2. Things are looking up...
➔ Emancipation Proclamation of 1863
➔ During the years after the Civil War, former slaves of every age
took advantage of the opportunity to become literate.
➔ With the protection of new amendments to the constitution and
the civil rights act of 1866, African-Americans enjoyed a period
in which they could vote, acquire the land of former owners,
seek their own employment, and use public accommodations.
➔ Opponents of this progress, however, soon rallied against the
former slaves' freedom and began to find ways of eroding the
gains for which many had shed their blood.
3. Civil Rights' Progress Stunted
➔The 1870's to the start of WWI was a difficult time for
African-Americans
➔ Voting and violence
➔
Despite these issues, African-Americans were educated
in unprecedented numbers.
➔
While only a small percentage of the black population
had been literate at the close of the Civil War, by the turn
of the twentieth century, the majority of all African
Americans possessed some degree of literacy.
➔
Also at this time, African American artistic genius in
music, painting, sculpture, literature, and dance began to
emerge and become more evident to white society at
4. The Harlem Renaissance: A Time of Rebirth
(early 1920's -1935)
This painting is titled,
Jeunesse. It was
painted by Palmer
Hayden and depicts
elements
characteristic to the
Harlem Renaissance.
5. The Harlem Renaissance (early 1920's -1935)
➔ The Harlem Renaissance also known as the New Negro
Movement, was a literary, artistic, cultural, intellectual
movement that began in Harlem, New York after World War I
and ended around 1935 during the Great Depression.
➔ The movement raised significant issues affecting the lives of
African Americans through various forms of literature, art,
music, drama, painting, sculpture, movies, and protests.
➔ Although the center of the Harlem Renaissance began in
Harlem, New York, its influence spread throughout the nation
and beyond and included philosophers, artists, writers,
musicians, sculptors, movie makers and institutions that
attempted to assert their own culture instead of that enforced
by American culture and its institutions.
6. A Culture of Their Own
➔ Wartime service and jobs had given African
Americans a new sense of freedom
because they were more economically
stable than before WWI.
➔ Many migrated North, and Harlem, NY
became the largest black urban community
in the U.S.
➔ Living in urban areas gave artists of all
kinds the opportunity to exchange ideas
and develop a culture of their own.
7. Music of the Harlem Renaissance:
Jazz and the Blues
➔ Jazz became widely popular in the
1920's. It combined African rhythms,
blues, and ragtime to produce a
unique sound.
➔ Billie Holiday → “Summertime”
➔ Lois Mailou Jones →
“The Ascent of Ethiopia”
8. Characteristics of Jazz
➔ Blues scale
➔ Improvisation
➔ Syncopation
➔ Swung note
➔ Rhythm section King Creole's Jazz Band (1920)
➔ Brass instruments
