First she moved back to northern Florida to Jacksonville. Stymied there, Augusta Savage moved to New York City. Her move paralleled that of many other Harlem Renaissance figures, who migrated to the northern American city in search of greater opportunities for financial and personal growth. In 1921, Augusta enrolled in a free art program at Cooper Union in New York City. The course helped her acquire formal training for her future career, and Savage washed laundry to earn a living.
In spite of her tremendous efforts, Savage met with serious obstacles because of her race, poverty, and correspondingly low social status. She applied and was accepted to a summer art program in France. The French government turned her away "because of her color," ("Augusta Fells Savage"). Savage used the incident to draw attention to the issue of racism. She therefore contributed to the growing awareness of the systematic oppression of people of color.
Although Augusta Savage did not get to study in France, her efforts earned the attention of Herman Atkins MacNeil. MacNeil became one of her mentors and helped Savage hone her style. She began depicting "black physiognomy" in works such as "The Harp," and "Gamin." Like other Harlem Renaissance artists, Savage drew on her personal experiences growing up in the south and her ethnic and cultural heritage. Harlem Renaissance depictions of African-Americans were revolutionary because of their realism, and also because African-American artists had for the first time been able to control their own imagery. "Gamin" is a bust of Savage's nephew and the sculpture won her the...
tomorrow / Bright before us / Like a flame. (Alain Locke, "Enter the New Negro," 1925) From the 1920's Alain Leroy Locke has been known as a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Through his writings, his actions and his education, Locke worked to educate not only White America, but also the Negro, about the beauty of the Negro heritage. He emphasized the idea that no single culture is more
Slave Narrative and Black Autobiography - Richard Wright's "Black Boy" and James Weldon Johnson's Autobiography The slave narrative maintains a unique station in modern literature. Unlike any other body of literature, it provides us with a first-hand account of institutional racially-motivated human bondage in an ostensibly democratic society. As a reflection on the author, these narratives were the first expression of humanity by a group of people in a society where
Race continues to play a role in American culture and policy in the 21st century. Average incomes in the United States are demonstrably dissimilar, affirmative action policies allow campuses to use race as a determining factor when creating student bodies, and race continues to define media and culture to a significant degree. To some extent, these factors should escape our criticism, as it can't be considered desirable for all people
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