Transcript Slide 1

The Art and Politics of the Harlem Renaissance
An online professional development seminar
GOALS
 To deepen your understanding of the
relationship between the art and politics of the
Harlem Renaissance
 To provide fresh material and ideas to
strengthen teaching
(Feel free to plunder the Power Point.)
FROM THE FORUM
Challenges, Issues, Questions
Resource identification
Check the forum for a URL that provides access to a wide array of material.
The image of women in the art of the Harlem Renaissance
W.E. B. Du Bois and the Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance in the context of the 1920s
Prof. Janken has posted resources to the forum.
Kenneth R. Janken
Professor of African and Afro-American Studies
Director, Office of Experiential Education
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
National Humanities Center Fellow
2000-01
White: The Biography of
Walter White, Mr. NAACP
(2003)
Honorable mention in
the Outstanding Book Awards
from the Gustavus Myers Center
for the Study of Bigotry and
Human Rights in North America
Rayford W. Logan and
the Dilemma of the
African-American Intellectual
(1993)
USEFUL TEACHING STRATEGY WHEN COMBINING ARTWORKS AND
TEXTS
Have students illustrate texts with art.
This seminar will provide an abundance of compatible texts and images.
As we discuss the material, point out opportunities to use images to
illustrate texts.
INTRODUCTION
The Harlem Renaissance—the New Negro Renaissance—
the New Negro Movement
 Arrived on the heels of World War One and the extreme racial violence of the
Red Summer of 1919; ended in the mid-1930s during the Great Depression;
 Re-presented African Americans as New Negroes—militant, race conscious
and determined to have equality in the United States;
 Strove to present an image and a culture that was by developed by and
served blacks, not whites;
 Sought to act as a wedge that would open up American society to a
revaluation of African Americans and acceptance of them as equals;
 Created an internal tension between developing a New Negro cultural
identity that would serve the political ends of racial liberation and producing
artistic works for white consumption.
The Art and Politics of the Harlem Renaissance
Part 1
Militancy, race consciousness, and the New Negro movement
Part 2
The debate over what was New Negro art
Part 3
The Harlem Renaissance as a cultural expression of modern black identities and of
solidarity with Africa and the African Diaspora.
The Art and Politics of the Harlem Renaissance
Part 1
Militancy, race consciousness, and the New Negro movement
“Returning Soldiers,” by W.E.B. Du Bois
We are returning from war! The Crisis and tens of thousands of black men were drafted into a
great struggle. For bleeding France and what she means and has meant and will mean to us and
humanity … we gladly fought and to the last drop of blood; for America and her highest ideals, we fought
in far-off hope; for the dominant southern oligarchy entrenched in Washington, we fought in bitter
resignation.…
But today we return! … We stand again to look America squarely in the face and call a spade a
spade. We sing: This country of ours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a
shameful land.
It lynches.…
It disfranchises its own citizens.…
It encourages ignorance.…
It steals from us.…
It insults us.…
This is the country to which we Soldiers of Democracy return. This is the fatherland for which
we fought! … But by the God of Heaven, we are cowards and jackasses if now that the war is over, we do
not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against
the forces of hell in our own land.
We return.
We return from fighting.
We return fighting.
Make way for Democracy! We saved it in France, and by the Great Jehovah, we will save it in
the United States, or know the reason why.
Discussion Questions
Why does Du Bois list defending France as the first reason why African Americans joined the war effort? What is Du Bois’s indictment of America in
this essay, and what posture does he propose African Americans assume in the post-war era?
“Chicago and Its Eight Reasons,”
by Walter White
Finally, the new spirit aroused in Negroes
by their war experiences enters into the
problem [of the response of Chicago’s
African Americans to the violence visited
upon them by whites]. …These men
[recently demobilized black veterans], with
their new outlook on life, injected the same
spirit of independence into their
companions, a thing that is true of many
other sections of America. One of the
greatest surprises to many of those who
came down to “clean out the niggers” is
that these same “niggers” fought back.
Colored men saw their own kind being
killed, heard of many more and believed
that their lives and liberty were at stake. In
such a spirit most of the fighting was done.
“The New Crowd Negro” political cartoon from The
Messenger (1919)
Discussion Questions
What is “new” about the New Negro?
Contrast the new political posture with the Age of Booker
T. Washington.
Discussion Question
Two Images of Benga
Benga, James Porter
Oil on canvas, 1935
How do these pieces of art fill out your
understanding of the image and character of the
New Negro?
Feral Benga, Richmond Barthe
Bronze, 1937
“The Negro’s Friend” by Claude McKay
There is no radical the Negro’s friend
Who points some other than the classic road
For him to follow, fighting to the end,
Thinking to ease him of one half his load.…
Must fifteen million blacks be gratified,
That one of them can enter as a guest,
A fine white house – the rest of them denied
A place of decent sojourn and a rest?
