235
See also: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass 126–27 ■
Invisible Man 259 ■ Beloved 306–09T
he Harlem Renaissance
of the 1920s and ‘30s—or
the “flowering of Negro
Literature,” as the American author
and civil rights activist James
Weldon Johnson put it—was an
important awakening of African-
American cultural pride and identity.
The movement centered in Harlem,
New York, and began in 1924 when
Opportunity magazine held a party
to introduce black writers to white
publishers, giving them access to
mainstream exposure.
Emerging out of a burgeoning
urban black middle class, the
Harlem Renaissance also embraced
theater, music, and a new political
awareness. Although the Great
Depression brought the movement
to an end, it marked a significant
step forward in self-respect for
black America, and laid the
groundwork for the civil rights
movement after World War II.A defiant voice
Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960),
was a Harlem Renaissance writer
and a prominent figure in bothAfrican-American and women’s
literature. Her best-known novel,
Their Eyes Were Watching God, is
about a poor black woman, Janie
Crawford, in the Southern states
in the early 20th century. The story
is bookended by her return to
Eatonville, Florida—America’s
proud first all-black city—where
Hurston herself grew up.
Like other Harlem Renaissance
texts, the novel differs from earlier
works about African-American
life by being honest and realistic
rather than overtly sentimental.
Hurston’s innovative use of the
rural Southern black dialect is a
notable feature of the text. The
book also focuses on Janie’s
marriages to three husbands,
each of whom dominates her life
and undermines her status, and
against whom she rebels.
Their Eyes Were Watching
God is an early and defiant voice
on several crucial issues that
have lost none of their relevance
or resonance in the modern
world—notably racism, poverty,
and gender inequality. ■BREAKING WITH TRADITION
SHIPS AT A DISTANCE
HAVE EVERY MAN’S
WISH ON BOARD
THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD (1937),
ZORA NEALE HURSTON
IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
The Harlem RenaissanceBEFORE
1923 Jean Toomer publishes
his first novel, Cane—a key
Modernist work evoking black
life in the South. Of mixed
race, Toomer preferred to be
termed an “American writer”
rather than a “black writer,”
but was a central figure in
the Harlem Renaissance.1923 At 21 years old, Countee
Cullen wins an award from
the Poetry Society of America
for his poem “The Ballad
of the Brown Girl,” about a
doomed interracial romance.
He becomes a key figure in
the Harlem Renaissance.1934 Harlem Renaissance
writer Langston Hughes
publishes his first short
story collection, The Ways
of White Folks, focusing on
race relations; the title is
intended to be mocking.US_234-235_Berlin_Eyes.indd 235 08/10/2015 13:08