Cultural movement · 1918–1937
The Harlem Renaissance
An explosion of Black literature, art, and music centered in Harlem.
On the timeline
- November 1910W.E.B. Du Bois founds The Crisis
The NAACP's magazine, under Du Bois, becomes a major platform for Black writers and protest.
- May 23, 1921"Shuffle Along" on Broadway
A landmark all-Black musical revolutionizes American theatre.
- 1923Opportunity magazine
The Urban League's journal, whose literary contests launch Hughes, Hurston, and Cullen.
- 1923Jean Toomer publishes "Cane"
An experimental blend of poetry and prose, "Cane" becomes the Renaissance's modernist masterwork.
- February 16, 1923Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues
Smith's recordings make her the highest-paid Black entertainer of the 1920s.
- 1925Alain Locke's "The New Negro"
Locke's landmark anthology announces and defines the Harlem Renaissance to a national audience.
- 1925Countee Cullen's "Color"
Cullen's acclaimed debut collection appears while he is still a college student.
- March 1925The "Harlem" issue of Survey Graphic
A special magazine issue edited by Alain Locke introduces "the New Negro" to white and Black readers alike.
- March 1925The Harlem Renaissance flowers
Alain Locke's "The New Negro" anthology announces a generation of Black artistic genius.
- November 1925Louis Armstrong reinvents jazz
Armstrong's Hot Five recordings make the soloist the heart of jazz and reshape American music.
- 1926Langston Hughes' "The Weary Blues"
Hughes' first poetry collection defines the Harlem Renaissance voice.
- February 7, 1926Carter G. Woodson launches Negro History Week
The forerunner of Black History Month is established.
- November 1926The "Fire!!" magazine
Young artists — Thurman, Hughes, Hurston, Douglas — launch a daring one-issue journal of Black avant-garde art.
- 1928Claude McKay's "Home to Harlem"
McKay's bestseller becomes one of the most widely read novels by a Black author to that date.
- 1929Nella Larsen's "Passing"
Larsen's novel of two light-skinned women on opposite sides of the color line becomes a classic of the era.
- 1934Aaron Douglas's "Aspects of Negro Life"
Douglas paints a four-panel mural cycle tracing Black history from Africa to the modern city.
Resources
The 1918–mid-1930s flowering of Black art, literature, and music.
The world's leading research library on the African diaspora; 10M+ items.
A curated collection of Renaissance poems, essays, and audio.
A free scan of the movement's defining anthology.
The web
Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.
- led to (incoming)·ArticleThe Great Migration
The migration concentrated the talent that produced the Renaissance.
- led to (incoming)·ThreadThe Great Migration
The Migration carried Southern Black culture north, seeding the Harlem Renaissance and the Chicago blues.
- part of (incoming)·PersonW.E.B. Du Bois
Du Bois's Crisis published and promoted the movement's writers.
- part of (incoming)·EventAlain Locke's "The New Negro"
Locke's anthology gave the movement its name and manifesto.
- caused (incoming)·EventThe Great Migration begins
The migration north concentrated Black talent in cities like Harlem.
- part of (incoming)·PersonJacob Lawrence
Lawrence came of age in Harlem and turned the Great Migration into epic visual art.