The Harlem Renaissance Today (The 1920'S' New Negro Movement

Home , The New Negro

DOCUMENT RESUME ED 063 315 TE 002 934 AUTHOR Knox George TITLE The Harlem Renaissance Today (The 1920's 'New Negro Movement' Reviewed) --Notes on a Neglected Theme. PUB DATE Dec 71 NOTE 5p. JOURNAL CIT California English Journal; v7 n4 p29-33 December 1971

EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HC-$3.29 DESCRIPTORS *American Literature; CourseContent;Cultural Enrichment; History; *Literature Reviews; *Negro Literature; Universities ABSTRACT The works assigned to a university course in the Harlem Renaissance (HR)are discussed. The HR is defined as a controversial collocation of cultural and aesthetic phenomena. The point is made that the historical backgrounds fortheperiod from Reconstruction to the end of World War I was characterized by many changes which strongly affected black people. These changes had an effect on the works of the HR. The works of both white and Negro writers are reviewed. (CR) HEWN. EDUCATION &WELFARE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF California EnglishJournal OFFICE OF EDUCATION v7, n4 (December1971).

RECEIVED FROM THE REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS THIS DOCUMENT HAS SUN OF VIEW OR OPINIONS ORIGINAUNG It. POINTS PERSON OR ORGANIZATION OFFICIAL OFFICE OFEDUCATION STATED DO NOTNECESSARILY REPRESENT POSITION OR POLICY. " reN ID cpThe HarlemRenaissance Today El (The 1920's"New NegroMove- ment"Reviewed)Notes on a Neglected Theme

GEORGE KNOX University of California,Riverside

attitudes and "The Harlem Renaissance,"that complex congeries of forces emerging in the period from theend of World War I to the onset of the Depression, c. 1930, is animportant but academicallyneglected and antholo. milieu in American literature.Strangely, literary historians who at gists have almost completely ignoredthe artists and intellectuals that time envigorated black people with the conceptof a "New Negro." HR) is a very con . Recognizing that the Harlem Renaissance (hereafter, at troversial collocation of' cultural andaesthetic phenomena which can to best be only skeletally sketched in this shortpiece, I wish nevertheless present the "gist" of a courseI offered recently atUCR and hopefully naming evoke an interest in others. I will prettymuch restrict myself to &cut-indicating other directions works assigned, briefly offering a rational^

29 George Kno, to be taken. At the start, Iwish to thank course a wider contextProfessors guest speakers whogave my Alan Green (History)and William Holland(Black Studies and PoliticalScience), Mr. CharlesWhite (famous painter), andWilfred Samuels, a student in the class whopre. sented a paperon Marcus Garvey. First, one has to beconcerned with historical period from Reconstruction backgrounds forthe to the end of WorldWar I, during time important changes which in America stronglyaffected black people, ularly the migrations partic- to northern urban andindustrial centers.Having decided on major pointsto be stressed, I ..4lose three key figuresto intro- duce the germinalintellectual and political ized the HR: Alain concepts which initiallyvital- Locke, W. E. B.DuBois, and Marcus Selecting texts, I relied Garvey. almost exclusivelyon paperback editions. Our volume was Alain Locke's first The New Negro(1925), a collection of essays, and drawings. This facsimile poetry, edition reproduces theart work done for the originalvolume by the Austrian artist, Wino ld Reiss.It introduces issues and perspectivesto be examined in the other course. Among recommended works assigned in the readings was MeyerWeinberg's IV. B. B. DuBois: A Reader.Marcus Garvey's Universal ciation and his pioneering Negro Improvement Ana contributions to NegroNationalist effortswere introduced ina single lecture. Other background works can be used, dependingon the level of the course (i.e., lower-division,upper-division, or graduate). it would be valuable If one had time, to discuss The New Negroin relation to University symposium, a Howard The New Negro ThirtyYears Afterward (1955), and, amongmany studies of the period, the Intellectuals: Henry May's The Discontentof A Problem of theTwenties (1963). Two James Weldon Johnson, works by a complete "Renaissance"man, can be thought of as anticipatoryand hiitorically "scenic" Ex-Coloured Man The Autobiography ofAn (1912) and BlackManhattan (1930). Hughes and Milton Langston Melzer produceda marvelous pictorial record of theatrical world of the tht HR, Black Magic(1967), whichwas circulated in the class. One vitalaspect of the HR and white artists, was the close association of black of black artists andwhite patrons. This plored. Carl Van should be ex- Vechten's novel NiggerHeaven (1926) evolvedout of this interracialambience. In this regard, one might consider,en passant, another white writerof significance. I of Jean Tommer suggest Waldo Frank,a close friend whose experimentalCane (1923) the course. was a high point in Of the many HRwriters whose works I consider two are now becoming available, of special importance Claude McKay and Hughes. Both worked Langston in several ares andin diverseways exemplify the 30 3

