fruit" tells of the racial discrimination she had to go through throughout her career as a female singer. It embodies the Harlem Renaissance because mostly all Africans were going though a similar phase, when whites were not very accepting of African Americans freedoms. Many Africans were exposed to dangerous and harmful discrimination.


"Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday

Aaron Douglas

Aaron Douglas was a painter during the Harlen Renaissance who drew covers for many black publications including W.E.B. Dubois' The Crisis. In his painting, Into Bondage, he paints the scene of old-time slave trades. With the wild bushes and distant ocean with a ship ready to take the chained Africans to a new world to be put to work. In the distance of all this hardship there is a star with a shining light of hope for those chained Africans. The shining star symbolizes the great opportunities that lie ahead of these Africans. Into Bondage embodies the Harlem Renaissance in that this shining light from the star is a symbol of the freedom that the Africans are trying to obtain in America, its what keeps them going forward in their quest for equality.

Into Bondage by Aaron Douglas

Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a time period between the 1920s and the 1930s. It was a literary, artistic, and musical revival of African American culture. The Renaissance was spawned from the almost 750,000 Africans who migrated from the South to the North in search of political freedom. The books and music in the Harlem Renaissance reflect the struggle that the African Americans went though to get to where they were then. Some great literary figures that came out of the Harlem Renaissance were Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Dubois, Wallace Thurman, Rudolf Fisher, and Countee Cullen. Some influential artists of the time were William H. Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones, Sargent Claude Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, and Archibald Motley. Among the many great musicians of the time were Louis Armstrong, Eubie Blake, Fats Waller, and Billie Holiday.