Harlem: The Crucible of Modern African American Culture

by Lionel C. Bascom

Overview

Focusing on the contributions of civic reformers and political architects who arrived in New York in the early decades of the 20th century, this book explores the wide array of sweeping social reforms and radical racial demands first conceived of and planned in Harlem that transformed African Americans into self-aware U.S. citizens for the first time in history.

When the first slave escaped bondage in the American South and migrated to the Northeast region of the United States, this act of an individual started what became known as the "great migration" of African Americans fleeing the feudal South for New York and other Northern cities. This migration fueled an intellectual, social, and personal pursuit—the long-standing quest for identity by a lost tribe of African Americans—by every black man, woman, and child in America. In Harlem, that quest was anchored by a wide array of civic, business, and prominent leaders who succeeded in establishing what we now know as modern African American culture.

In Harlem: The Crucible of Modern African American Culture, author Lionel C. Bascom examines the accuracy of the established image of Harlem during the Renaissance period—roughly between 1917 and the 1960s—as "heaven" for migrating African Americans. He establishes how mingled among the former tenant farmers, cotton pickers, maids, and farmhands were college-educated intellectuals, progressive ministers, writers, and lecturers who formed various organizations aimed at banishing images of Negroes as bumbling, ignorant, second-class citizens. The book also challenges unfounded claims that political and social movements during the Harlem Renaissance period failed and dramatizes numerous attempts by government authorities to silence black progressives who spearheaded movements that eventually ended segregation in the armed forces, drafted plans that led to the first sweeping civil rights legislation, and resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that finally made racial segregation in schools a federal crime.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440842689
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/12/2016
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Lionel C. Bascom is professor in the Department of Writing, Linguistics, and the Creative Process at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

1 From Exodus to the Rise of Harlem as a Cultural Center 1

2 Raisins in the Sun 7

3 A History of New York Activism 15

4 The Arrivals 29

5 Negrophilia 41

6 Almost Made King 51

7 Exit the New Negro 67

8 Mystic Knights 71

9 New York Frame of Mind 79

10 Black Socrates 89

11 The Last Leaf 97

12 Legal Defense 111

13 The Gospel of Powell 119

14 The Crisis 133

15 The Messenger 143

16 Going Home 159

17 March on Washington I 169

18 March on Washington II 179

Epilogue: Fire in the Crucible 187

Notes 189

Index 205

Editorial Reviews

This is a solid discussion of these organizers and the continuity between what was known as the Harlem Renaissance and the activism of the 1960s. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.” —Choice

“A scholarly yet readable history of a broad era. Consider for public and academic libraries, especially those in the greater New York City area.” —Library Jourbanal

From the Publisher

04/01/2017
As African Americans moved northward in the Great Migration, Harlem, NY, became a gathering point for many, resulting in an "unprecedented kind of social alchemy" often called the Harlem Renaissance. Bascom (writing, Western Connecticut State Univ.; A Renaissance in Harlem) moves in roughly chronological order, from about 1920 to 1960, although he references earlier points in the history of blacks in America. He makes convincing arguments that Harlem during those years was a relatively safe haven (and a "heaven") for not only writers and artists but intellectuals, political activists, religious leaders, and common folk as well. The book concludes with the 1963 March on Washington, though it travels back to address the influences of men such as A. Philip Randolph and W.E.B. Du Bois. VERDICT A scholarly yet readable history of a broad era. Consider for public and academic libraries, especially those in the greater New York City area.

Library Journal