Harlem Renaissance

It seemed to me that the primary purpose of “The Crisis” was to motivate the “Darker Race” to rise. I focused my attention on three particular pieces from “The Crisis”, an advertisement, a section called “The Horizon” and the poem “Negro”, to prove my point. Although all of these pieces served the same purpose but their method and what they were presenting were very distinct.

In the “Negro” Langston Hughes focused on the history or the past of the African American race to motive the current blacks to rise. The poem gave the reader a sense of pride to be black; it spoke and comforted the reader. The author spoke of the “Darker Race” brushing boots, keeping door-steps clean, and building pyramids. The black race did everything from small to large; they gave birth to civilizations. And now it has come to this that they are slaves to their children, they are in the foot of the very thing they created. Hughes is placing curiosity the minds of blacks, how can such be? We were great once, how did we come to this state? Langston Hughes is giving them the gift of inquisition, to seek, to inquire, to gain knowledge. Hughes is sending the message, gain knowledge and learn of our errors, thereafter bring changes, so we may return to our glorious past and be great once again.

Similarly the advertisement, “Do you Know What Civilization Owes to the Negro? Can you give the names of the Negro men and women who helped to make this world’s History? The 2-foot Shelf of Negro Literature…” was inspiring the black community to rise by educating themselves in their great history. It was telling the blacks that you were once great and you can be great again. It challenged and questioned the mind; we were creators of civilizations, how are we now slaves to our very creation?

“The Horizon” too focused on motivating the African community; however, in a little different manner. They focused on the present, unlike the