Oh, Segregation is not the whole sin,
The Negroes need salvation from within.
Discussion Questions
What political direction does Claude McKay suggest that African Americans take
in the fight for equality?
What does the poem say about black-white relations?
THE ART AND POLITICS OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
PART 2
What was Negro art?
Langston Hughes, Winold Reiss
pastel board, 1925
“Enter the New Negro,” Alain Locke
Fortunately there are constructive channels opening out into which the balked social
feelings of the American Negro can flow freely.
…One is the consciousness of acting as the advance-guard of the African peoples in
their contact with Twentieth Century civilization; the other, the sense of a mission of
rehabilitating the race in world esteem from that loss of prestige for which the fate and
conditions of slavery have so largely been responsible. Harlem, as we shall see, is the center of
both these movements; she is the home of the Negro’s “Zionism.” The pulse of the Negro world
has begun to beat in Harlem. …As with the Jew, persecution is making the Negro international.
…Our greatest rehabilitation may possibly come through such channels [i.e. political
movements like those headed by Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois], but for the present, more
immediate hope rests in the revaluation by white and black alike of the Negro in terms of his
artistic endowments and cultural contributions, past and prospective. It must be increasingly
recognized that the Negro has already made very substantial contributions, … He now
becomes a conscious contributor and lays aside the status of a beneficiary and ward for that of
a collaborator and participant in American civilization. …The especially cultural recognition they
win should in turn prove the key to that revaluation of the Negro which must precede or
accompany any considerable further betterment of race relationships.
Discussion Questions
Why does Locke think that art and culture is a more viable route toward racial
equality than politics?
Who is the target audience for the New Negro cultural production?
“The Criteria of Negro Art,” W.E.B. Du Bois
With the growing recognition of Negro artists in spite of the severe
handicaps, one comforting thing is occurring to both white and black. They are
whispering, “Here is a way out. Here is the real solution of the color problem. The
recognition accorded to Cullen, Hughes, Fauset, White and others shows there is
no real color line. Keep quiet! Don’t complain! Work! All will be well!”
I will not say that already this chorus amounts to a conspiracy. …But I will
say that there are today a surprising number of white people who are getting great
satisfaction out of these younger Negro writers because they think it is going to stop
agitation of the Negro question. …And many colored people are all too eager to
follow this advice; especially those who are afraid to fight and to whom the money of
philanthropists and the alluring publicity are subtle and deadly bribes. They say,
“What is the use of fighting? Why not show simply what we deserve and let the
reward come to us?” …
We can go on the stage; we can be just as funny as white Americans wish
us to be; we can play all the sordid parts that America likes to assign to Negroes;
but for anything else there is still small place for us.
Discussion Question
Acceptance of black art and artists by the white public is a good thing, but what problems does that acceptance present?
“The Criteria of Negro Art,” W.E.B. Du Bois
Thus all art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists. I
stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has been used
always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy. I do not care a
damn for any art that is not used for propaganda. But I do care when propaganda is confined
to one side while the other is stripped and silent.
… White artists themselves suffer from this narrowing of their field. They cry for
freedom in dealing with Negroes because they have so little freedom in dealing with whites. …
We can afford the truth. White folk today cannot. As it is now we are handing
everything over to a white jury. If a colored man wants to publish a book, he has got to get a
white publisher and a white newspaper to say it is great; and then you and I say so. We must
come to the place where the work of art when it appears is reviewed and acclaimed by our
own free and unfettered judgment. …
I do not doubt that the ultimate art coming from black folk is going to be just as
beautiful, and beautiful largely in the same ways, as the art that comes from white folk, or
yellow, or red; but the point today is that until the art of the black folk compels recognition they
will not be rated as human.
Discussion Questions
In what ways does racism distort the creative process and hinder artists from exposing truth? What are the roles and
responsibilities of the African American artist and African American public in developing a New Negro culture? Where do
you think Locke and Du Bois agree? Why, according to DuBois, is all art propaganda?
“The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Langston Hughes
Without going outside his race, and even among the better classes with their “white”
culture and conscious American manners, but still Negro enough to be different, there is
sufficient matter to furnish a black artist with a lifetime of creative work. …
The Negro artist works against an undertow of sharp criticism and misunderstanding
from his own group and unintentional bribes from whites. “Oh, be respectable, write about
nice people, show how good we are,” say the Negroes. “Be stereotyped, don’t go too far,
don’t shatter our illusions about you, don’t amuse us too seriously. We will pay you,” say the
whites. …
We younger artists who create now intend to express our dark-skinned selves
without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t
matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too. The tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laughs.
If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter
either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the
mountain, free within ourselves.
