TopicS 3.11-3.15: The New Negro Movement

The New Negro Movement Project & Presentation

Student Handout, Rubric, Document Template, Topics List

LO 3.11.A Describe ways the New Negro movement emphasized selfdefinition, racial pride, and cultural innovation.

Objective 1: Students will be able to explain the methods in which the New Negro Movement emphasized self definition, racial pride, and cultural innovation.

Objective 2: Students will practice the skills of the final student independent project: write a research question, conduct research, develop a line of reasoning to defend a claim, and defend their claim in front of peers through oral defense.

“Art must discover and reveal the beauty which prejudice and caricature have overlaid. And all vital art discovers beauty and opens our eyes to that which previously we could not see.” - Dr. Alain Locke

“Let the blare of Negro jazz bands and the bellowing voice of Bessie Smith singing the Blues penetrate the closed ears … We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too…We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.” - Langston Hughes, 1926

Introduction

Dr. Alain Locke described the years after World War I as a revolution that reclaimed and liberated Black identity. Locke understood that race is not hereditary but it is very real in American society and culture. “Blackness” was created through laws to justify a lower status of some humans in the New World economy. According to Locke and the artists, leaders, and visionaries in Harlem, that had changed, and because of that, America would change as well.

I introduce the topic with Langston Hughes’ revolutionary words on black identity. Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin describes “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” as “a beautiful hand grenade” rolled out into Black culture, which would change the direction of Black artistic expression, and therefore the foundation of American popular culture, forever.

Place in the Curriculum

During the pilot year, I found that the New Negro Movement was most powerful right after I taught the Great Migration and Red Summer. The order in which my class experiences unit 3:

3.1-3.10 (but skip 3.6) I mostly follow the College Board sequencing from Reconstruction through disenfranchisement and the onset of Jim Crow laws to the introduction of W.E.B. Du Bois, Black organizations, and HBCUs.

I skip over 3.6 because I find that my students are better able to contextualize the events of the Red Summer after we have covered Black soldiers in World War 1 and the Great Migration (3.16). Then, after 3.10 I do a 1.5 day lesson on Black communities, Black soldiers, and the Black Press during World War I. Here is the order:

3.16 Context: African Americans in World War I
3.16 - 3.17: The Great Migration and Afro-Caribbean immigration. It makes sense to me to explain the migration to northern cities before I dive into the New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance. Also, many of the figures we encounter during the New Negro Movement will be from the Caribbean.
3.6: Red Summer and Racial Violence. This is a great place to use Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die.” It offers the perfect transition to the New Negro Movement. I think it works so much better after we have fully contextualized the themes of this era.
3.11-3.15: Presentation Project: The New Negro Movement: Harlem, Poetry, Photography, Jazz, Black History Education
3.18 - The UNIA and Marcus Garvey are a perfect way to end this powerful unit (I Include Garvey and the UNIA in the project material options for students, but make sure this topic gets its own coverage at the conclusion of the unit.

Project Notes and Pacing

I created this assignment to work as a final trial run and final scaffolding before students take the deep dive into the individual student project. This project is designed for students to work in groups of 2 so that they can practice the student independent project skills with a peer and also to cut the presentation time in half.

Day #1: Introduce the New Negro Movement with the slides attached above. I briefly contextualize the shift from the accommodationist strategies* (the language of Ida B. Wells) of Booker T. Washington through World War 1 and the Great Migration to the attitudes of the New Negro Movement. My students will have already read McKay’s “If We Must Die” and I will ask them to recall the themes and tone of that poem. Before fully launching the project, we read "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.”

Warning: do not go past the suggested time frame on the YouTube link to the 13th documentary. Just a few moments later are traumatic photographs of lynchings.

At the end of Day 1, I introduce their project and describe it as a final test run before the formal individual project that counts towards their AP test score.

Students will work with a partner and only have to complete 2, rather than 4 document forms. 1 of their two documents should be from a scholarly source. This is not an actual requirement for the final project presentation, but I this is an important skill for them to learn to navigate. It also will help them form a more scholarly argument and be able to find competing sources for their final project. The other source should be a primary source from the New Negro Movement.

Students should pick a topic and begin forming a research question.

Day #2 - Finalize student partners and project topics. Play a few simple rounds of “This or That” to go over the guidelines for writing a research question. If students are struggling with this aspect, I point them to making a claim about how their chosen artist or artform is the one of the most significant examples of the embodiment of the spirit of the New Negro Movement. This puts them in the mindset of making an arguable claim and also helps them to focus on the main ideas of this content topic.

At the end of day two, everyone should have a research question and have read through and analyzed a primary source from their artist or topic. If they are not finished with it yet, students should complete a source form for their primary source.

Day #3 - I do a half day lesson on critiques of the New Negro Movement, focusing on criticism of Zora Neale Hurston's use of Black vernacular, Hurston’s response, and the voices of modern Black scholars. Then they have more work time to explore further primary sources from their artist/topic.

Day #4 - I start by having all students pull up Google Scholar and have them try to type in a few different search commands. They should compare results and together, we will make a list of the most helpful ways to use this resource. Then students should begin selecting a source to analyze for their project. By the end of day 4, students should have selected a scholarly source and have begun to complete the other source form.

Day #5 - Students should put all the pieces together in preparation for tomorrow’s presentations.

Day #6 and Day #7 Presentation Days - My set up allows me to split my class of 30 into two groups. This means students only sit through half of their classmates' presentations. On their off day, students will have a work day/review day to complete their Must Know vocabulary and short answer practice questions for unit 3. I can get through 6 presentations in a class period.

“The world ought to understand that the Negro has come to life, possessed with a new conscience and a new soul. The old Negro is buried, and it is well the world knew it.” - Marcus Garvey, 1921