• AMIT KUMAR

The New Negro Movement or the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was a period of unprecedented artistic and literary expression on part of the African-American writers residing in the American North who sought to redefine black culture and recreate a new image of the Negro hitherto uncommon in the white American world. Until now the Negro was seen from the white gaze devoid of any worth or substance given the Jim Crow laws in practice across the American world. The Harlem Renaissance which primarily flourished in the urban North not only tried to debunk this myth about the Negro community having no artistic or literary worth whatsoever but also create a pan-American African-American identity to which the entire Negro community be it in the North or the deep South could look up to and emulate. However, what the Harlem Renaissance crusaders forgot to internalize was that the African-American community residing in the American North had all the resources at their disposal be it university education or the white support to celebrate the “New Negro”, the underclass African-American community coming from the deep South only had the “hope” to emulate such a “New Negro” ideal without any resources or support. At this juncture, one can see a clear class divide within the African-American community where the distinctions between the “New Negro” and the “Old Negro” become even more sharper and would haunt the African-American community for years to come.

Harlem Renaissance, New Negro, White patronage, Class divide, Exclusivism

"Harlem Renaissance: A Movement of the Masses, or just the 'Talented Few'?", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.11, Issue 12, page no.d599-d605, December-2024, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2412373.pdf

"Harlem Renaissance: A Movement of the Masses, or just the 'Talented Few'?", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.11, Issue 12, page no. ppd599-d605, December-2024, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2412373.pdf