In the early 1900s, particularly in the 20s and early 30s, African American literature, art, music, and dance began to flourish in Harlem, a section of New York City. Variously known as the New Negro movement, the New Negro Renaissance, and the Negro Renaissance, the movement emerged toward the end of World War I in 1918. The Harlem Renaissance marked the first time that mainstream publishers and critics took African American literature seriously and that African American literature and arts attracted significant attention from the nation as a whole. Although it was primarily a literary movement, it was closely related to developments in African American music, theater, art, and politics The Harlem Renaissance seemed to be the best of times for America, dur
A number of factors contributed to the decline of the Harlem Renaissance. The Great Depression of the 1930s increased economic pressure all of America. Organizations such as the NAACP and the Urban League, which had actively promoted the Renaissance in the 1920s, later shifted their interests to economic and social issues. Many influential black writers left New York City in the early 1930s. Finally, the Harlem Riot of 1935 shattered Harlem's intellectual, peaceful image.
The Harlem Renaissance permanently changed African American arts and literature in the United States. The writers that followed in the 1930s and 1940s found that publishers and the public were more open to African American literature than they had been at the beginning of the century. For thousands of African
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