There is always a silver lining to each dark cloud hovering over the earth. The cloud in this instance happened to be World War 1, heightening into the Great Depression. With all the chaos that was fuelling fire to the crises, there arose a new flame that shone a light on the abyss of suffering; the Harlem Renaissance. The blacks living in America experienced a burst of talents within their communities, in the spheres of art, music, literature, and intellectualism. This was followed by an increase in cultural activity among black artists in the Harlem section of New York City.

Harlem became the heart of black culture and subsequent social and artistic explosion in which blacks, from even other parts of the country, converged and began a movement during the Post-war period.

This movement arose from several grievances faced by black people including the near collapse of the southern agricultural economy, combined with a labour shortage in the north. This provoked two million blacks to migrate to northern cities in search of employment. Supplementary to these, black Americans felt unappreciated because their efforts, sweat, and loss were still not credited by the white man. They were still receiving second-class treatment, in other words, subjected to racism.

The period became popularly known as “The Golden age” in African American culture as it witnessed the transformation of Black sub-ordinance into Independence in terms of music, literature, and other creative spaces. At the core of this revolution was Paul Robeson, a versatile actor, singer, writer, and activist. A greater number of other African figures gained prominence for instance W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke, Black Bohemia family, Louis Armstrong, Marcus Garvey, poets like Claude McKay with his collection, Harlem Shadows and Jean Toomer’s Cane in 1923. The most popular genre of music that propagated from this era was jazz, which was most successfully played at the Cotton Club, which featured artists Ellington and Calloway. The end of the Harlem era commenced with the stock market crash of 1929 and The Great Depression. It transpired a Race Riot of 1935 following the arrest of a young shoplifter, death of three, hundreds wounded, and millions of dollars in property loss. This marked the closing chapter of the Harlem renaissance.