Essays

 

Langston Hughes “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” 

 

"But this is the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America--this urge within the race toward whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible."

 

Hughes was a leader of the Harlem Renaissance; educated at Columbia and Lincoln University; published first book of poetry “The Weary Blues” 1926 - same year this essay was written and published in The Nation. This essay was in written in response to George Schuyler’s essay, “The Negro- Art Hokum,” which questions the need for a separate African-American artistic tradition. Hughes points out the creative innovations unique to the Harlem Renaissance and in his essay states: “this is the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America--this urge within the race towards whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of american standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible.” This essay was considered a manifesto for the Harlem Renaissance. My personal favorite line, “For no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself.”

 

W.E.B. DuBois 

 

"Herein lie buried many things which if read with patience may show the strange meaning of being black here in the dawning of the Twentieth Century. This meaning is not without interest to you, Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line."  W.E.B.Du Bois

 

The notion of "twoness" , a divided awareness of one's identity, was introduced by W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).and the author of the influential book The Souls of Black Folks (1903): "One ever feels his two-ness - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled stirrings: two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."

 

Alan Locke 

 

Marita Bonner  “On Being Young--a Woman--and Colored" 

 

 

Amy Jacques Garvey - “On Langston Hughes: I Am A Negro--and Beautiful”

 

In this essay Garvey agrees with Hughes that Negros should embrace their blackness and be empowered and confident. Garvey was Marcus Garvey’s second wife and his political spokesperson when he was incarcerated.  Amy Jacques Garvey Institute 

 

POEMS

 

Countee Cullen “Yet Do I Marvel”

Anne Spencer "White Things"

Arna Bontemps "God Give to Men"

Helene Johnson "My Race"

 

FICTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Claude McKay "Home to Harlem"

 

Zora Neale Hurston The Mule Bone

 

Nella Larsen "Quicksand" and "Passing"

 

Marita Bonner "One Boy's Story"

 

PLAYS

 

Zora Neale Hurston "Color Struck"

 

"Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can anyone deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me."

- Zora Neale Hurston

 

"Color Struck" was originally published in 1925 in Opportunity Magazine. It won awards, however was not performed during the Harlem Renaissance. “The winner of the most prizes that evening, however, was Zora Neale Hurston. The earthy Harlem newcomer turned heads and raised eyebrows as she claimed a second-place fiction award for her short story “Spunk,” a second-place prize in drama for her play Color Struck, and two honorable mentions—for her short story “Black Death” and for a play called Spears. Each of her second-place honors carried a thirty-five-dollar cash prize, which provided a welcome boost to Zora’s income as well as to her profile.”— Valerie Boyd, Wrapped in Rainbows