IMPORTANT ELEMENT #2: THE

OLD AND THE NEW

The need for workers in factories during WWI led
many African Americans to leave the rural south for
the north. This is called The Great Migration, and it
didnt stop until the 1970s.

This Great Migration set up two large groups of

African Americans in this country:

The mainly rural, southern African Americans who

stayed in the South.

The mainly urban, northern African Americans who

moved North.

These two had very different styles and tension

sometimes existed between the two.
THE NEW NEGRO MOVEMENT
Many Northern, urban African Americans called
for a shift in the culture and behavior of African
Americans.

This push became known as The New Negro

Movement.

Advocates of this movement saw the old African

American culture of the South as being too rural,
under-educated, not sophisticated enough, and
too accepting of segregation. They called for a
more educated, cosmopolitan, and urban culture.
THE OLD THEATER: MINSTREL
SHOWS
For much of American history, the
theater was a tool for ridiculing
African Americans. All throughout
the South, minstrel shows were
quite popular through the 1950s

These shows starred African

Americans or white men in black
face, and they mainly portrayed
African Americans as stupid
clowns.
THE NEW THEATER: SHUFFLE
ALONG
During the Harlem Renaissance, major plays
starring African Americans were one of the first
types of African American art to get crossover
audiences (with whites and blacks).

These shows sometimes reinforced stereotypes

too, though they were, as a whole, much less
prejudiced than minstrel shows and presented a
much more complex picture of African American
life

The musical Shuffle Along is often marked as the

starting point of the Harlem Renaissance, as it was
the first time a play with an all African American
cast/writers/musicians that didnt ridicule African
Americans was a smash success with white
audiences
THEATER TENSIONS
Despite their ability to bridge build (or
potentially because of it), major plays
were often viewed suspiciously by the
more rural African Americans, who
looked at the past use of minstrel
shows and the new use of scantily clad
outfits and scandalous themes.

The theater was a perfect example of

the tension that existed between the
old African American cultures of the
South and the newer, urban culture of
the North.
TODAYS KEY FIGURES

Rudolph Fisher is the author of the story for today and the
perfect example of a Renaissance man; he was a doctor by
day and a successful writer by night. Most of his stories and
novels revolved around the the tension between rural
Southern African Americans/African American culture and
urban, Northern African American/African American culture.

Bill Bojangles Robinson is the inspiration behind the

character Dave Tappen. He was a famous tap dancer who
had major mainstream success with both black and white
audiences. His most famous roles were with Shirley Temple
in films.