The Harlem Renaissance was a transformative period of African American cultural, artistic, and intellectual expression that flourished during the 1920s and 1930s. Centered in Harlem, New York City, this movement spanned music, dance, literature, theater, fashion, visual arts, politics, and scholarship. Originally known as the "New Negro Movement"—a term inspired by Alain Locke’s 1925 anthology The New Negro—the Harlem Renaissance marked a significant shift in Black identity, creativity, and activism.
This cultural awakening extended beyond Harlem, influencing African American communities across the urban Northeast and Midwest, particularly as a result of the Great Migration, which saw Black Americans leaving the racially oppressive Jim Crow South in search of new opportunities. The movement’s impact also reached francophone Black writers in Africa and the Caribbean, particularly those living in Paris, France, who drew inspiration from its themes of racial pride and artistic innovation.
James Weldon Johnson described this era as a “flowering of Negro literature,” with its peak occurring between 1924 and 1929. The movement began to wane with the onset of the Great Depression, but its influence endured, shaping future generations of Black artists, writers, and intellectuals. Today, the Harlem Renaissance is widely recognized as a rebirth of African American arts and a defining moment in U.S. cultural history.