The People, Leisure, and Culture of Blacks During the Harlem essays

The People, Leisure, and Culture of Blacks During the Harlem essays It seems unfair that the pages of our history books or even the lecturers in majority of classrooms speak very little of the accomplishments of blacks. They speak very little of a period within black history in which many of the greatest musicians, writers, painters, and influential paragon' emerged. This significant period in time was known as the Harlem Renaissance. Blacks attained the opportunity to work at upper-class jobs, own their own homes, and establish status among themselves. To no ones surprise, they still were not accepted into the so called upper-class of white society, but they neither worried nor became distressed over the fact. They created societies of their own which opened doors for blacks to attain opportunities that were absolutely unheard of, just before the Renaissance. It was from this same society where the beautiful melodies of jazz emerged. Colleagues and peers of their own race, which created a powerful bond between them, accepted Blacks. The attitudes wh ich prompted the movement were those that came about because of the beginning of : (1) the nationalist tendencies of the time, (2) the movement of black Americans from slavery to freedom and from rural to city living, (3) Afro- Americans renewed pride in their African heritage, and (4) the influences of the period bounded by the close of the Civil War and the economic collapse of the 1930s. From education, to the stage of Broadway, to music, and to a revived race, blacks possessed more intelligence, talent, and ingenuity then they will ever be given credit for and it all began with the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement, was the greatest of literary periods in which creativity and vehemence were clearly expressed. Literature was no longer a white write looking at the black experience from his/her perspective, making judgments and trying to find under...