"Migration of the Negro" by Jacob Lawrence, 1940

This webquest directs students to examine two websites on the Harlem Renaissance.  Students will choose from various examples of visual art and poetry created by New York artists of the 1920s and 1930s.  Students will also visit an online exhibit on the Harlem Renaissance at the Schomburg Center of Research in Black Culture, created by the New York Public Library and hosted by the University of Michigan.

U.S. Harlem Renaissance Web Quest

Students will examine three early political and cultural African American leaders. Through task rotation, discussion, and debate, students will ultimately evaluate each of the leaders using a student-created decision making matrix.

Booker T. Washington Sources:

The Atlanta Compromise Speech

The Atlanta Compromise Speech--Modified Version

Washington on Race Relations

Washington and his Critics

Washington v. DuBois

Christian Recorder Editorial

W.E.B. DuBois Sources:

On African Americans in WWI

The Souls of Black Folk

The Niagra Movement

DuBois Criticizes Washington

Washington v. DuBois

Marcus Garvey Sources:

Excerpt from a speech at Liberty Hall, 1922

Life and Lessons: Primary Sources from Marcus Garvey

New Spirit of the Negro by Dr. Scarborough

The Chicago Race Riot, 1919: Multiple Perspectives

Property Owners Journal

Reaping the Whirlwind: The Chicago Defender

Federation of Labor

Unsettling the Race Problem: The Chicago Tribune

Taft on the Race Riot

Tuttle on the Race Riot

Additional Primary Sources:

Post-WWI Political Cartoon

Black Population Map

Blacks and WWI

School Enrollment Graph

James Weldon Johnson Describes Harlem

Jim Crow Photo

Presentations on Leadership For Social Justice:

Instruction Sheet

Billie Holiday's and Abe Meeropol's commentary on lynching in 1938.

Background and Lyrics to "Strange Fruit."

Audio link to "Strange Fruit."

A photograph that captures the brutality of lynching.