The reading The Negro Digs Up His Past I believe is an interesting piece because the author (Arhtur A. Schomburg) wants the reader to feel the need and desire to know his past and to remember the struggles that his ancestor has been through and what it took to get us to the place that we are at in society today. He also wants us to know our past, to never forget where we came from, and to never think that we always belonged in society because some of us have forgotten where we come from and believe that we are better than other members of our African American race. Also, Marcus Garvey wrote two wonderful persuasive essays that were for his cause in having us to move back to Africa. These pieces were well written and were not overwritten like some of his contemporarie's literary pieces during this time with long words that either bored the reader or made them drift off in their thinking. Marcus Garvey spoke in more simpler terms. The part of his essay, Africa for the Africans that I really liked was the part that spoke on those Negroes that assumed just because they were going back to Africa they thought they were going to rule over the native Africans. These kind of opportunists were not wanted and were not welcome. I enjoyed this because to this day you have blacks that are like this and think they are better than others. I read and see these kind of people daily and am sad for their ignorance. Time has not stopped for people like this and they are always available and make you feel ashamed to be an African American sometimes because of the way they talk to there own people but with other races they concede and show favoritism towards people that is not of their own stock. The second essay, The Future As I See It, speaks of the potential for Africa to become a powerful nation with the African Americans coming home and the aristocracy that we created through hard work and determination.

These three literature pieces The Negro Art Hokum, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain, and How It Feel to be Colored Me all deal with the question of whether African Americans should accept and retain their African heritage or to denounce this noble heritage and to only remember their American roots thus appeasing society during this time period. The Negro Art Hokum by George Schuyler was an essay that tried to influence Negro artists during the Harlem Renaissance to bypass and forget about a heritage and country they never knew of and to accept their American heritage by creating works of art that was based on the land they now live in. I disagree with George Schuyler's essay because, during this time period especially, Negro artists needed to embrace their heritage to show their pride and loyalty to the country that their ancestors were from and to introduce and educate curious Caucasian-Americans about the creativity and intelligence of my race during this time period. Not everyone agreed with George Schuyler's perception of what should be the inspiration for Negro Art. The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain by Langston Hughes was a direct response to George Schuyler's essay stating that African American Artists should embrace their heritage and be themselves and realize that their link to Africa was a precious resource. I agree with Hughes perspective in this essay calling to arms that every African American artist should be allowed to display their creativity through their heritage that was largely unknown in American society during the early part of the 20th century. How It Feels to be Colored Me is an essay by Zora Neale Hurston that basically states that "Black is Beautiful" and that the benefits that come with it like listening to music in a whole different way from other races makes being black worth it. Through out all of time some people believe that being black is a curse that has befallen them and that their life is over before it has started. Zora Neale Hurston believed that she was not "tragically colored". She grew up in exclusively black Eatonville, FL (I used to live in nearby Orlando, FL) and only saw white people in passing before she left town to move to Jacksonville, FL. Ms. Hurston realized after leaving town that she was now a "little colored girl" but she did not let this realization destroy her pride of being "cosmic Zora".

President Barack Obama — Ushering in a new Renaissance

I believe that this historical event might usher in a new renaissance but it depends on how the American citizens rate President Obama's performance during his administration. The reason I believe that this might usher in a new renaissance is that his performance will show the country that race should not be gauged for the qualities of a good leader. Upon reading Alain Locke's The New Negro you see comparisons today to during that time period (1925) of the evolutionary thinking of the black man in today's society. This milestone event allows us now to truly believe that we can accomplish anything as long as we perform hard work and stay focused. The African American race is very proud now of President Obama like they were back then of the great artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Also there is a reetrospective of the outstanding African Americans like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that paved the way for this to happen now as there was back then for men like Frederick Douglass, WEB Dubois, Booker T. Washington, and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Also, this milestone will be written about in future history books like the Harlem Renaissance is today. As for any doubts to his having a successful administrations, if he runs his presidency the way he ran his election I have complete confidence that he will be a great President of the United States. President Obama may be our greatest president ever.

The three pieces of literature that we were required to read for the January 20th class are very interesting. Alain Locke's The New Negro talked about the black man's evolution of thinking from that of inferiority and imitation to that of confidence and equality with other races. This quote from The New Negro is very profound and informs readers of this evolution from that of sympathetic plight and servitude into this evolved of the black male, "The intelligent Negro of today is resolved not to make discrimination an extenuation for his shortcomings in performance, individual or collective; he is trying to hold himself at par, neither inflated by sentimental allowances nor depreciated by current social dicounts. For this he must know himself and be known for precisely what he is, and for that reason he welcomes the new scientific rather than the old sentimental interest." The Criteria of Negro Art speaks of the necessary during this time period (1920's) to imitate Caucasian literature and art by Negro artists in order for it to be accepted and for them to earn a living and how it is asking for originality from the artists and their beking true to themselves. I believe that the true spirit of being an artist of any kind is in being true to yourself and your imagination which is the architect of the aspect of art that you create. The City of Refuge is a satirical piece because of the title where this "haven" brings about the downfall of a man from the South as he encounters a despicable individual upon his initial entrance into Harlem, New York.

Why was the Harlem Renaissance also called the New Negro Movement?

Alain Locke played an important in helping to shape this “New Negro Movement” by editing “The New Negro” a collaboration of essays, stories, poems, and artwork by younger as well as older writers, white and black.This book helped to define the movement by merging racial awareness with a desire for literary and artistic excellence. Also the "Great Migration" of Southern Blacks to the North escaping the racial injustices of the South. This period is a discovery of African Americans and the talent they possess to the world that considered us beasts and savages that are not capable of intelligent thoughts and artistic talent.