harlem renessance
...ican-American expression. The timing of this coming-of-age was perfect. The years between World War I and the Great Depression were boom times for the United States, and jobs were plentiful in cities, especially in the North. Between 1920 and 1930, almost 750,000 African Americans left the South, and many of them migrated to urban areas in the North to take advantage of the prosperity. The Harlem section of Manhattan, which covers just three square miles, drew nearly 175,000 African Americans, turning the neighborhood into the largest concentration of black people in the world. Responding to the heady intellectual atmosphere of the time and place, African Americans began to produce a wide variety of fine and highly original works dealing with African-American life that would pave the way for black writers in the decades to come. Harlem newspapers and journals, such as Crisis, The Survey Graphic, and Opportunity; published the work of both new and established African American writers. To encourage and support intellectually gifted young people, the journals sponsored literary contests that encouraged creative...