"... a Swell Time While It Lasted ...": the End of the Harlem Renaissance
In his autobiography, The Big Sea, Langston Hughes (1902–1967; see biographical entry) wrote of the Harlem Renaissance: "I was there. I had a swell time while it lasted. But I thought it wouldn't last long.... For how could a large and enthusiastic number of people be crazy about Negroes forever?"
The Effect of the Great Depression on the Harlem Renaissance
Just as modern-day critics and historians disagree on when exactly the Harlem Renaissance began, none can pinpoint the moment it ended. Some say that it died naturally because it did not have a strong enough foundation to last. Others say the loss of certain key people—to jobs and lives outside of Harlem or to death—triggered its demise. Still others claim that the end of Prohibition (a ban on the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors" that began with the 1918 passage of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution and ended with the repeal of the amendment in 1933 after the government was no longer able to enforce it; see Chapter 6) made "going uptown" unnecessary and not so glamorous, taking Harlem out of the spotlight.
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