How does the Harlem Renaissance still affect our society today?
There is still some debating going on to present day because the
Harlem Renaissance was a complex issue. From a rather weak point of
view was that little significant artistic criticism was written
during the Renaissance. Many critics and historians today felt that
having art created by African Americans taken seriously seemed like
such a momentous step forward just enough to suffice. Some critics
argue that much of the work produced during the Renaissance was of
no value and that the period inevitably has been idealized, but
others stress that technical mastery and ideological content did
indeed bring this to the forefront. Another theory is that the
Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual movement that barely touched
the masses. The idea that despite a history that had divided the
art and culture world reform the brotherhood. It is incorrect to
assume that these black intellectuals, because of it, were not
related to the black common man in Harlem. Many think that Blacks
were apt to agree that [the artistic output] was a good thing and
such an achievement, because it was elite in character and was also
a source of race pride and an argument against continued
discrimination. Other authorities point to progress in relations
between African and white Americans and during the Harlem
Renaissance it was acceptable for the first time for Americans of
both races as equals to make and exploit social contact. The
"movement" defined some priorities for the achievement of racial
equality that have been played out in the modern Civil Rights
Movement. Historical evidence certainly does not show weakened
progress in African/American (or political or economic) development
since the period of the Harlem Renaissance and history does support
the view that the Renaissance was a liberating step in the search
by African Americans for artistic and cultural identity on their
own terms. It is important that the Harlem Renaissance continue to
be studied for history.