Topic: Harlem’s Glory I. During the 1920s, many African Americans were forming strong communities; their art culture began to flourish. II. African Americans had started to become more of art then just a color of their skin. When the Harlem Renaissance began there were African American artist such as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jean Toomer they had different and unique forms of literature and subjects. a. The Big Apple i. During this time of age African-American middle class began pushing a new political agenda that where relating to racial equality. ii. The biggest movements where held in New York, where three of the largest civil rights groups established their headquarters. W.E.B. Du Bois was one at the forefront of the civil rights movement at this time. He gathered a group of African American political activists and white civil rights workers, met in New York to discuss the challenges facing the black community. iii. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was created in 1909 it was to promote civil rights and fight the discrimination. b. The Fuel i. With this all that was happening, was making the whites’ fascination with the exotic world of Harlem. The crisis published the poems, stories, and visual works of many artists of the period. ii. This involved racial pride, fueled in part by aggressive of the “New Negro” demanding civil and political rights. iii. While all this was going on there was an incorporation of jazz and the blues, it was attracting whites to Harlem speakeasies, where interracial couples danced. This had little impact on breaking down the rigid barriers of the Jim Crow Law. c. Ending i. The renaissance was more than a literary movement, it created something beautiful and made a difference in the world today. They called him