Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a movement in African American culture based around literature and the arts. This movement was centered in Harlem, New York. It has been said that African American culture was reborn in the Harlem Renaissance. After enduring centuries of slavery and then white supremacy in the south, where 90% of African Americans lived at the time, they migrated to the North in large numbers in what is known as the great migration. Escaping their elongated suffering led to an explosion of cultural pride. This pride was heard through the music written by Langston Hughes and Claude Mckay urging African Americans to stand up for their rights. Music was also a crucial aspect of the Harlem Renaissance. The pains and joys of being black in America could be heard in jazz music thanks to the talents of those like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. Not only did the Harlem Renaissance give African Americans a voice but it also changed the way white Americans viewed African American culture. This sense of group identity and solidarity would be the foundation on which the later civil rights movement would be based on