The Harlem Renaissance: From Degradation to Inspiration: A Literary and Artistic Revolution Celebrating Social and Cultural Transformation

for African Americans in the 1920s and 1930s.

Alyssa Anderson Individual Website Junior Division

Choosing my topic was arduous because I wanted to enjoy but knew it should be of historical importance. Initially, I explored sports and music but, while discussing these topics with my parents, I was reminded that African-Americans are often stereotyped as excelling in sports and entertainment, but not thought of first as intellectuals. I decided to learn about my own image as an African-American, which led me to the Harlem Renaissance, a period in which the image of African- Americans was transformed from degraded slave to activists, artists, and intellectuals. My initial research began with my parents (my mother, the first African American Superior Court Judge in Monterey County, and my father, a Minister and retired College Instructor). I asked their perspective on the Harlem Renaissance. They agreed that it was the collective efforts of the writers, activists, artists, musicians, and performers who revolutionized African-American thought and perspective of self, which launched the fight for social and economic equality. I then began collecting primary sources, mostly books written by writers such as W. E. B. Dubois, Alain Locke, Zora Neal Hurston, and Langston Hughes. I used the Internet to listen to music and watch performances by Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Bessie Smith, and Ella Fitzgerald. A highlight was visiting Harlem, New York during Christmas break and looking for historical landmarks, clubs, and homes representative of the period. I toured the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and photographed the Apollo Theater and Lennox Lounge. For secondary sources, in addition to books and Internet, I interviewed three prominent African-Americans, John Wineglass, an Emmy Award winning musician, Dr. Heather Knight, a writer and president of Pacific Union, and Mr. Benjamin Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP.

Since the Harlem Renaissance is strongly affiliated with art and music, I chose a website to present my research. I designed it so that it would be easy to understand and recognize each component of the movement by creating individualized pages. On my home page, I displayed a series of recognizable and prominent figures. I selected the background and colors designed to be representative of the Harlem Renaissance. They are based on The Universal Negro Improvement Associations flag colors of red, black, and green which symbolize a united in blood black people from the rich green land of Africa. I then added yellow, gray, and white for additional variety. I selected pictures to complement and identify each category and subcategory. My final addition was the interviews I conducted. The Harlem Renaissance represents revolution, reaction, and reform, as it was the collective contributions of the writers, artists, musicians, activists, and performers of the 1920s and 1930s in Harlem who revolutionized African-American thought and perspective of self. This led to the transformation of the image of the African-American from a people degraded to a people of inspiration and intellectual equality, which launched the fight for social and economic equality

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