by Shada Parker
Humans have the tendency to incline to positivity over negativity; this is a human trait. The human prejudice for positivity influences different types of subjects and is evident in how literary critics and historians depict the Harlem Renaissance. This paper will mainly focus on the poverty and desperation faced by the residents of Harlem, NY. Furthermore, we will explore and evaluate representations of the residents. Poverty and desperation not only compel people to do unimaginable things in order to sustain themselves but also make people slaves to other people. The Harlem Renaissance, in The Norton Introduction to Literature, is described as “A duration of ten or twenty years in the early twentieth century in the time when an exceptional group of individuals celebrated the emergence of a new African-American awareness” (Mays et al). The Harlem Renaissance is defined by the use of several terms in various reliable sources. Nevertheless, a major similarity appears when analyzing these descriptions. The correspondence is that they only display the positive implications of the movement. These descriptions fail to highlight the desperation as well as struggles which the working-class and poor residents of African-American communities and Harlem encountered in the cultural movement. Harlem, while looking after some wealthy African-Americans, was “concurrently home to disease-ridden poverty and slums.” There is no more precise representation of the serious financial troubles of African-Americans in that time than the poems by Harlem Renaissance writers like Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes.
With many African-Americans moving to the North after World War I, artistic and cultural impacts from the black society became inevitable. These were particularly true in Harlem where more than 100,000 African-Americans chose to stay after their shifts. Harlem was the “infectious, independent, creative, and distinctive center of performance and art and activities, which pulled the entire of New York to it” (Mays et al). The two authors define Harlem in an extravagant, positive way, declaring that it was an “attraction for new whites” (Mays et al). Even though their declarations in regard to the presence of entertainment facilities such as nightclubs are correct, the editors fail to trace the issues of crime and poverty, which were dominant in Harlem.
The lives of the regular Harlem residents varied from the expensive lifestyles showcased in books and other legendary sources. Because of the presence of discrimination and prejudice, the African-Americans were only capable of attaining the most tiring, low-paying work. According to Dr. Jeffrey Ogbar, of the University of Kansas, 16.6% of Harlem occupants were receiving as little as $75 monthly (25% below the poverty rate). Moreover, many of Harlem’s residents were earning between $75 and $124, less than the $133 minimum needed to sustain a comfortable lifestyle. The financial struggles of Harlem residents are seen in This Harlem Life: Everyday Life and Black Families in the 1920s and 1930s (Oxford UP), an analysis of five ordinary families who lived in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance. For instance, one of the families solely depended on the children’s income for survival: “Thompson had stated that it is his two teenage kids who sustained the family. George had acquired a spot in a dressmaking company, and later on, he became a scarf maker, while Elizabeth, his sister, was working in a hat factory. Both of the children gave all their salary to the household. Their parents, who only did day jobs instead of having stable careers, had to make their kids look for employment after finding no work. This type of financial trouble was usual among the residents of Harlem, with a lot of people being unable to locate a permanent job because of racial discrimination” (Robertson).
Likewise, the reality was that the residents of Harlem typically stayed in expensive but substandard housing. Many people operated in demanding and low -paying jobs. The best description of poverty is highlighted by Countee Cullen’s broadly commended poem, “Saturday’s Child,” that is founded on the famous nursery song “Saturday’s kid works hard for a living.” This poem, through scholarly tools and emotional appeals, efficiently compares a child who is born into a low-income family with one born into a wealthy family. “The initial sign of financial hardship starts at the first stanza, where Cullen outlines:
Some are teethed on a silver spoon,
With the stars strung for a rattle;
I cut my teeth as the black racoon-
For implements of battle (1-4)
The initial two lines show the child born into a wealthy family, with the silver spoon being a symbol of wealth. Comparatively, the third and fourth lines highlight the struggles the child born into a low-income family will have to endure; the child is preparing the weapon (teeth) for future battles. Cullen’s discontent can be deduced through the lines. Cullen illustrates that “Dame Poverty gave me my name, /and Pain godfathered me….” These lines clearly show the resentment brought out by the author in regards to poverty. Being born and raised by a “poor” mother, Cullen expresses his despair through an interpretation of what a majority of African-American children endure after being born into a poverty-stricken home. Because of absolute levels of poverty, low-income families treat their children as expensive irritants. Poverty can influence what should be solid: the relationship between a child and a parent. Nonetheless, this was the harsh reality faced by many families in Harlem, NY.
Langston Hughes expands upon the same theme of poverty leading to desperation in his most famous poem about this borough of Manhattan:
Harlem
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up?
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load (1-10)
The imagery in this poem is suggestive. Many of the residents of Harlem barely had a balanced meal due to insufficient funds to cater for food. Due to this, Harlem was taken over by white people who gave them food in exchange for tedious work. Many of the businesses, and most of Harlem’s clubs, were owned by white people. Dreams were often deferred in Harlem’s climate—especially after the crash of 1929 led to severe economic depression.
Harlem Renaissance writers like Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes illustrate the poverty and desperation of Harlem. According to a well-known Harvard University historian, “there existed futility, unemployment, and poverty in Harlem; however, the optimist and happiness of the 1920s enhanced the image of such types of realities.” Scholars, as well as historians, mainly concentrate on the critical elements of the Harlem Renaissance (Marable, 2015). This signifies that there is undoubtedly a prejudice. It is reasonable to concentrate on a handful of individuals that had significant responsibilities in the movement; nonetheless, it is critical to allow attention to the actual residents of the Harlem Renaissance. Overemphasizing the lifestyles of Harlem elites because of the glamorous and prosperous life of a few people shows an imprecise image of Harlem at the time of the movement.
Works Cited
Cart, M. Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism. American Library Association, 2017.
Marable, M. How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America: Problems in Race, Political Economy, and Society. Haymarket Books, 2015.
Mays, Kelly et al. The Norton Introduction to Literature. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016.
Poetry Foundation. An Introduction to the Harlem Renaissance: Tracing the Poetic Work of this Crucial Cultural and Artistic Movement,
Poetry Foundation, 2017, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/145704/an-introduction-to-the-harlem-renaissance
Robertson, Stephen. This Harlem Life: Black Families and Everyday Life in the 1920s and 1930s. Journal of Social History. Vol. 44, No. 1. Oxford University Press, 2010.
Image by Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series (1940-41) via the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)