As a result of the feeling of pride for their race and protest against segregation, African Americans began a new movement in Harlem called the "Harlem Reniassance." Many probably wonder "Why Harlem?" First of all, during the war, many African Americans that did not volunteer to fight migrated north to fill in the jobs positions in factories that white men had left when drafted. New York, being a industrialized and highly urban area, attracted most of the African Americans.

Furthermore, after the war, the South's economy collapsed because of the sudden halt in the need for food for troops. Their surplus of crops caused them to lose money and go into debt. As a result, many African American farmers and sharecroppers came to the North to look for new opportunities. Because New York was already so populated with African Americans, other African Americans, realizing the power in large numbers of their peoples, moved to the cities, and the most densely populated city was Harlem.

Another reason why more African Americans moved to Harlem was the "economic aggressiveness of black business men that had snatched Harlem's newly developed real estate from white middle-class hands" (Huggins 14). Other African Americans, recognizing the "sense of possibility and power," moved there (Huggins 15).

The African American belief as well as the white belief was that "art and culture could rebound from the brotherhood in a common humanity" (Huggins 5); thus, it would bring the two races together. This was successful because in Harlem people wanting to be heard and recognized could reach the widest audiences of both races.

Aspects of Negro Life
by Aaron Douglas

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