Vol. 19, No. 11

Nov. 11, 1999

New book portrays impact of
1920s Harlem Renaissance

From the jazz-inspired lyricism of poet Langston Hughes to the audacious effervescence of performer Josephine Baker, the Harlem Renaissance contributed richly to American culture and transformed its very definition. This premise is documented in The Power of Pride: Stylemakers and Rulebreakers of the Harlem Renaissance, written by Carole Marks, Black American Studies Program, and recently published by Crown, a division of Random House. Marks and photographic historian Diana Edkins identify and discuss the contributions of 17 artists to one of the most exciting and innovative chapters in American cultural history, the 1920s Harlem Renaissance. "Diana and I were roommates during our undergraduate years at NYU," Marks explained, "and we'd been wanting to do a project together for a long time. We're both fascinated with the Harlem Renaissance and produced this book to convey its joy, its excitement and the incredible diversity of talent it gave birth to." At the same time, Marks said, they wanted to highlight the courage of its leading lights. "They were all extraordinarily talented-that's the stepping-off point," she observed. "But, they had a lot of courage in not wanting just to maintain the status quo. Something empowered them to break the rules, social and artistic alike, and the result was a movement that displayed on the world's stage the richness and creativity of African-American culture." Marks, who holds a Ph.D. in sociology from NYU, has extensively studied black migration to the North in the early part of this century and published Farewell, We're Good and Gone: The Great Black Migration (Indiana University Press) in 1989. "Usually we think of the migrants as being sharecroppers, the poor," Marks said, "but there was an educated elite that migrated, too." Many of the people she discusses in the book left the South for New York, where their talent drew them together. "The Harlem Renaissance was their moment," Marks said. "They said to American society, 'We have education, we have style, we have ability-pay attention to us.' Although in many cases these artists were more celebrated overseas, particularly in Paris, than they were by white America at the time, the Harlem Renaissance set in motion the profound enrichment of mainstream American culture by African-American artists that we've seen this century." Besides Hughes and Baker, The Power of Pride features Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Jessie Fauset, Alberta Hunter, Zora Neal Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, Florence Mills, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Bessie Smith, Carl Van Vechten, A'Lelia Walker, Ethel Waters, Dorothy West and Walter White. The 272-page text is generously illustrated, and many of its 150 images are reproductions of rare photographs. Marks and Edkins pored over hundreds of photographs, including many from the UD Library's Special Collections, in selecting which to feature in their book, and Marks made extensive use of the library's media collection, which includes The Amsterdam News and The Chicago Defender, important and influential newspapers that document African-American life. Marks and Edkins are promoting their four-year collaborative effort in a three-city publicity tour. They will sign copies of their book today at Vertigo Books in Washington, D.C., and go to New York for a Nov. 28 signing at Abyssinian Baptist Church, 50 years to the day from the funeral there of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. This venerable Harlem institution has as well a more personal resonance for Marks: It was the first church of her well-known uncle, the Rev. Leon Sullivan, whose Sullivan Principles guided multinational corporations in anti-apartheid business practices. After New York, Mark and Edkins will travel to Philadelphia to read from the book and sign copies of it at Borders, accompanied by a jazz combo. The Power of Pride: Stylemakers and Rulebreakers of the Harlem Renaissance is called a "great gift" idea by Emerge magazine in its November issue and by Marie Claire magazine in its December issue. -Christina Bielaszka-DuVernay