Detailed AO3 (Historical) Flashcards
The Harlem Renaissance
(1918–mid-1930s)
The Harlem Renaissance was a vibrant cultural, artistic, and intellectual movement centred in Harlem, New York, during the 1920s and 1930s.
It marked a period when African American artists, writers, and thinkers sought to redefine Black identity and challenge pervasive racial stereotypes, and was affected by a renewed militancy in the general struggle for civil rights,
Prominent figures included poets like Langston Hughes, novelists such as Zora Neale Hurston, and intellectuals like Alain Locke, who promoted the concept of the “New Negro”—a term symbolising a more outspoken and self-assured African American identity.
As such, was known as the “New Negro Movement”, named after The New Negro, a 1925 anthology edited by Alain Locke.
Racial Segregation and the Jim Crow Era
Late 19th Century–1965 (Prior to Civil Rights Act)
**Following the end of Reconstruction ** (1863-1877) in the late 19th century, Southern states enacted Jim Crow laws enforcing racial segregation and disenfranchising African Americans.
These laws institutionalised a system of white supremacy, relegating Black individuals to second-class citizenship.
Jim Crow is a prominent example of de jure segregation
The Great Migration
1916–1970
The Great Migration was a mass movement where approximately six million African Americans relocated from the rural South to urban centres in the North and West between 1916 and 1970.
This exodus was driven by the **pursuit of better economic opportunities **and an escape from the oppressive Jim Crow laws.
The 1929 Stock Market Crash and Its Implications
The novel was published in April 1929, months before the Stock Market Crash in October that year, which precipitated the Great Depression.
While the novel doesn’t directly address the economic downturn, the looming financial instability of the era may have influenced its themes of social security, materialism, and class anxiety.
