Day 7: The Harlem Renaissance

Essential Question: How did culture in the United States

change after WWI? What defined the Roaring 20s? How were
the cultural developments, economy, and politics of the 1920s
responses to WWI and previous decades? What will the impact
of these responses be going forward?
Objective: Be able to define and describe the Harlem
Renaissance through imagery, video clip analysis,
discussion, and poetry analysis.
Debrief on Scopes Trial
Activity: Harlem Renaissance Poems / Visuals / Video
https://app.discoveryeducation.com/learn/videos/C88D94
D5-5B3C-4B0F-88AF-FC18E094BA09?hasLocalHost=true
Closer: Defining the Decade
HW: Study for Test
Scopes Trial Debrief / Warm Up:
Can science ever be wrong, or
used incorrectly? What about
religion?

Why would there be a conflict

between science or religion after
WWI?
 Harlem Performers and Musicians
The Harlem Renaissance helped create new
opportunities for African American stage
performers, who only began being offered serious
roles on the American stage in the 1920s.
Performers Musicians
Paul Robeson came to Harlem was a vital
New York to practice law center for jazz, a
but won fame onstage, musical blend of
performing in movies and several different forms
stage productions like from the Lower South
Othello. with new innovations
in sound.
Robeson also played in
the groundbreaking 1921 Much of jazz was
musical Shuffle Along, improvised, or
which had an all-black composed on the spot.
cast.
Louis Armstrong
Josephine Baker was also was a leading
in that show, and she performer on the
went on to a remarkable Harlem jazz scene.
career as a singer and
Other performers
dancer in the U.S. and in
included Bessie
Europe, where black
Smith, Cab Calloway,
performers were more
and composers Duke
accepted.
Ellington and Fats
Waller.
Writers Langston Hughes
-Best known poet of
movement
-Born in Missouri

-Poem described the

difficult everyday lives of
working-class African
Americans
-Imbued poetry with the
rhythms of jazz & blues
-Recurring theme =
dream of freedom &
equality
Claude McKay ~ Writers

-Jamaican immigrant
-Militant verses urged
African Americans to
resist prejudice &
discrimination
-Poems expressed the
pain of life in the black
ghettos of the 1920s &
the strain of being black
in a world dominated by
whites
Writers ~ Zora Neale Hurston
-Woman writer
-Portrayed the lives of
poor, unschooled,
Southern blacks

-Their Eyes Were

Watching God = Story of
a strong womans battle
to assert herself & win
personal freedom
-Recurring Message =
People who had
survived slavery through
their ingenuity &
strength
Performers ~ Paul Robeson
-Son of a runaway slave
who became an actor

-Rutgers University
Excellent Student
Athlete
-The Emperor Jones &
Othello
-Lived abroad because of
communist sympathies
Performers ~ Josephine Baker
Musicians Louis Armstrong
Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington
Bessie Smith