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I.
Background
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1. Topics of history of the 1920’s Harlem Renaissance Era—World War I, blacks in the military, rising industrialization, black migration, social upheaval, racial tensions (race riots), the Red Scare, Teapot Dome, rise of the KKK, lynchings, the Jazz Age.
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2. Topics of history of the 1960’s Protest Era Vietnam, race riots, the Great Society, Civil Rights, Sit-ins, Women’s Rights, Equal Rights, Black militancy, and the Peace Movement.
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These background events and topics will be examined and will provide a basis for understanding the message of the various artists to be studied. The topics will also be organizaed in such a way to make the comparing and contrasting of events on the two eras happen in a cohesive manner.
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The unit continues with the focus on the artists of both eras. The organization of this material will be done as follows:
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II.
The Artists
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The Harlem Renaissance
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1. Renaissance poets and writers: Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Rudolph Fisher, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, Arna Bontemps, and James Weldon Johnson.
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2. The Messengers: Alain Locke, W.E.B. DuBois, Charles Johnson, and Marcus Garvey.
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3. The Message: the complexities of being black in America, the beauty of blackness, and the rejection by blacks of repression, the involvement of whites in the movement, Pan-Africanism.
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III.
The Artist
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The Protest Era
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1. Protest poets and writers: Leroi Jones (Imamu Imiri Baraka), Don L. Lee, Richard Wright, Alice Childress, Mari Evans, Ralph Ellison, Nikki Giovanni, and Sonia Sanchez, Paule Marshall, and Gwendolyn Brooks.
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2. The Messengers: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, Elderidge Cleaver, Dick Gregory and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
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3. The Message: the complexities of being black in America, “Black is Beautiful,” non-violence as a means of peaceful coexistence, the anger, the rejection of repression and the solutions for blacks.
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IV.
The Comparison of the Harlem Renaissance Artists to the Protest Artists
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1. How the messages are similar
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2. How the messages differ
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V.
The Solutions of the Black Artists
(social change
)
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VI.
The Conclusions: The Future Direction
s
of Black Literature in America
The background material for the unit will be presented in lecture form using the information which will be provided. A background information sheet will be provided to the students so that they may have their own reference sheet of pertinent information relative to the course. This sheet gives the student a handy referral sheet which will be especially useful once the literature is discussed.
Another way to provide the student with background information is by using the television movie:
Roots the Second Generation
. There is a portion of the film which deals with blacks in World War I, the ideas and philosophies of the times, and much more valuable information. Since it would be difficult to acquire a copy of the movie, a summary and discussion of the movie would be sufficient. This kind of experience will make the general background information relevant to the student because through the medium of the movie he will have experienced much more than could be told him in a classroom situation.
In order to study the artists from each era the class will discuss a sample of literature from each of the artists. By using some of the more popular pieces, representing each artist, the student will be able to develop a working knowledge of the art form.
In each piece of literature students will pay special attention to the message in each. The messages will focus on the paradox of the black artist: talent versus the conflict of being black. Explaining to students the concept of this internal conflict will be particularly difficult especially since high school students tend not to understand the concept of paradox. Once they understand some of the background information the protest literature will be easily understood. However, the conflict of being an artist might be more difficult to relay. One method of easing some of this difficulty is by inviting guest artists in to speak about what their personal motivation is.
Since this idea of conflict is difficult to relay much of the class activity must be an active participation in the learning process. This can be done through writing their own literature whether short stories or poems. Role play is also a useful means to make students aware of other person’s motivations. Role play can develop a sensitivity to a situation which under normal lecture situations the student would not experience. Finally, an original class filmstrip organized, produced, and filmed by the students should help present the student with the artist’s perspective. By allowing students to create their own art form they will come to understand art by doing and ultimately will come to empathize with the artists and the literature of the 1920’s and the 1960’s.