Conference
Examining the Harlem Renaissance: A Central Period in the History of African Americans
Author
- Vernon Hall (Iowa State University)
Abstract
The Harlem Renaissance was a product of the Great Black Migration occurring after the Civil War as southern blacks moved to large Northern cities like Philadelphia and New York. This mass movement was in part due to the rise of Jim Crow laws and the Black Cords that limited the freedoms and political rights of blacks. Economics and the onset of the Industrial Revolution helped fuel this migration northward, resulting in one of the most significant periods in African American history. Originally called the New Negro Movement, the Harlem Renaissance, or the period of 1920 to 1930, saw 175,000 blacks move to Harlem, resulting in an epoch in American history.