Black History Month
by
Amber Hebblethwaite
SUMMARY:
I was asked to do a "column" about my opinion of black history. |
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Black history month always coincides with Martin Luther King, or the struggle for racial equality. Though these topics are major parts of history, black history is about more than the African American struggle to achieve something that should have already been theirs. I find it appalling to look at my history books and read about what we, as Americans, have put the black man through just because he looks a little different. Every person in this blessed country is different in some way or another, so who gave us the right to take away the natural born rights of someone just because they are of a different skin color? To me, Black History Month is about celebrating the contributions the black society has given us as a country, and it is a great celebration of life. For had the African American society not been able to overcome such diversity by teaching us that they too deserve to be Americans, this life as we now know it would be more than just a little bump in the road.
Throughout my sixteen years of learning, I've often found that my favorite parts of American history involve African Americans overcoming the trials this country has put in front of their noses. Black men and women have faced more issues in history than any other race could even dream about, and as I write this I want to make it clear that there is more to being African American than eliminating segregation. When asked to write to you as a community about Black History, at first I couldn't decide what topics to touch base on, because so many have inspired me in my life and have changed the way I look at the world. The most inspiring to me it seems, was the Harlem Renaissance. An amazing part of history that will never fade away as long as my generation, and those to come, remember that this isn't and has never been "White America." This is America---land of the free.
Originally called the New Negro Movement, The Harlem Renaissance was a literary and intellectual explosion that created a new black standing in America. The timing of this movement couldn't have been any more perfect. In the years between World War 1 and The Great Depression, almost 750,000 African Americans left the South, coming to urban areas in the north hoping to get a piece of a booming economic prosperity. The Harlem section of Manhattan alone drew in nearly 175,000 black men and women, turning the neighborhood into the largest concentration of black people in the country.
In the early 1920's a new creative energy arose in African American Literature, which created the foundation on which a fantastic cultural celebration was to bloom. Starting with the work of Claude McKay in the poetry genre, Harlem Shadows (1922), and continuing on through prose author Jean Toomer, the acceptance of African American literature was on the prowl. However, it wasn't until March 21, 1924 that Americans as a whole started to realize what was about to happen. On that gracious spring day, Charles S. Johnson of the National Urban League hosted a dinner to recognize the new talent in the black community and to introduce the young writers to New York's white literary establishment. As a result of this dinner, the Survey Graphic, a magazine of social analysis and criticism, produced a Harlem issue in March 1925. Devoted to defining the aesthetic of black literature and art, the Harlem issue featured work by black writers and was edited by black philosopher and literary scholar Alain Locke. Later that year Locke expanded the special issue into an anthology, The New Negro. Soon following was the publication of Nigger Heaven (1926), written by white novelist, Carl Van Vechten---although the book offended some members of the black community, it was a tremendously popular expos of Harlem life, which created a new Negro vogue that drew in thousands of citizens, black and white, to Harlem's national market for African American literature and music.
"Harlem is indeed the great Mecca for the sight-seer; the pleasure seeker, the curious, the adventurous, the enterprising, the ambitious and the talented of the whole Negro world."
James Weldon Johnson, in Survey Graphic (1925)
As jazz was immortalized in a popular song of this era, Stompin' At The Savoy, the Apollo Theater was crowned a most lasting legacy of The Harlem Renaissance. Opened on 125th Street on January 26th, 1934, in a former burlesque house, it has remained a symbol of African-American culture. As one of the most famous clubs for popular music in the United States, many idols from the Renaissance created their careers there. One young talent, Ella Fitzgerald, became the most popular female jazz artist for over half a century. In her lifetime she won thirteen Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums (quite a success in her time), and has been dubbed "The First Lady of Song."
"Her artistry," wrote Duke Ellington, "brings to mind the words of the maestro, Mr. Toscanini, who said concerning singers, 'Either you're a good musician or you're not.' In terms of musicianship, Ella Fitzgerald was beyond category."
The same year the Apollo Theatre was opened, Ella's name was pulled in a weekly drawing and she won the opportunity to compete in Amateur Night. Ella went to the theater that night planning to dance, but when the frenzied Edwards Sisters closed the main show, she changed her mind. Faced with the boos and murmurs of her audience, she asked the band to play Hoagy Carmichael's Judy, a song she knew quite well. Ella quickly quieted the audience, and by the song's end they were demanding an encore.
"I was there from the beginning, and it was obvious from the start what she had that night at the Apollo. My goodness, what she's done with it."
--- Benny Carter
Although what I have written of Ella remains true, I find the descriptions of her success to be unworthy of her talent. Ella Fitzgerald created a new independence in the African American society, and to this day she is remembered as one of the most inspiring personalities of the 20th century. Alongside her in this period of fame were other famous talents including Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter, and Duke Ellington.
No common literary style, artistic style or political ideology defined the Harlem Renaissance. What united participants was their sense of taking part in a common endeavor and their commitment to giving artistic expression to the African-American experience. To this day the most outstanding aspect of the Harlem Renaissance was the diversity of its initial expression. However, the Renaissance was more than a literary or artistic movement; it possessed a certain sociological developmentparticularly through a new racial consciousnessthrough racial pride, as seen in the efforts of Marcus Garvey. Despite this, W.E.B Dubois's notion of "twoness", first introduced in The Souls of Black Folks (1903), explored a divided awareness of one's identity, which provided a unique critique of the social ramifications of this racial consciousness.
"One ever feels his two-ness - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two un-reconciled stirrings: two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."
W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folks (1903)
Though it is considered to be a great failure, The Harlem Renaissance was successful in bringing the African American experience into the oeuvre of American cultural history. The legacy of this artistic celebration is that it redefined how America, and the world, viewed the African American society. The new urban sophistication of being African American, derived from The Great Migration, created a great social consciousness. African-Americans became players on the world stage, expanding as intellectual and social contacts internationally. During this period, the progression of the black society provided a sense of self-determination and provided a growing foundation for the Civil Rights struggles in the 1950's and 1960's.
I feel as though I, a white teenager, have been given the greatest opportunity by sharing with my fellow neighbors and community what I know and feel of what is in my opinion, the greatest era of American History. Even though The Harlem Renaissance was an explosion in the African American society, it lives on through my beating heart as an outstanding recognition that under one vow of citizenship, we as a country and a people are so diverse in our social and economic personalities that we have but one common goal, and that is to be the best we know how to be so that future generations may look back and say "I am proud to be an American."
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