As Harlem transformed into a hub for African Americans in the early 1900's, African American writers began to thrive in the new, intellectually-charged atmosphere. By the 1920's, many works were receiving critical praise in mainstream literary circles and popular acclaim among both black and white audiences. Originally dubbed the New Negro Movement, this outpouring of literature came to be known as The Harlem Renaissance.While some black poets continued to write primarily in traditional English literary forms, others explored black vernacular speech and lyrical forms while creating works that identified with the African American masses. The politics and ideals born from this era would serve as inspiration to African American artists for years to come and would also help to lay the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's.
wRITERS
Jean toomerWas an African- American Writer, he published poetry and stories in different journals. After Toomers teaching job in Georgia in 1921, the segregation in GA lead Toomer to identify as a stronger African American. His book Cane included a series of short stories and poems that talks about Black Lives in America.
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rudolf fisherWas an African-American physician, radiologist, novelist, short story writer, dramatist, musician, and orator. Fisher’s first story “City of Refuge” this painted out the difference between the newly arrived southern African Americans and Harlem’s black society. When it was published by Atlantic Monthly in 1925 he became the first Renaissance writer to enter the mainstream press.
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zora Neale hurstonWas an influential author of African-American literature, anthropologist, and filmmaker, who portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South, and published research on Haitian Vodou.
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