Discussion Questions
According to Hughes, where should African American artists direct their attention?
What are the best sources for authentic black art?
What are the obstacles that black artists faced in the creative process?
What do you think Hughes’s response was to Du Bois’s declaration that all art is propaganda?
Which image would meet the approval of
Locke, of Du Bois, of Hughes? Why?
Harlem at Night,
Winold Reiss
Josephine Baker
in banana skirt
Brown Girl after Bath,
Archibald Motley, Jr.,
oil on canvas, 1931
Girl in a Red
Dress, Charles
Alston, 1934
Which image would meet the approval of
Locke, of Du Bois, of Hughes? Why?
Harlem at Night,
Winold Reiss
Josephine Baker,
Photograph
George Hoyningen-Huene
1927
Saturday Night,
Archibald Motley, Jr.,
oil on canvas, 1935
Girl in a Red
Dress, Charles
Alston, 1934
“The Negro Artist and Modern Art,” by Romare Bearden
On blending ideas of Du Bois and Hughes:
“Several other factors hinder the development of the Negro artist. First, we have
no valid standard of criticism; secondly, foundations and societies which
supposedly encourage Negro artists really hinder them; thirdly, the Negro artist
has no definite ideology or social philosophy”
The Art and Politics of the Harlem Renaissance
Part 3
The Harlem Renaissance as a cultural expression of modern black
identities and of solidarity with Africa and the African Diaspora.
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
Langston Hughes
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and
older than the flow of human blood in
human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns
were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled
me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the
pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi
when Abe Lincoln went down to
New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
Discussion Questions
What claims is Langston Hughes making about the history of Africandescended people?
What connections is he asserting between African Americans and Africans?
What connections is he asserting between African Americans and the United
States?
In “Negro” in particular, how does Hughes construct a modern identity for
African Americans?
“Negro”
Langston Hughes
I am a Negro:
Black as the night is black,
Black like the depths of my Africa
I’ve been a slave:
Caesar told me to keep his door-steps
clean.
I brushed the boots of Washington.
I’ve been a worker:
Under my hand the pyramids arose.
I made mortar for the Woolworth Building
I’ve been a singer:
All the way from Africa to Georgia
I carried my sorrow songs.
I made ragtime.
I’ve been a victim:
The Belgians cut off my hands in the
Congo.
They lynch me still in Mississippi
I am a Negro:
Black as the night is black,
Black like the depths of my Africa
Aspiration, Aaron Douglas
oil on canvas, 1936
Song of the Towers, Aaron Douglas
oil on canvas, 1934
Discussion Questions
Compare the themes in Hughes’s poem “Negro” to these Aaron Douglas paintings.
What, in these paintings, is ancient, what is old, and what is modern?
What is the history Aaron Douglas portrays in these?
“Odyssey of Big Boy”
Sterling Brown
Two Views of
Day-to-Day Life
Lemme be wid Casey Jones
Lemme be wid Stagolee
Lemme be wid such like men
When Death takes hol’ on me,
When Death takes hol’ on me.…
Done worked and loafed on such like
jobs,
Seen what dey is to see,
Done had my time wid a pint on my
hip
An’ a sweet gal on my knee,
Sweet mommer on my knee; …
An’ all dat Bog Boy axes
When time comes fo’ to go,
Lemme be wid John Henry, steel
drivin’ man,
Lemme be wid old Jazzbo,
Lemme be wid ole Jazzbo.
Discussion Questions
Thinking not just about these three verses but about the poem in its entirety, what is
the heroic quality of Big Boy’s life?
How does the hardship described in “Elevator Boy” compare with the presentation of
hardship in “Odyssey of Big Boy”?
“Elevator Boy”
Langston Hughes
I got a job now
Runnin’ an elevator
In the Dennison Hotel in Jersey
Job aint no good though.
No money around.
Jobs are just chances
Like everything else.
Maybe a little luck now,
Maybe not.
Maybe a good job
sometimes:
Step out o’ the barrel,
boy.
Two new suits an’
A woman to sleep with.
Maybe no luck for a
long time.
Only the elevators
Goin’ up an’ down,
Up an’ down,
Or somebody else’s
shoes
To shine,
Or greasy pots in a
dirty kitchen.
I been runnin’ this
Elevator too long.
Guess I’ll quit now.
The Janitor who Paints,
Palmer Hayden
oil on canvas, ca. 1937
Black Belt, Archibald Motley, Jr.
oil, 1934
Discussion Questions
How is race represented in these
paintings?
Can you pair any of the paintings
with any of the ideas contained in any
of the essays, poems, or short
stories?
,
Tongues (Holy Rollers), Archibald Motley, Jr.
oil on canvas, 1929
Factory Workers Romare Bearden
gouache and casein on kraft paper,
1942
Final Slide.
Thank You.