The Great Migration in Harlem Renaissance Literature
The Great Migration in Harlem Renaissance Literature
Sorry to disappoint, folks: the Great Migration doesn't have anything to do with geese flying north for the spring.
The Great Migration was the major historical backbone of the Harlem Renaissance. Sure, slavery and the Civil War were important too, because without those two things, people wouldn't have wanted to flee the South in the first place.
But in terms of immediate historical relevance, the Great Migration really made the Harlem Renaissance happen. See, during World War I, job opportunities opened up in northern factories. (There's really nothing like a world war to increase employment.) So, African Americans migrated from the South to the North—especially cities like New York City.
And the war provided them with profitable jobs, which meant they had money to spend. Even more importantly, these new northern immigrants were interested in the hope of a new life and a new racial identity, away from slavery's stranglehold on the South.
All in all, then, the Great Migration allowed for a critical mass of black people to create the major creative movement we now know as the Harlem Renaissance. Bam.
Chew on This:
Since you know the Harlem Renaissance was full of mind-blowing writers, we're guessing you're wondering if any of 'em wrote about the Great Migration. Yes, of course they did, Shmoopers. But you've gotta dig deep, because poets like Langston Hughes weren't interested in giving away their themes for free. In Hughes's "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," that Profound Poet goes on about rivers. But what do rivers matter when the world is "the Negro's" oyster? We think this poem is a reminder that the Great Migration really was great: it spanned a lot more than that long road from the South to the North. It opened up a lot of the country to black people for the first time.
Oh, and for the record, we've always thought that the Great Migration had a huge historical impact on the development of the Harlem Renaissance. What can we say? We're pretty smart sometimes.