Charles Chesnutt 1858-1932 • He Was Born in Cleveland, Ohio on June
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Charles Chesnutt 1858-1932 • He was born in Cleveland, Ohio on June 20, 1858, but he grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina. • He was educated and began to serve as an assistant principal of the Fayetteville State Normal School for Negroes before the age of 20. • By 1884, he had passed the Ohio State bar exam and become a stenographer. • He began publishing in Atlantic Monthly in 1887. • He closed his stenographer business in 1899 to write full time, but he found it difficult to publish. • He was the premier African American literary figure from 1887-1905. He dared to show the complexity and heterogeneity of African American culture. • He was awarded the NAACP Spingarn Medal for his literary achievements in 1928. • He died November 17, 1932 • His works include: o The Conjure Woman (1899) o The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line (1899) o The House Behind the Cedars (1900) o The Marrow of Tradition (1901) o The Colonel’s Dream (1905) Booker T. Washington 1856-1915 • He was born a slave in what is now West Virginia and raised by his mother who also a slave. • After emancipation, he worked in salt furnaces and coal mines to help support his family. • Educated often through night school, he traveled to Hampton Institute in 1872 to get a college education. His journey to Hampton, over five hundred miles away was arduous. • He served as a faculty member at Hampton from 1875-1881. • He was selected to found a school in Alabama in 1881. He started Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute that same year. He led the institution until his death in 1915. • His autobiography/slave narrative Up From Slavery quickly eclipsed popular narratives by Douglass and Jacobs. • He ascended just as Douglass died. He became the premier African American leader. He was the first African American to be invited to dinner in the White House in 1901. • Washington’s method of uplift focused on self-reliance and industrial education. He argued that white southerners would be more open to African American economic progress if African Americans accepted social separation and the political status quo. • He died on November 14, 1915. • His works included: o “The Atlanta Exposition Address” (1895) o Story of My Life (1900) o Up From Slavery (1900) W.E.B. DuBois 1868-1963 • He was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington Massachusetts. • He received a Bachelor’s Degree from Fisk University in 1888. He also took advantage of a study abroad opportunity at the University of Berlin. In 1895, he became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University. • He served as a college professor. He joined the faculty of Atlanta University in 1897 where he remained for thirteen years. • He co-founded the NAACP in 1909 • DuBois’ work includes sociology, history, religion, politics, music, poetry, and fiction. • He felt that pieces of African American culture including artistic traditions and traditional values should be preserved. • He was a proponent of the talented tenth. He increasingly saw Marxism as the primarily way to address racial injuries. • His political leanings eventually lead to his breaks with both Atlanta University and the NAACP. He was also accused of subversive activity. • He renounced his American citizenship and moved to Ghana in 1963 • He died on August 27, 1963 in Accra, Ghana • His works include o The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States (1896) o The Philadelphia Negro: A Study (1899) o The Souls of Black Folk (1903) o The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911) o Dark water: Voices Within the Veil ( 1920) o Black Reconstruction (1935) o Dusk of Dawn: An Autobiography of a Concept of Race (1940) o Worlds of Color (1961) Alain Locke 1885-1953 • Alain Locke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 13, 1885 to Phliny Ishmael and Mary Locke, a middle class family. • He studied at the Philadelphia School of Pedagogy. He was a gifted student who graduated from Harvard University in 1907, magna cum laude, with literature and philosophy degrees. • Though he was the first African American Rhodes Scholars, he faced race prejudice at Oxford University. He graduated from Oxford in 1910. He studied philosophy at the University of Berlin until 1912. • For years, he served as the chair of Howard University’s Department of Philosophy • Lock was called the Dean of the Harlem Renaissance. He supported many young artists, including Zora Neal Hurston and Langston Hughes. • He published works on art, theater, poetry, and music. He published reviews in prominent journals including Opportunity and Phylon. • He wrote the essay “The New Negro” in 1925. • He