Educator Resources Educator Resources

William Edward Burghard (W.E.B) Du Bois was a sociologist, educator, and political activist. Educated at Fisk and Harvard Universities, DuBois wrote histories, sociological studies, informed sketches of African American life, and an autobiography. He believed education could end discrimination. DuBois organized the First International Congress of Colored People and was a founder of the NAACP.

Countee Cullen was adopted by a black pioneer activist minister and his wife.  He was well-educated, earning his Masters in English and French from Harvard. Cullen won more major literary awards than any other black writer of the 1920s.

Though he wrote on universal themes such as love, religion, and death, Cullen believed in the richness and importance of his African American heritage and deftly applied traditional forms of verse, using melodic meter and rhyme, to African American themes.

As the literary editor of the NAACP’s Crisis magazine (1919 - 1926), Jessie Redman Fauset was one of three people Langston Hughes credited with “mid-wif{ing} the so-called New Negro literature into being. Kind and critical…they nursed us along until our books were born.” Redmon, among the first African Americans to be graduated (Phi Beta Kappa) from Cornell University, wrote books of her own as well.

Marcus Garvey, the promoter of Pan-Africanism and black pride, had a vision of economic independence for his people. Those who followed him were called Garveyites. He was the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, (UNIA) the single largest black organization ever. In the 1920s and 30s, the UNIA had an estimated six million followers around the world.

Langston Hughes was known as the “Poet Laureate of Harlem.” One of the first African Americans to support himself solely as a writer. Hughes blended the sounds of jazz into his poetry. He focused on the need for artistic independence and racial pride.

Zora Neale Hurston was a brilliant, multifaceted chronicler of African American life as she saw it.  Her dominant influence was her hometown of Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated all-black township in the United States.  Ms. Hurston grew up there independent and self-reliant, her imagination fired by the rich oral traditions of the rural African American South and her sense of self undistorted by prejudice. She later pursued field studies of southern black folklore that would be documented in her book Mules and Men (1935) and would permeate much of her best fiction.

James Weldon Johnson was a poet (God’s Trombones) and an influential anthologist (The Book of American Negro Poetry). The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, his only novel and perhaps his best-known literary work, was first published in 1912, four years before he became field secretary of the NAACP. Over the next sixteen years, Johnson expanded NAACP membership and coordinated its programs, resigning, and finally accepting a professorship at Fisk University. He continued to write poetry, essays, and magazine articles throughout all those years, as well as the historical study of Black Manhattan and his autobiography, Along this Way.

Alain Locke is referred to as the “Father of the Harlem Renaissance.” Locke’s book The New Negro made him the leader and principal spokesman of the “New Negro Movement, “ which he encouraged through numerous essays and art and literary reviews. He also was deeply involved in efforts to help African-American artists and writers- including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas, and Richmond Barthe-find financial support.

Claude McKay was born in Jamaica on September 15, 1889. In 1920, he published Spring in New Hampshire in England. Many of the poems from Spring in New Hampshire were used in his Harlem Shadows (published 1922, in New York). Harlem Shadows showcased a new African American voice. It was bold and angry. It discussed the racial prejudices that McKay experienced when he arrived in America.

Aaron Douglas’ work focused on social issues in the United States, like segregation. Douglas often references history in his work. Douglas examines slavery, African heritage, and the future of society. Douglas’ paintings often symbolized the history and struggle of the African American community. Douglas’ paintings included monochromatic color, silhouetted figures, and geometric forms.

Palmer Hayden was an extremely talented painter. Early in his career, he focused mostly on landscapes. In 1927, he moved to Paris and grew greatly as an artist. In 1932, he returned to the U.S. and changed his focus to small-town African Americans. He has been criticized for perpetuating stereotypes of African American physical features.

As a teenager, Jacob Lawrence took art classes at the Uptown Art Laboratory, finding mentors in Harlem Renaissance artists Charles Alston and Augusta Savage. Lawrence explored issues central to African American history and daily life. Lawrence created The Migration Series based on the Great Migration.

Lawrence studied at the Schomburg Library and eventually gained employment as a painter for the Federal Art Project.

Augustus Savage was recognized on the Harlem scene after being commissioned to sculpt the bust of W.E.B. Dubois. She won a scholarship to Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris. Savage opened the largest free art program in Harlem, and students like Jacob Lawerence attended Savage School of Arts.

James VanDerZee became interested in photography as a teenager. He told the history of African Americans with his photographs. He is noted for documenting African American middle-class life in Harlem. He documented the work of Marcus Garvey in 1924, and in 1969, his work was a part of the Harlem on My Mind exhibition at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Louis Daniel Armstrong Is one of the foremost jazz trumpeters in American music. Born in poverty, Armstrong was raised by his grandmother in New Orleans, a city known for its bands and jazz musicians. After 1931, Louis Armstrong became the best-known jazz musician in the world. He toured Europe several times and appeared in a number of movies.

Cab Calloway was an energetic bandleader who took the Cotton Club by storm. He appeared in several movies and radio broadcasts. Mr. Calloway was awarded the Nation Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton in 1993.

Composer, pianist, and bandleader Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was one of the great innovators of modern American music, taking big-band jazz into realms of harmony, form, and tonal color. Though ever seeking to grow and expand as a musician, Ellington seldom strayed from the heart of the matter: “If it sounds good,” he said, “it is good.” One of Ellington’s signature songs, “Take the ‘A’ Train” refers to a New York subway line and pays homage to Harlem, its destination.

Born in 1915, Billie Holiday became one of the most influential jazz singers of her time. Holiday was discovered at the age of 18, singing in a nightclub in Harlem. One of her most famous songs, “Strange Fruit,” was banned by many radio stations when it debuted; the song tells the story of the lynching of African Americans. Drug addiction affected both her career and her personal life, and it led to her untimely death in 1959.

“Ma” Rainey was known as the Mother of the Blues; she was the first woman to introduce blues in her performances, and she established her own entertainment company in 1917.

The 1920s in America were a golden age of the powerful blueswoman. At the pinnacle stood Bessie Smith, whose personal and musical power pushed the boundaries of both female and African American expression for a new mass audience.