132 ChaPter 3
wright, and columnist. Hughes’ poetry cut to the soul of American racism,
but often more with lament than sarcasm or anger. Perhaps his signature work
was “I, Too,” a poem about what being Black really meant and where Blacks
were headed. “I am the darker brother/They send me to eat in the kitchen/
When company comes/But I laugh/And eat well/And grow strong.” And a
better day is ahead, “Tommorow/I’ll be at the table,” he tells fellow Blacks.
Painters, sculptors, and graphic artists like Aaron Douglas, Meta Warrick
Fuller, and Augusta Savage, among others, rose to prominence. James
VanDerZee and Prentice H. Polk became nationally-respected New Negro
photographers.
The Harlem Renaissance, with its goal of spreading pride in African
American culture as well as challenging racism and oppression, was deeply
connected to a White consumer culture. White intellectuals took interest in
the movement and White-owned presses published their work. White con-
sumers made trips into Harlem to listen to jazz, look at art, dance, and drink
[a practice known as “slumming”] and spend money; Whites, however, owned
most of the nightclubs and jazz halls. The notorious Cotton Club was a
Whites-only establishment, where patrons could listen to Armstrong, Calloway,
Fitzgerald, and Horne and enjoy watching its legendary chorus line, whichFIGuRE 3-4 Langston Hughes