Harlem Renaissance: Jacob Lawrence's Harriet Tubman Series and Alain Locke's New Negro Ideals
Jacob Lawrence's 1940 painting 'Harriet Tubman Series (Panel #4)' exemplifies the Harlem Renaissance's artistic output, housed at the Hampton University Museum in Hampton, Virginia. This movement, centered in Harlem, New York City from the mid-1920s through the 1930s, fundamentally redefined Black identity in America as a form of liberation. It emerged as a direct response to post-antebellum discrimination, Jim Crow laws, and pervasive blackface imagery in media. Philosopher Alain Locke, the first Black Rhodes Scholar in 1907, provided the intellectual framework with his concept of the New Negro. Locke's ideals promoted economic independence from white America, progressive politics, Black pride, and heightened racial consciousness. The movement served as the epicenter for Black philosophy, art, and music, transforming cultural expression.
Key facts
- The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic and political movement from the mid-1920s through the 1930s.
- Harlem in New York City was the epicenter of the movement.
- The movement redefined Blackness in the United States as an act of liberation.
- It responded to post-antebellum discrimination, Jim Crow laws, and blackface in media.
- Alain Locke (1885-1954) established the characteristics of the 'New Negro'.
- Alain Locke was the first Black Rhodes scholar in 1907.
- The New Negro ideal included economic independence, progressive politics, Black pride, and racial consciousness.
- Jacob Lawrence's 'Harriet Tubman Series (Panel #4)' from 1940 is a tempera on hardboard work held at the Hampton University Museum in Hampton, Virginia.
Entities
Artists
- Jacob Lawrence
- Harriet Tubman
- Alain Locke
Institutions
- Hampton University Museum
Locations
- Harlem
- New York City
- United States
- Hampton
- Virginia