The Harlem Renaissance

     The Harlem Renaissance, or "New Negro Movement, was known as a cultural movement from the 1920's to the 1930's. The Renaissance even reached  French-speaking black writers from African and Caribbean colonies who lived in Paris. During this time many blacks began creating and experimenting with many forms of art. Many popular African-American poets, playwrights, and authors emerged during the movement.
     Ridgely Torrence was a big contribution to the start of the renaissance. His Three Plays for a Negro Theatre, was among one of the first plays to demonstrate that blacks actually felt humane emotions and their yearning for greatness. Torrences plays were refered to as "the most important single event in the entire history of the Negro in the American Theater." by James Weldon Johnson.
   James Weldon Johnson, author and politician, was an early civil rights activist. He was a highly invovled leader in the NAACP. Johnson also made history by being one of the first African-American professors to teach at New York University.
    Langston Hughes, novelist and poet, is one of my favorites from this era. He wrote about how "the negro was in vogue" during the renaissance. Hughes often wrote about the everyday struggle of a typical black person.