The Great Migration

2. A movement of the 1920s that marked the first period of intense activity by African-Americans in the fields of literature, visual art and music. The center of this movement was the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.

3. The Great Migration During World War I and the 1920’s, hundreds of thousands of African Americans left the south and went north to escape segregation, find economic opportunity, and build a better life.

4. The Writers Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun Zora Neale Hurston Claude McKay In How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) Zora says “I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to that sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal. Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less. No, I do not weep at the world — I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife. In If We Must Die, McKay urges African Americans to "face the murderous, cowardly pack" and to "nobly die" while "fighting back."

5. Harlem by Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred?       Does it dry up       like a raisin in the sun?       Or fester like a sore—       And then run?       Does it stink like rotten meat?       Or crust and sugar over—       like a syrupy sweet?       Maybe it just sags       like a heavy load. Or does it explode? Langston Hughes Langston Hughes reads I, Too, Sing America

6. The Musicians and Singers Louis Armstrong Bessie Smith Duke Ellington Backwater Blues HeebieJeebies It Don't Mean A Thing

7. The Artists Palmer Hayden Aaron Douglas Jacob Lawrence

8. Don’t Forget Us Josephine Baker Dancer/Singer Paul Robeson Actor

9. Scenes from the Harlem Renaissance