Harlem Renaissance—A Brief Introduction Important Features 1. Harlem Renaissance(HR) is the name given to the period from the end of World War I and through the middle of the 1930s Depression, during which a group of talented African-American writers produced a sizable body of literature in the four prominent genres of poetry, fiction, drama, and essay. 2. The notion of 'twoness', a divided awareness of one's identity, was introduced by W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP). and the author of the influential book The Souls of Black Folks(1903): 'One ever feels his two-ness—an American, a Negro two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled stirrings: two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being tom asunder.' 3. Common themes: alienation, marginality, the use of folk material, the use of the blues tradition, the problems of writing for an Mite audience. 4. HR was more than just a literary movement: it included racial consciousness, 'the back to Africa' movement led by Marcus Garvey, racial integration, the explosion of music particularly jazz, spirituals and blues, painting, dramatic revues, and others. A Chronology of Important Events and Publications 1919 - 369th Regiment marched up Fifth Avenue to Harlem, February 17. - First Pan African Congress organized by W.E.B. Du Bois, Paris, February. - Race riots in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Charleston, Knoxville, Omaha, and elsewhere, June to September. - Race Relations Commission founded, September. - Benjamin Brawley published The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States. 1920 - Universal Negro Improvement Association(UNIA) Convention held at Madison Square Garden, August. - Charles Gilpin starred in Eugene O'Neill, The Emperor Jones, November. - James Johnson Johnson, first black officer(secretary) of NAACP appointed. - Claude MeKay published Spring in New Hampshire. - Du Bois's Durkwater is published. 1921 - Marcus Garvey founded African Orthodox Church, September. - Second Pan African Congress. - Colored Players Guild of New York founded. - Benjamin Brawley published Social History of the American Negro. 1922 - First Anti-Lynching legislation approved by House of Representatives. - Publications of The Book of American Negro Poetry edited by James Weldon Johnson Claude McKay, Harlem Shadows. 1923 - Claude McKay spoke at the Fourth Congress of the Third International in Moscow, June. - Marcus Garvey arrested for mail fraud and sentenced to five years in prison. - Third Pan African Congress. 1924 - Civic Club Dinner, bringing black writers and white publishers together, March 21. This event is considered the formal launching of the New Negro movement. 1925 - American Negro Labor Congress held in Chicago, October. 1927 - Marcus Garvey deported. - Louis Armstrong in Chicago and Duke Ellington in New York began their careers. - Publications of Hughes, Fine Clothes to the Jew. 1928 - Publications of Wallace Thurman, Harlem: A Forum of Negro Life Du Bois, The Dark Princess. 1929 - Negro Experimental Theatre founded, February Negro art Theatre founded, June - Wallace Thurman's play Harlem, opens at the Apollo Theater on Broadway and becomes hugely successful. - Black Thursday, October 29, Stock Exchange crash. &n