The “New Negro” and the Great Depression 1900–1939
African American History
The “New Negro” and the Great Depression 1900–1939
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1900 |
First Pan-African Congress convenes in London to promote the liberation of colonized people; W.E.B. Du Bois serves as secretary |
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Composers Scott Joplin and Eubie Blake pioneer ragtime music |
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1901 |
Booker T. Washington organizes the National Negro Business League |
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1903 |
W.E.B. Du Bois publishes The Souls of Black Folk |
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1905 |
Robert S. Abbott publishes the Chicago Defender,which becomes a major newspaper for African American current events and opinion; it reaches a national circulation of 250,000 by 1929 | |
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1906 |
State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs incorporates Alpha Phi Alpha as the first black Greek letter fraternity, for undergraduates at Cornell University | |
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1907 |
Alain Locke becomes the first African American to receive a Rhodes Scholarship |
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1909 |
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is created under the direction of W.E.B. Du Bois | |
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1910 |
NAACP begins publishing Crisis magazine | |
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1911 |
National Urban League is founded to train young African American men and women as social workers and provide fellowships to students |
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c. 1915 |
Great Migration begins as African Americans in large numbers begin to flee the socially repressive South in search of jobs in wartime industries and better social conditions in the North; between 1910 and 1930, one million blacks settle in Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; and New York City |
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1917 |
300,000 African Americans serve in the U.S. armed forces in World War I | |
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1918 |
Cyril Briggs founds the African Blood Brotherhood, a radical black nationalist organization |
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1919 |
“Red Summer” in which race riots occur in twenty-six U.S. cities |
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Marcus Garvey organizes and leads the first major black nationalist movement in the U.S., advocating separatism and racial purity |
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1920s |
Decade of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural flourishing of African American visual artists, writers, musicians, and performers who garner recognition and access to white cultural institutions and patronage; the renaissance, also called the New Negro Movement, develops in Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City, and extends nationally |
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1923 |
Blues singer Bessie Smith records the hit song “Down Hearted Blues,” which sells 800,000 copies |
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1924 |
U.S. Immigration Act restricts the number of persons of African descent, mainly from the West Indies, permitted to enter the country in favor of immigrants from Western Europe |
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1926 |
Historian Carter G. Woodson establishes “Negro History Week” to commemorate the achievements of African Americans |
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Arthur Schomburg donates his personal collection of black literature to the New York Public Library’s Division of Negro Literature; renamed the Schomburg Collection of Black Culture, it is considered one of the foremost repositories of black literary artifacts in the world |
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1930s |
Economic effects of the Great Depression devastate the nation and African Americans in particular |
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1931 |
Nine African American men, known as the Scottsboro Boys, are falsely accused and convicted of rape in Alabama |
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Jazz composer and pianist Duke Ellington records “Creole Rhapsody,” marking the beginning of his experimentation with new jazz forms |
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1933 |
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal allows many black artists to benefit from federal arts projects and establishes dialogue between the federal government and African American officials |
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1936 |
African American track-and-field athlete Jesse Owens challenges Nazi myths of white superiority by winning four gold medals at the Olympic Games in Berlin |
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| Reelection of President Franklin D. Roosevelt marks the first time a large majority of African Americans vote for a Democratic candidate | ||
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Roosevelt appoints Mary McLeod Bethune to the newly established Office of Minority Affairs |
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1938 |
NAACP appoints Thurgood Marshall as a special counsel responsible for all cases; he remains in this capacity until 1961, when he serves as a federal judge in the circuit court of appeals |
