The Harlem Renaissance

During the 1920s, the artistic scene among blacks in the Harlem section ofNew York City prospered and gained national attention. It had been coming for a long time: black writers had been published in Americafor almost a century and a half, since Phillis Wheatley, a slave who had been born inAfrica, published a book of poetry in 1773. In spite of the rich cultural heritage of African Americans and society's willingness to accept blacks as entertainers, there was a traditional reluctance to recognize the achievements of black intellectuals. In the later decades of the nineteenth century, the debate about social progress for African Americans split into two directions. Followers of Booker T. Washington, the founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, felt that blacks would gain more by working at whatever humble jobs they were offered and earning the trust of the majority. Followers of W...