Harlem Renaissance Flashcards
1
Q
Who was Booker T. Washington?
A
1856-1915
- civil rights activist leader and an educator
- founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now know as Tuskegee University
2
Q
Who was W.E.B Du Bois?
A
1868-1963
- essayist (The Souls of Black Folk, 1903)
- Crisis founder and editor
- patriarch of the New Negro movement
- founder of the NAACP (this sponsored The Crisis)
- founded the school of Protest (to educate black on their history and culture through theater, very political)
- revered intellectual
- against Marcus Garvey’s ideas
- social scientist and political leader
- thought that art was an essential race-building tool
- Locke was his chief intellectual rival
3
Q
Who was Alain Locke?
A
1885-1954
- poet, intellectual, essayist, teacher and scholar (well-educated)
- founded a student literary magazine (the stylus) where Zora Neale Hurston published her first story.
- impresario (organiser, producer) of the New Negro movement
- professor at Harvard (female students earned less in his class)
- proud of being gay
- very flirtatious with young men
- wanted to have classes devoted to Latin, Greek, and black studies
- perfect example of the “Talented Tenth”
- chief intellectual rival of Du Bois
- seen as an artist manqué and a writer of a real and profound ability
- the movements’ most articulate voice, “precious oracle” and official mentor to its new recruits
4
Q
Who was Countee Cullen?
A
1903-1946
- gay
- poet, author, scholar, leading figure in the New Negro Movement, also wrote for theater and children books
- of the “younger” generation
- friends with Jessie Fauset, Alain Locke, Langston Hughes, Carl van Vechten and Claude McKay
- married Yolanda Du Bois
- wrote the famous poem “Yet do I Marvel”
- wanted to be evaluated solely based on his talent, not on his race
- exemplified the the racial and moral values of the Talented Tenth
5
Q
Who was Claude McKay?
A
1889-1948
- poet (wrote (English) sonnets in traditional form, but not traditional topics)
- traveled a lot
- Jamaican and American – struggles with identity
- wrote “Songs of Jamaica “ (book)
- famous poems include “If we must die” and “ The Lynching”
- gay
- one of the most important figures of the Harlem Renaissance
6
Q
Who was Langston Hughes?
A
1902-1967
- friends with Carl van Vechten
- Alain Locke admires him
- young voice of the Harlem Renaissance
- travelled a lot
- involved with The Fire
- writer, poet
- gay??
- famous poems include “I, Too” and “Cubes”
- struggles between being a propagantist and an artist
- wrote a poem who inspired Lorraine Hansberry’s title for her play; A Raisin In the Sun
7
Q
Zora Neil Hurston
A
1891-1960
- intellectual, writer
- worked with The Fire
- Alain Locke protegé
- financial support given to her by Charlotte Mason, “Godmother”, (was her patron)
- close relationship with Mason (almost like mother and daughter)
- went on an adventure with “Sassie Susan” in the south to collect poverty, folklore, music and stories (one of the richest experiences she ever had)
- meets Hughes in the South and together meet Jessie Fauset
- together, their dream was to make a Negro opera
8
Q
A’Leila Walker
A
1885-1931
- extremely wealthy black woman
- held many parties in her many buildings
- “queen” and “tyrant”
- the hostess of the Renaissance; known for her parties and wealth
- “the Dark Tower”— her saloon, very luxurious.
- had little interest for intellectual talk and rarely read books
- very important figure of the Harlem Renaissance
9
Q
Carl Van Vechten
A
1880-1964
- white man
- crossed the color line boundary
- patron of the arts and writing an poetry
- friends with people of color
- wrote “Nword Heaven” 1926, about the Harlem Renaissance
- married, but flirted with young uptown men— gay???
- went to Harlem often
- double identity
- involved himself in many “fights”
10
Q
Charlotte Mason
A
1842-1923
- “Godmother”
- patron for Hurston, Locke, and Hughes-
- very wealthy, but did not want fame
- very close relationships with all of her protégés, slightly different for each person.
- patron in general of the Harlem Renaissance, in particular its art, poverty, writing, and music
- paid a lot of money to fund the young writers
- had a lot of control over them, but they all still had a very good relationship with her.
- wanted to remain anonymous
- very spiritual, and religious? (deceased husband)
- very experienced and intelligent
- mother-daughter relationship with Hurston
11
Q
Jessie Redmon Fauset
A
1882-1961
- french teacher in Washington
- worked for W.E.B. Du Bois
- says she was born in Philadelphia, but she was in fact born near it
- novelist and The Crisis editor
- first black woman to be elected to Phi Beta Kappa (oldest honour society for the liberal arts and sciences)
- Du Bois was her chief mentor
- wrote several novels including There is Confusion, and Plum Bun
- recognised the promise of Claude McKay and Jean boomer, but also of her high school students Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes
12
Q
Angelina Weld Grimke
A
1880-1958
- biracial family
- lesbian?? letters found..
- named after her aunt
- lost of drama in her family (slave +plantation owner= her dad +her mom= Angelina. her aunt was a white abolitionist)
- poet of the Harlem Renaissance (published in the Crisis and the Opportunity)
- english teacher for 14 years
- one of the first African-American women to write a play and have it performed
- wrote a play called Rachel; about her concern about racial discrimination (especially about lynching and its repercussions on the daily that was affected)
13
Q
Sterling Brown
A
1901-1989
- professor, literary critic, folklorist, writer and poet
- African-American
- full professor at Howard University
- who wrote several books which include Southern Road
- poetry inspired by Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, and Countee Cullen
- became an artistic tradition in the Harlem Renaissance
- he wrote Slim In Atlanta
14
Q
Marcus Garvey
A
- 1887-1940
- Du Bois’ rival
- Jamaican political leader
- leader in the civil rights movement, pan-african movement, black nationalist movement and Afrocentrism
- writer
- founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (U.N.I.A.), the African Communities league, the New Negro newspaper, the Black Star Line shipping company, and the Negroes Factories Cooperation
15
Q
James Van Der Zee
A
1886-1983
- African-American photographer
- best known for his portraits of black New Yorkers
- well known in the 1920’s, then forgotten, now rediscovered (Met exhibition)
- took pictures of daily life
