When Harlem Was in Vogue Book

"The Depression accelerated a failure that was inevitable, for the Harlem Renaissance could no more have succeeded as a positive social force, whatever the health of Wall Street, than its participants could have been persuaded to try a different stratagem of racial advancement." 305

The Harlem Renaissance has fascinated me since I was a little girl and I think I've come full circle now that I've read one of the most widely-cited books on the time period. I took an English class in college on the time period so I was familiar with most of the writers and works mentioned but I wanted to learn more about the lives of the movers and shakers during this period and in that regard this book did not disappoint. Lewis focuses on "The Six" figures the most; Jean Toomer, Wallace Thurman, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston and they embody the various strains of thought during the Harlem Renaissance come alive. Some fully embraced the Harlem Renaissance while others chose not to live in Harlem or a la Jean Toomer produced a seminal work of the time and then wanted nothing to do with the movement. Lewis argues that the main goal of the Harlem Renaissance failed (as evidenced by my chosen quote) that a focus on the arts and literature was not enough to change the way white America viewed Black people. The strategy of those who dubbed it the Harlem Renaissance and helped usher it in was not something I had considered before and thus I appreciated this new way of analyzing the Harlem Renaissance. Propaganda did not work.

Lewis doesn't just focus on the Black voices of the time but also notes which white allies were sincere (viewed the works as talented and done by people who happened to be Black) versus fascinated by the "exotic" nature of the artistic Black community (to my relief Dorothy Parker fell into the former camp). He covers not only the artists and writers but also the economic realities of the time, the parties, the activists and the political reality of the day. It ends up being a history of Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s. Lewis even touches briefly on the immediate generation of Black writers after those of the Harlem Renaissance (Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison). I think the best thing to do is to continue to teach students about the Harlem Renaissance and have them read a few of the revolutionary works, to keep alive the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance and resurrect many of the artists and writers who fell into obscurity after their death (or are only known by academics who study the period today).

Bought at Capitol Hill Books, my favorite DC bookstore