The HarlemRenahsance Today McKay came from complexity, eventhe international quality, of the HR. American Mid-West. We read the WestIndies and Hughes from the McKay's Home toHarlem (1927) and Banjo (1929),providing a wide "primitivism" and cabaret life spectrumof image, mood, and idea, from alienation and disillusionmcnt amongexpatriates in Europe. in Harlem to Hughes' The Big For excellentautobiographical records, we considered Home (1937). Hughes' sec. Sea (1940)and McKay's A Long Way from is also avail. ond autobiographicalwork, I Wonder as I Wander (1956), student who wishes to see able. Such writingsprovide a solid base for the the HR in termsof our present-day black writers. Thereal significance of Richard Wright, RalphEllison, James Baldwin, Malcolm X,Eldridge Cleaver, and LeRoi Jones cannotbe grasped without a groundingin the polarizations of the HR, both inaesthetics and in politics. Although music and the visual arts arecentral to a full understanding of the HR, one must compromisewith time and his own limitations.De. itself to pending on the instructor'sbackground, the course should lend very differentemphases. Turning to poetry, Iprovided a volume that bloomed directly out of the times, JamesWeldon Johnson's The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922). Among theimportant poets anthologized are Dunbar, Braithwaite,J. W. Johnson, Fenton Johnson,McKay, Fauset, Cullen, Hughes, and Bontemps. Supplementary poems canbe provided by dittoing. Of HR women writers, threedemand special mention: Jessie Redmond Fauset, Nel la Larsen, and ZoraNeale Hurston. Each probed deeply into black life and produced novelsof genuine imaginative power. I decided on Hurston's Mules and Men (1935),subtitled "Negro Folk. tales and Voodoo Practices in the South." Hurston'sprofessional folklorist training is clearly demonstrated in thiscollection. Two of Nel la Larsen's novels are now available in paperback:Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929). Jessie Fauset, poet and editorof The Crisis for several years, wrote significant novels, includingThere is Confusion (1924), Plum Bun (1928), and The Chinaberry Tree (1931).Hopefully, the works of Ru. dolph Fisher will soon reappear, especially TheWalls of Jericho (1928) the walls did indeed come tumblingdown and Thr Conjure Man Dies (1932). Incidentally, Fisher's shortstories might br. more important for beginning students of the HR. A key poet.novelist, still vitallyinvolved in American artistic life,Is Ama Bontemps. His publications are numerousand varied, but I stress here two novels based on slave insurrections: BlackThunder (1936) and Drums at Dusk (1939). Although one notes the dates arelater than the HR proper, we must realize that the novels weregenerated in that time and reflect vital concerns of the New Negro. They conveysymbolically, and from authentic historical grounds, the NewNegro's sense ofblack 14 4 George Knox identity and passion for freedom. I assigned the first novel, dealingwith the 1800 slave revolt in Virginia, led by Gabriel Prosser. Amore ex- panded course might allow a corollary study of William Styron'sThe Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), caustically criticized by blackcritics. So far, then, I hope to havesuggested a range of modesand subjects which another instructor may wish to parallel by different selections.One should always stress the "relevance"of the first HR to the Renaissance the 1950's and 1960's. A of writer like Bontemps certainly bridgesboth milieux. Finally, I suppose, one should read some negative reactionsto the HR, and here perhaps the writings of George Schuyler andWallace Thur- man will serve. I chose Thurman'sThe Blacker the Berry(1929) for assignment, discussing alsoSchuyler'sBlack No More(1931) for con- trast. Thurman's book dramatizes,at times with exaggeration, the subtle and cruel color prejudices(ironic use of "differentiation"theme) in the black community. Schuyler's book satirizes specific HR figuresand fanta- sizes upon a black doctor's discovery of an electro.chemicalprocess for transforming blacks into pure-white"Nordics." Schuyler, associated with The Crisisand author of Slaves Today(1931), earlier attacked HRas- sumptions in "The Negro-ArtHokum,"The Nation,CXXII (June 23, 1926). An important satiricalwork by Thurman isInfants of the Spring (1932). Therman B. O'Daniel alludes to the book in his introductionto The Blacker the Berry: Infants of the Sprhrg, withits title taken from a line in Shakespeare's HamletThe canker galls the infants ofthe spring (I, iii, 39)1 Too oftbefore the buttons be disclos'd' was a bitter attack upon the bohemiantendencies ('the canker') in the(Infant') literati of the (springtime)Harlem Renaissance ..." Infact, one black critic scornfully alludedto black middle-class and intellectualfigures of the HR as the "Niggerati."' And thus one achievesone view of the HR, and gainsa limited per- spective into black artistry andcultural aspiration. The studentwill learn that Langston Huges was being in part ironic inThe Big Seawhen he wrote: "I was there. I hada swell time while it lasted. But I thought it wouldn't last long. (I remember the vogue for things Russian,the season the Chauve-Souris firstcame to town.) For how coulda large and enthusi- astic number of people becrazy aboutNegroesforever? But some Harlem- ites thought the millennium had come. They thought therace problem had at last been solved through Art plus Gladys Bentley.They were sure the New Negrowould lead anew life from then on in green pastures of tolerance created by Countee Cullen, Ethel Waters, ClaudeMcKay, Duke Ellington, Bojangles, andAlain Locke." Sadly, the NewNegro Move- 32 The Harlem Renaissance Today

ment seemed to fizzle out in 1929, mainly for economic reasons. Many things ended there. But reverberations were to issue from that epicenter for a long time to come. Issues excitedly debated then have become even more vital today. Hardly a single problem, xsthetic or cultural, that is vital now but had its originating impetus during the HR. Therefore, I consider courses in all aspects of the HR of immediate and historical value to both black and white students. Much work is to be done. For example, I know of no substantial bibliography of the period encompassing painting, music, poetry, theater, fiction, or politics available to teachers and students. One of my graduate students, Michael Sechrest, however, has just com- pleted a first-draft of such a reference guide and hopes to have it published soon. Thinking of how to place the HR in the continuum of American art and culture, we realize the need of multi-racial, multi-discip- line, "variegated," approaches. Perhaps a journal, or at least a newsletter, is needed to stimulate teaching and research in the Harlem Renaissance?

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