Austin Squire

Mrs. Stanford
AP Language & Composition
9 November 2015
How the Harlem Renaissance affected todays society
A time of joy, creativity, and racial pride among African Americans was what the Harlem
Renaissance was. It was the beginning of African American culture. The Harlem Renaissance
gave African Americans courage to express themselves, to show their talents to the world
without being held back by the racial barrier that the Jim Crow Laws created. Not only did the
Harlem Renaissance affected that society, but it has also affected todays society, because the
Harlem Renaissance was what many historians could call the start of the Civil Rights Movement,
the movement that got African Americans, Hispanic Americans, women, etc. their rights, by
encouraging African Americans to demand for their civil rights that they were denied.
There are many ways that the Harlem Renaissance expressed how the African Americans
demand for their civil rights. The basic way they did this was by showing their talents to the
world, which told everyone that they were no different from anyone else who is talented. Another
way is through their art, many artists showed the life of African Americans in Harlem, many
artworks depict African Americans dancing, enjoying and making music, and having a good time
like anyone else would. Also they made new music, jazz, which brought in as many white fans of
jazz as African Americans to the Harlem speakeasies, showing a similarity between whites and
colored. Many Harlem leaders published the work of Harlems talented for the whole world to
see, and many even pushed African Americans to stand up for their civil rights, like Claude
McKay through his music.

The Harlem Renaissance was a time where African Americans could break out of their
shells and show the world their talents. In many ways the Harlem Renaissance was a smaller
civil rights movement, they demanded their rights through the arts. Its a good thing the Harlem
Renaissance occurred, because if they didnt we may not of had a successful Civil Rights
Movement, and we could be just as segregated as we were a century ago. If not, maybe even
worse than we were then.