Harlem Renaissance-Abby O'Brien-Deborah's Class

Harlem was originally created for white middle class families, but it grew too quickly and there wasn't enough transportation so the owners were forced to sell out to African American real estate agents.  Once one of the blocks was "black" there was a "white flight" where all of the whites left the neighborhood and it quickly grew to become known as the "black mecca".  It was full of middle class black families, which were on the rise. 

This is the Cotton Club, one of the most famous Jazz clubs in Harlem.  It was known for kick starting the careers of many famous artists such as Lena Horne, Dorthea Dandridge, Duke Ellington, Joe Fontana and many others.  It was opened as Club De Luxe by boxer Jack Johnson but was bought by Oweny Madden, a gangster who was spending time in Sing Sing.  The club was closed in 1925 for selling liquor but quickly reopened.  While blacks were denied admission, they often performed.  Portrayed as "Darkies" or savages in the jungle or deep south.  The chorus line race descrimination was not as prominent, the women just had to be "tall, tan, and terrific".  At least 5' 6", lightly colored, and not too skinny.


Aaron Douglas is a well known painter from Harlem.  He often painted dancing people or scenes like this one of Harriet Tubman, layering and using shadow and outline.

Lena Horne was a singer who started in the Cotton Club chorus line and slowly moved up in ranks.  She got a big role in a show starring Adelaide Hall, who took her under her wing.  She became a Hollywood actress with mostly small roles mainly because of her civil rights activism.  She was blacklisted as a communist.  She was influential until she died in 2010.

Duke Ellington is one of the most famous musicians to rise from the Cotton Club.  He led the band from 1932 until 1942.  He has won 13 Grammys over the years and toured constantly with his band until hes death in 1974.  His last words were "Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered."

For our quilt square about the Harlem Renaissance, Madeline, Julia, and I divided our piece into four sections.Musicians, Performers (actors and dancers), Writers, and Artists.  There are five pictures of famous people in each of the sections.  We did this to show how many amazingly talented people came from Harlem at the time.  There is a scale in the middle to represent equality in modern times with a question mark asking if it really is equal.  This connects to now because there are lots of problems with racial profiling and all that these people wanted was to be accepted as who they were not what their skin color was.