Harlem Renaissance (T1)

Question 1

Name 3 prominent black figures at this time

Answer 1

• Langston Hughes
• Claude McKay
• Georgia Douglas johnson

Question 2

Who was Claude McKay?

Answer 2

A poet who used culturally European forms and melded these with a radical message

Question 3

What did Langston Hughes do?

Answer 3

He merged his poetry with traditionally black cultural rhythms i.e. Jazz and blues

Question 4

When did black Americans begin to migrate from the south to the north?

Answer 4

1914-1919

Question 5

Why did black Americans begin to migrate north?

Answer 5

To flee the economic exploitation they were facing as well as violent and persuasive racism

Question 6

How many African Americans settled in Harlem?

Answer 6

175,000

Question 7

Where is the literary aspect of the Harlem renaissance said to have begun?

Answer 7

With a dinner at the Civic Club celebrating African American writers

Question 8

Who attended the dinner at the Civic Club?

Answer 8

The likes of Countee Cullen and W.E.B. DuBois, they mingled with members of the white literary establishment

Question 9

When was the dinner at the Civic Club?

Answer 9

21st March 1924

Question 10

What happened to the Harlem renaissance when the WSC happened?

Answer 10

Lots of African Americans lost their jobs, they were “last hired, first fired”

Question 11

What happened to the support for African American artists after the WSC?

Answer 11

Their support dwindled, as budgets and disposable incomes dwindled

Question 12

How had the 1920s boom allowed African American artists to flourish?

Answer 12

People had more disposable incomes therefore they would go to bars like speakeasies to see Jazz

Question 13

What transformed Harlem by the 1930s?

Answer 13

Unemployment and municipal neglect

Question 14

What do some people believe ended the Harlem renaissance?

Answer 14

The Harlem race riot of 1935

Question 15

What started the Harlem race riot?

Answer 15

Rumors circulated that police had murdered a black Puerto Rican teenager for stealing a ten-cent pocket knife from a local store, more than 10,000 people took to the streets in Harlem

Question 16

What did the Harlem race riot end in?

Answer 16

Protests turned violent + resulted in 3 deaths, 125 arrests, and more than $2million in property damage

Question 17

Why did many people move away from Harlem during the depression?

Answer 17

• Harlem race riot

- Economic factors

Question 18

What was the Harlem renaissance?

Answer 18

The development of the Harlem neighborhood in New York City as a black cultural mecca in the early 20th Century + the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted

Question 19

How long did the Harlem renaissance last?

Answer 19

From the 1910s through the mid-1930s

Question 20

What is the Harlem renaissance considered for African Americans?

Answer 20

The golden age in African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance and art

Question 21

What was Harlem like in the 1800s?

Answer 21

The northern Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem was meant to be an upper-class white neighborhood in the 1880s

Question 22

Why did Harlem change so dramatically?

Answer 22

Rapid overdevelopment led to empty buildings and desperate landlords seeking to fill them

Question 23

Where were the first African Americans from who moved to Harlem?

Answer 23

A few middle-class black families from another neighborhood known as Black Bohemia moved to Harlem

Question 24

What was the reaction of white Americans in Harlem when African Americans began to move to the area?

Answer 24

Some white residents initially fought to keep African Americans out of the area, but failing that many whites eventually fled

Question 25

What happened in 1915 and 1916 which forced African Americans to move elsewhere?

Answer 25

Natural disasters - it put black workers and sharecroppers out of work

Question 26

By 1920, how many black Americans had moved from the south?

Answer 26

300,000