The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance As we have seen, the 1920s was a time of conflict. For example, in terms of culture, there was the conflict between the “innies” and the “outties”; i.e. those who believed that self-improvement came from within and those who believed it came from consumer products. There was also the conflict between the old, Victorian values and the new ________________ culture of the youth. For African-Americans, the '20s were also a time of conflict. Today we will be looking at the way a new wave of African-American scholars and poets began to question the wisdom of their elders. Instructions: Your group has been given a poem written during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Your task will be to analyze the poem for imagery, symbols, and overall meaning. You have been put in groups for a reason; work together to find the meaning of the poem. And use the skills from English class to help! Title (what clues about the poem can Topic (what's the poem about? Is it you get from its title?) telling a story?) Overall Message

Imagery (what images does the author use? What do they convey?)

Tone (how does the author sound? Optimistic? Pessimistic? Happy?)

Harlem Renaissance

W.E.B. Du Bois

Vs. W.E.B. Du Bois

Marcus Garvey/Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance is in full bloom, and a new crop of African-American scholars and thinkers has risen up to challenge the established leader, W.E.B. Du Bois. This is not to say that they all disagreed with his philosophies, but by the 1920s, things had begun to change. Imagine that you are a subscriber to The Crisis, the literary and current events magazine of the N.A.A.C.P. You have read “The Talented Tenth” by Du Bois, and understand his views on how African-Americans can break the shackles of Jim Crow. Then, Marcus Garvey publishes a scathing indictment of Du Bois, claiming that Garvey and the more radical members of the Harlem Renaissance have a better way of gaining rights. Your task is to write a letter to the editor, either arguing for W.E.B. Du Bois' policy of racial integration, or favoring the more radical approaches of Marcus Garvey and other members of the Harlem Renaissance. As you write, consider the following: • How did Du Bois feel African-Americans could best achieve rights? • How was his method similar and/or different from the radical members of the Harlem Renaissance? • Read Marcus Garvey's criticism of Du Bois. Do you think it is a fair one? • Why might the Harlem Renaissance have been so cynical about Du Bois' ideas? • Overall, who is right: Du Bois or Garvey? This editorial is worth 15 points, and is due _______________.

“A Dream Deferred” 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?

“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask. We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask!

“If We Must Die” by Claude McKay If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot. If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! O kinsmen we must meet the common foe! Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow! What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

“The Battle Hymn of Africa” by Marcus Garvey

Africa's sun is shining above the horizon clear,

forevermore;

The day for us is rising, for black men far and near;

We see the enemy scatter, and watch their ranks

Our God is in the front line, the heav'nly batallion

divide-

leads,

With God there is no fetter for whom He doth provide.

Onward, make your banners shine, ye men of noble deeds.

All God's children, in trouble, or burdened down with care,

There's a flag we love so wellThe red, the black and green, Greatest emblem tongues can tell, The brightest ever seen. When pandemonium breaks, the earth will tremble fast, Nor oceans, seas nor lakes shall save the first or last; Our suffering has been long, our cries to God ascending; We have counted ev'ry wrong which calls for an amending. So into battle let us go, with the Cross before; The Angels, great, from high to low, watch

No matter where, how humble, His love is ever there; So cheerful let our courage be and rally for the King, The Saviour, Christ, the Lord, is He, whom angels tidings bring. Ho, Africa, victorious! See, the foe goes down! The Christ and Simon lead us to wear the triumphant crown; Jesus remembers dearly the sacrifice with the cross, So raise those banners gladly-never to suffer loss! And so the war is ending, the victor's palm is ours, Crushed 'neath a sorry bending, like dead, fallen flowers Thus lay the proud men of the day, all lost, forever, Where the demons never say to God, "We'll deliver."

A Barefaced Colored Leader by Marcus Garvey W. E. B. Du Bois is the most brazen fellow that one knows in Negro leadership. Because of the unfortunate mental condition of the masses of Negroes, this man, who secured many free scholarships to obtain his education, has consistently used his "white" education to mislead and humbug, the millions of his race in the United States. The Negroes in America, since Emancipation, have ever been looking for honest and upright leaders to point them to the way of political, economic, social and general development. Du Bois offered himself immediately after he left Harvard and the people were glad to receive him, but jealous as he was of every other Negro leader, his first effort was to attack the honest, upright and useful leader -Booker T. Washington. By so doing he divided American Negro opinion and the confusion springing there from has continued up to the present, but Du Bois took pride and pleasure not only in attacking Booker Washington but he has attacked and tried to discredit every one other Negro leader of importance who sprung up in America. The history of the struggle of the American Negro upward will record that Du Bois was one of the greatest enemies of the greatest industrial, political, commercial and nationalistic movements that was ever founded in the United States. He never rested openly and by intrigue to discredit and destroy this movement until he had along with others succeeded in having its leader "framed up" and imprisoned and then deported from the United States. After he succeeded in killing that movement in the United States and having the field almost entirely to himself, as no doubt he intended, he kept the race without a programme and up to recently he and Kelly Miller have been debating as to what kind of a programme would be best suited to the American Negro at this late hour of his national distress. The very fact that the man up to now has no programme shows that he never intended any and his profession of being a leader from the time he left Harvard, was only to deceive the American Negro and at the same time satisfy his white patrons who had the scheme to suppress any independent development of his race.