was not invested in uplift philosophy. He believed in the aesthetic quality of art. He saw art as a bridge between individuals and cultures. • He died on June 9, 1954. • He edited the following works: o The New Negro (1925) o Plays of Negro Life (1927) o Four Negro Poets (1927) o The Negro in Art: A Pictorial Record of The Negro Artist and of the Negro Theme in Art (1940) o When Peoples Meet, a Study in Race and Culture Contacts (1942) George Schuyler 1895-1977 • Schuyler was born on February 25, 1895. • He enlisted in the army at 17 in 1912. He served in the 25th Infantry, an all-black unit. • He went AWOL in 1918 because of racism within the armed forces. • He joined the Socialist Party of America and Friends of Negro Freedom. • He became a journalist and essay writer. • He became the chief editorial writer for The Pittsburg Courier. He was a sharp social critic. • He served as the business manager of the NAACP from 1937-1944 • Over the years, he became more and more conservative. He grew to condemn Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and W.E.B. DuBois, by the 1960s. • He died on August 31, 1977 • Along with his editorials, he is most known for the following works: o Black No More (1931) o Black and Conservative 1966) Langston Hughes 1902-1967 • He was born on February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri to Carrie and James Hughes. Though he comes from a distinguished family, he lived in poverty. He father left when he was an infant. As a young child, he was raised by his grandmother. • He arrived in New York in 1921 to attend Columbia University, but he only lasted one year. • He joined a merchant steamer in 1921 and toured Europe. He deserted the ship for several months to work as a dishwasher in Paris clubs. • He was one of the most recognized figures in the Harlem Renaissance. His poetical influences were Carl Sandberg, Walt Whitman, and Claud McKay. • He also was a playwright, short story writer, and novelist. He was one of the few Harlem Renaissance writers who remained prominent after the Renaissance ended. • He is best known for his celebration of African American folk culture. • After the Renaissance, he became heavily involved in leftist politics. He traveled to Moscow in 1932. • He died on May 22, 1967. • His works include: o “The Weary Blues” (1924) o Fine Clothes for the Jew (1927) o Not Without Laughter (1930) o The Ways of White Folk (1934) o Mulatto (1935) o Don’t You Want to Be Free (1938) o The Big Sea (1940) o Shakespeare in Harlem (1942) o Montage of a Dream Differed (1951) James Weldon Johnson 1871-1938 • Johnson was born on Jun 18, 1871 to James and Helen Johnson, a middle class family in Jacksonville, Florida. • He graduated from Atlanta University in 1894, and he became a principle in his hometown school, Stanton. • His brother was well known composer, John Rosamond Johnson. James Weldon Johnson, in collaboration with his brother, became a song writer for Broadway shows. • He left his show business career to become a diplomat in 1901. He served a consul at Puerto Cabello, Venezuela and as head of the U.S. consulate at Corinto, Nicaragua. • In 1913, he became the editor of New York Age; he served as a mediator between the Washington and DuBois political philosophies. • He serves as the national NAACP organizer, and he became the first African American president of the NAACP in 1920. • He was a huge supporter of African American folk culture. He saw an embrace of the folk culture as looking in to find value cultural symbols instead of looking to other to supply those symbols. • He died on June 26, 19238 • His works include: o Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917) o God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927) o Saint Peter Relates an Incident: Selected Poems (1935) o The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man (1912/1927 o “Negro Americans, What Now?” (1934) o Along This Way: The Autobiography of James Weldon Johnson (1933; Revised 1937) Claude McKay 1889-1948 • He was born on September 15, 1889 to Thomas and Ann McKay in McKay in Jamaica. • His father was descended from the Ashanti people of West Africa and he taught his son to be proud of that aspect of his identity. • During his time in Jamaica, he was apprenticed to be a cabinetmaker and wheelwright; he also served as a police officer. • He was the first black to receive the Jamaican Institute of Arts and Sciences Medal • He immigrated to the United States in 1912 and briefly attended Tuskegee Institute. • As he pursued his writing career, he worked as a porter and waiter. • Though he did publish in African American literary magazines, he was more active in white magazines based in Greenwich Village • His book of poetry Harlem Shadows is said by some to have inaugurated the Harlem Renaissance.