Most historians recognise 1917 as the year in which the Harlem :: English Literature:

Most historians recognise 1917 as the year in which the Harlem renaissance began. The Harlem Renaissance. Today most historians recognise 1917 as the year in which the Harlem renaissance began. Three events lead to this. First was the publication of two poems by Claude McKay. Second was the opening on Broadway of three plays about black life by a white writer, Ridgely Thomas. These plays were remarkable not only because they were performed by black artists but because they contained none of the usual racial stereotypes. Finally, on the 28th of July Harlem experienced its first silent parade when ten to fifteen thousand blacks marched down 5th Avenue to protest against continued racial inequities. However the rich surge in African American arts and letters that took place around the 1920’s was not limited to just Harlem, nor even to New York City. Although, the intensity of the movement was in that city, and the sheer number of black writers, musicians, and scholars who lived and worked in Harlem has ensured that it is linked with the era. To understand the Harlem Renaissance it is necessary to appreciate both the changes that occurred within the African community and the cultural shifts that took place in American society as a whole during the 1920’s. For blacks the years during and after World War one were ones of increased militancy and racial pride. Phillip Randolph was struggling to organise black workers and a national campaign was actively promoting federal antilynching legislation. Although white society did not take these political movements particularly seriously, it did give considerable recognition to the large number of black writers, musicians and scholars who were emerging simultaneously. These figures being people like, Countee Cullen, James Weldon, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman and Jean Toomer. All lived in Harlem and Langston Hughes described the area as a â€Å"great magnet for the negro intellectual, pulling him from everywhere.† Yet Harlem was a magnet not only for blacks, but also for whites eager to experience for themselves the glamour and escapism that its night-clubs seemed to promise. In many ways Harlem became a national symbol of the Jazz Age, a complete antithesis of Main Street and everything that the artists and cultural critics of the 1920’s rejected. Many Observers, black and white, hoped that this outburst of literary and artistic talent would help to ensure greater acceptance of blacks by American Society.