Harlem Renaissance Historical Journal

Introduction: As your textbook explains on page 381, the Harlem Renaissance as an artistic movement was highly shaped by the New Negro Movement and the socio-political changes taking place in the 1920s. There was incredible debate about how realistic it was for artists (visual, musical, and literary) to try to capture the truth of the African American Experience. Further debate arose as to whether or not an African American artist's highest responsibility was to the work of art or to the progress of black people, and if those two could both be achieved...

Overview: As a class we will be creating a journal that documents the key people, ideas, and artistic movements of the Harlem Renaissance. It is a fairly involved assignment that you will be given time to work on in class (including at the computer lab), but that may also require outside work on your part (start in Chs. 15 and 16 in your textbook). Everyone will be responsible for creating a few components of the journal; after everybody turns in their portion a photocopy will be made for everyone and each student will get a copy. As a class, we will decide on a title for the journal and Mr. Batchelor, out of the goodness in his heart, will create a cover page for the journal...unless someone else volunteers...

Choosing Topics: You will be individually responsible for writing two short articles for this assignment. If you would prefer to work with a partner on this assignment that is fine, but as a pair you must turn in four total articles. You will select your topics from the list below. Because there is no need for overlapping articles, once a topic is selected it will not be available for others to choose. A random order will be chosen for you to select your topics. To make things fair, the person who chooses first will also choose last; if you are second, you will also be second from last; if you are tenth, you will also be tenth from last.

The Details:

- Each of your articles must fill one side of an 8.5 x 11in paper with one inch margins; they may not spill over onto a second page, so you may have to do some editing

- Your grade will be based both on the quality of the writing and the depth of your article

- Part of this includes making an effort to write as if you are in the period

- Rather than this being a research style report talking about a bygone era, write as if it is the 20s and you are witnessing the events, people, or ideas you are discussing

- You must submit a paper copy of your article on the due date; failing to do this will result in a score of zero for the assignment

- You must upload your article to turnitin.com by the due date; failing to do this will result in a score of zero for the assignment

- You must also e-mail a digital version as a word document to by the due date; failing to do this will result in a score of zero for the assignment

Formatting your Articles:

- Each article must have a title (try to make it something catchy, not just "Marcus Garvey", "The New Negro", or "William H. Johnson") that is in Times New roman, 18 point

- Include a "byline" for your name (and your partner's name if you have one)

- The equivalent of at least two thirds of the page must be double spaced text in Times New Roman, 12 point

- You must include at least two quotations and analysis or explanation of those quotations from an historical figure relevant to your topic; you can use quotes from the person you are writing about

- If relevant/possible include a small picture of the subject of your article, a piece of art, book cover, etc.

- For an example of an article, see the back of this sheet

Topics:

Harlem Renaissance, African Americans in WWI, The Great Migration, The New Negro Movement,

The NAACP, The National Urban League, The UNIA, The Crisis, Hubert Harrison, A. Philip Randolph, Chandler Owen, Arthur Schomburg, Alain Locke, James Weldon Johnson, W.E.B. DuBois (in the Harlem Renaissance),

Carter Woodson, Marcus Garvey, Nannie Burroughs, Mary Church Terrell, Josephine Ruffin,

Anna Julia Cooper, Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Black Swan Records, Louis Armstrong, "Duke" Ellington, The Great Blues Migration, Joseph "King" Oliver, James Europe, Count Basie,

Lincoln Motion Picture Company, The Micheaux Film Corporation, The Charleston (the musical and the song),

The Tenderloin (in New York, not San Francisco), Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston,

Nella Larsen, Ralph Waldo Ellison, Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, Jessie Redmon Fauset,

France and the Harlem Renaissance, Palmer Hayden, Lois Mailou Jones, William H. Johnson, Aaron Douglas, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barthé, Archibald Motley, Augusta Savage, James Van Der Zee

Frederick Douglass' Stolen Life

by Kevin Batchelor

Twenty-three years ago Frederick Douglass escaped to freedom. On that fateful day in 1838, the man who is now the greatest black abolitionist orator and the beacon of hope for a race of people boarded a train in Maryland and headed north. He was dressed as a sailor and carried papers he had purchased from a free black seaman. This was a critical moment for the man who later said that he had prayed for his freedom for 20 years, "but received no answer until [he] prayed with his legs". Within 24 hours he had arrived in Pennsylvania at the safe house of abolitionist David Ruggles and began a new journey, a journey that brought him to the forefront of the abolition movement today, as the nation sits perched on the edge of disunion and civil war.

Three years after arriving in Pennsylvania, Douglass went to hear the influential abolitionist and publisher of The Liberator William Lloyd Garrison speak. After attending several speaking engagements, Douglass was unexpectedly asked to talk. Though only 23, he spoke eloquently about his time as a slave, and inspired Garrison to send him on a six month tour in 1843. Perhaps the violence he encountered on that tour foreshadowed the violence we now find the nation perilously racing toward. Though Lincoln has not yet been inaugurated, even now it seems that war is imminent - a war that Douglass believes must be about more than just union, a war that must, first and foremost, be about abolition. As he wrote in The North Star, his own abolitionist paper, "God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren."

So, the nation waits. Will Frederick Douglass' dream of freedom for all people of color be realized? Can he and his compatriots steal away all of the lives currently being held hostage in the South? The climax of this impending battle will have to answer these questions or the nation will face disunion once again.