The Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance

The Great Migration, Urbanization, and the “New Negro”

Agenda 04/03/2012

ò  Bell Work

ò  A little review

ò  The new KKK and Marcus Garvey

ò  The Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age

ò  Notebooks due 04/11/2012 (NB Eval. guide on Thurs.)

Bell Work

ò  The 1920s are remembered as a time of great social and cultural change. How are beliefs and values passed from one generation to the next? And better yet, how do they change?

Rising Intolerance

ò  White Americans returned from WWI and were shocked by the country’s diversity.

ò  Racial and ethnic tolerance is one thing when times are good, but in a recession there is a desire to find scapegoats.

ò  In California, labor unions targeted a “Yellow Peril”

ò  In the northern Midwest, white nativists resisted the influx of African Americans by harshly segregating real estate and public services.

The New KKK

ò  Arising from American intolerance came the motto: “100% Americanism”

ò  To be American you must belong to one race, one religion, and one economic and political philosophy.

ò  White “nativists” revived the KKK that was born just after the civil war.

The New KKK

ò  Denying that it was a group based of hate, the KKK “benevolently” supported education, morality, charity, and honoring the American flag.

ò  But…they opposed a long list of people including: Catholics, blacks, Jews, immigrants, homosexuals, Asians, drug dealers, “wild women,” the Pope, and political star FDR.

ò  By 1924 the “invisible empire” of the KKK attracted more than 4 million members

The KKK in Oregon

ò  The Klan philosophy of “100 percent Americanism” rested primarily on three attributes: belief in a philosophy of white supremacy; adherence to Protestant or “American” Christianity; and the superiority of native-born Americans.

ò  Oregon’s homogeneous roots made it particularly susceptible to the new KKK.

In this picture we see the Portland chapter of the KKK along side sister organization the Red Robes-

The KKK in Oregon

ò  The KKK received support in many communities and were even able to elect a sympathetic governor (Walter Pierce)

ò  In 1922 Gov. Pierce won support for the KKK backed Compulsory Public Schools Act, which mandated that all Oregon children attend public school.

ò  The law targeted Catholic schools, but also affected private and military schools too

ò  It was struck down by the Supreme Court before it went into effect.

Marcus Garvey in uniform as the president of the

United Negro Improvement Association

(UNIA) ~1922~

Facing persistent racism, even outside of the South, African Americans sought out new leaders with alternative solutions to accepting white supremacy in the United States.

Marcus Garvey and Black Pride

ò  Marcus Garvey was born in Jamaica and moved to America in 1917.

ò  Garvey supported a vision of “universal, African-centered Negro liberation” and black pride.

ò  Garvey’s UNIA empowered blacks worldwide toward economic, religious, psychological, and cultural independence.

ò  In essence Garvey promoted black nationalism and a separatist vision of blacks returning to Africa to regain the continent they had lost to European imperialists (not assimilation).

How do you suppose white Americans responded to this new kind of Black leadership?

•  Whites who observed this black visionary inspire loyal crowds became unsettled that “passive” American blacks might someday demand societal equity.

•  Civil Rights leader Malcolm X’s father, Earl Little, was a strong and loyal supporter of Garvey and a member of the UNIA --we will see strains of Garvey’s black nationalism in the positions of Malcolm X.

•  MLK Jr. referred to Garvey as the “first man on a mass scale to give millions of negroes a sense of dignity and destiny.

•  However, we will see shortly that Garvey was not universally supported by African American leaders during the 1920s.

SOAPS

ò  S: Who is the Speaker? (what do we know of the speaker strictly from the document, what do we know from further research?) 

ò  O: What is the Occasion? (Time period, historical significance, other contemporary events)

ò  A: Who is the Audience? (Who was the document designed for in its time?)

ò  P: What is the Purpose of the document? (What did the document do or achieve? Was that its intended purpose?)

ò  S: What is the Subject of the document? (what is the basic story?)

•  In the mid 1920s the UNIA began to decline due to internal conflicts, financial problems and government harassment.

•  Garvey’s Black Star Steamship Line, intended to launch independent black commerce on the Atlantic and transport blacks to Africa, went bankrupt.

•  Fearing the organized efforts of thousands of African Americans, government officials arrested 10 UNIA officials accusing them of being anarchists that threatened the federal government.

•  Garvey was arrested and convicted of mail fraud in 1923. He was pardoned and deported after 4 years.

•  Support for the UNIA dwindled, but Garvey is still remembered as the inspiration for the largest mass movement of black people in the 20th century, and his ideals would go on to inspire future civil rights leaders.

The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance

ò  Remembered as an era of vigorous cultural growth that coalesced around a group of creative young writers, artists, musicians, and powerful social thinkers like W.E.B. Du Bois.

ò  As a result of the Great Migration, millions of African Americans were free from the burden of Jim Crow, and sought out new opportunities in education and employment.

ò  The Harlem Renaissance is another example of the post-WWI cultural upheaval that found all of American society coming to terms with the shift from a rural way of life to an urban and industrialized one.

The Harlem Renaissance

ò  1920s Harlem was a bustling and happening environment. New forms of entertainment and art were on the rise.

ò  However, many of the writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance expressed disappointment with the continuation of racism, segregation, and old stereo types.

Many African Americans contributed to the war effort in WWI hoping that fighting for America would lead to acceptance and inclusion on the home front.

Art of the Harlem Renaissance

Palmer Hayden, Jeunesse, This and works by many other artists of the Harlem Renaissance were influenced by their enjoyment of jazz, an often improvisational musical form developed during the 1920s by African Americans and influenced by European harmonic structure and African rhythmic complexity. Jazz can be identified by its characteristic blues rhythms and distinctive speech intonations. Harlem has long been an important center for jazz. Palmer Hayden could have seen such dancing as this at the Savoy, which was Harlem's most famous jazz club.

Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance

More than any other creative medium, poetry became the true voice of the intellectual movement taking place in Harlem

Langston Hughes

ò  If poetry was the voice of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes was its face.

The contributions of African American writers, musicians, and artists attracted a white audience that was looking for something that represented the new attitude of the era. For many white Americans, they would find an answer in Jazz

The Birth of Jazz

The Jazz Age

ò  “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” Louis Armstrong the “Master of Jazz,” “Satchmo.”

ò  Born out of Blues and Ragtime, jazz was distinctly American and became the first international musical contribution of the United States

ò  Jazz was born in New Orleans and quickly spread to urban centers along rail and water ways.

ò  Jazz music came to define the 20s experience and won over a wide audience.

The Jazz Age

ò  Jazz was coopted by white musicians and gained fans in white audiences. Jazz was here to stay.

ò  Young people were particularly drawn to jazz. The new sound and accompanying dances like the Charleston, seemed wild and reckless.

ò  Jazz would serve as one of the first battles between traditionalists and modernists. The Ladies Home Journal even launched an anti-jazz campaign to address the loosening of moral standards.

The Jazz Age

ò  By 1920 the African American population in NYC had doubled (the Great Migration).

ò  Harlem was home to anywhere from 500-1,000 jazz clubs in the 1920s

ò  The most famous jazz club of the era was the “Cotton Club”

ò  The contributions of Jazz musicians in NYC during the 1920s would contribute to the Harlem Renaissance, or outpouring of creativity by African American artists, writers, and musicians.