For many years the negro in America have struggled to have a high social and political standing in america. Blacks in America have always been seen as second class citizens. This can be seen through the history of America. There have been many time periods in America where individuals or groups have fought for the rights of blacks in America like the civil rights movement period which brought many individuals such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. to fight against racial inequality in the 50s.  The Harlem renassiance birthed the movement that is known as the New Negro Movement , the term ‘ New negro’ was coined by the famous Harlem Renaissance writer Alain Locke. Some historian that study African american culture also refer the Harlem Renassiance as The New Negro Movement. This movement begs the the question what is meant by the ‘New negro’ and this is what will be focused on. 

 

The New negro movement is not just a moment in period but a movement that helped influence many black intellects, artist , writers and politicians.Conversations between writers and politicians in social politcal moments such as the many police killings of innocent black men have remnants of the New Negro Movement. Historians and writers refer to essays and different types of literary works of the New Negro Movement when formulating arguments in the social political environemnt we are currently in. Literary Artifacts of the Harlem renaissance such as the Crisis Magazines , the periodical Fire!! , Academic journal Oppurtinty , and Survey Graphic: Harlem Mecca of the New Negro didnt just come into fruition in a matter of months they took a long process and often times faced major backlash from readers and critiques. These literary works were often lost but with help of historians many were recovered and have stood their time as important works of this time period. 

 

In the post titled The Crisis Magazine: Image of the New Negro we are entirely focusing on the Crises Magazine and how its founder/editors used this form of media to create the image of the ‘New negro’. One of the magazine’s major founders was W.E.B Du bois, who was also the main editor of the magazine. Du Bois as mentioned in the post wanted to create an image that would discard the image of the ‘Old Negro’ and generate the portrayal of the ‘New Negro’. Du Bois with little support from the NAACP wanted to create a magazine solely for the black reader one of his main goals was to extend his viewership to the entire nation. His reach would connect with the black reader and influence such readers to think of advancement in the unequal social-political environment of American society. 

 

The second blog post focuses on the culture that came from New negro movement the works of art, music, poems and other literary works that inspired todays artist and literary writers.  The post A Tale of Harlem: Through the Eyes and Mind of those who lived it is based on the culture of the arts that transpired during the new negro movement. As mentioned Poets like Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen  and Georgia Douglas Johnson showed the beauty and pain of black life and sought out to show the culture of Harlem a black community that as any other black community is often plagued by white stereotypes. The blog post speaks on the periodical the Survey Graphic Harlem Mecca of the New Negro “The Making of Harlem” by James Weldon Johnson which shows first hand experiences of harlem life and also many literary works such as poems and essays on the Harlem Rennaisance.

 

Passing By Nella Larsen and the academic journal Opportunity is our focus in our last post. This post was entirely focused on the quote of one the characters from Passing a novel written by Nella larsen. Nella Larsen’s Passing is based on the life of our main character Irene Redfield and how her life changes around once she meets up with an old friend Clare Kendry who is passing as a white woman thus the title of the novel. The novel centers on the many issues of passing and the social inequality of blacks in American society during that time. It is important to study this novel when speaking of the New negro movement because this novel is also set in harlem during the New negro movement period. One quote in which I focus is that of the husband of Irene Redfeild in which he says “Instinct of the race to survive and expand” . I believe this quote is important to expand on, which drifted towards looking at the academic journal Opportunity.