[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 146 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 146
Honoring the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural, social, and
political movement in American history.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 21, 2025
Mr. Espaillat (for himself, Ms. Velazquez, Ms. Meng, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez,
and Ms. Clarke of New York) submitted the following resolution; which
was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Honoring the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural, social, and
political movement in American history.
Whereas the Harlem Renaissance radically redefined the Black experience and
continues to influence future generations of artists, writers, and
intellectuals, creating indelible impacts on culture in the United
States and the world;
Whereas approximately 6,000,000 Black people moved from the American South to
Northern, Midwestern, and Western States between the 1910s until the
1970s, a population shift which we know today as ``The Great
Migration'', one of the largest movements of people in United States
history seeking to escape the radically racist system of Jim Crow
segregation policies;
Whereas ``the Great Migration'' of Blacks from the Southern States and the
arrival of African diasporans notably from the Caribbean and Latin
America seeking economic opportunities, better housing and education,
and social justice and civil rights also served the World War I efforts
as patriotic Americans despite segregation and systemic racial
discrimination in the Army;
Whereas the most celebrated African-American regiment in World War I, the 369th
Infantry Regiment, the Harlem Hellfighters (Black Rattlers), mostly New
Yorkers (Blacks and Latinos) and residents of Harlem, entered the
battlefields on October 15, 1918, fought bravely in the Meuse-Argonne
Offensive alongside the French troops, and were awarded the highest
honor by the French Government, the Croix de Guerre;
Whereas the 369th Infantry Regiment, the Harlem Hellfighters, fought with
bravery in battle, under the leadership of Lieutenant James Reese
Europe, the 369th Regiment military band also became known for its
ragtime music and is credited for introducing American jazz to Europe;
Whereas its triumphant return to the United States and parade which drew
thousands on February 17, 1919, is considered the start of the Harlem
Renaissance era;
Whereas Harlem in New York City was one of the most popular destinations for
these families, a formerly all-White neighborhood that by the 1920s
became home to some 200,000-500,000 African Americans;
Whereas this considerable population shift fostered the birth of an African-
American cultural movement;
Whereas leading organizations such as the National Urban League and the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) headed by
well-known figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, Walter
White, and Jessie Fauset who provided aesthetic guidance and financial
support both for this cultural awakening that spanned from the 1910s to
the mid-1930s, and to withstand and overcome segregated churches,
schools, housing, stores, theaters, hotels, and restaurants which
persisted even in Harlem in one form or another as late as the 1960s;
Whereas, in 1914, Marcus Garvey, of Jamaican descent, founded the United Negro
Improvement Association and advocated for stronger connections between
African Americans and the worldwide African diaspora, was also a leading
intellectual during the Harlem Renaissance;
Whereas educator, writer, and philosopher Alain Locke compiled an anthology
reflecting the works of African Americans seeking social, political, and
artistic change called the ``New Negro'' whose name came to define a
movement which today we know as the Harlem Renaissance;
Whereas statesman Asa Philip Randolph helped establish our Nation's first
federally recognized labor union to protect Black workers, the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, in 1925, in Harlem;
Whereas bold and exciting forms of Black music evolved, along with venues to
listen and to dance to the music such as Harlem's Minton's Playhouse,
the Cotton Club, Small's Paradise, Baby Grand, Lenox Lounge, Savoy
Ballroom, Renaissance Ballroom, and Alhambra Ballroom;
Whereas blues, ragtime, and jazz became the key form of form of cultural
expression in Harlem, where legendary artists such as Scott Joplin,
Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Lena Horne, Bessie Smith,
Count Basie, Ethel Waters, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Ivie
Anderson, Mamie Smith, Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, Jelly Roll Morton, and
many performers composers and arrangers rose to prominence;
Whereas Edward Kennedy ``Duke'' Ellington, with Billy Strayhorn, a gay great
affectionately known as, ``Sweet Pea'', was a composer, pianist, and
jazz orchestra leader for five decades writing over 1,000 songs, and
Louis Armstrong, the ``Jazz Ambassador'', became three of the most
influential musicians in the history of jazz with a distinctive voice
and a unique style;
Whereas the era also saw the burgeoning of literary work by and about African
Americans by writers like Sterling A. Brown, Alice Dunbar Nelson,
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larson, Wallace Thurman, and
Countee Cullen, to name just a few;
Whereas two of the first works that had a significant impact on the culture of
the Harlem Renaissance were the poetry anthologies known as ``Harlem
Shadows'' by Claude McKay and ``Cane'' by Jean Toomer;
Whereas artist Aaron Douglas, a figure of the Harlem Renaissance, ``defined a
modern visual language that represented Black Americans in a new light''
and later became known as the ``father of African-American art'', along
with noted sculptor Richard Barthe and several leading women artists,
including Augusta Savage and Elizabeth Catlett;
Whereas acclaimed Black architects including Vertner Woodson Tandy, George
Washington Foster, John Lewis Wilson, and Norma Merrick Sklarek all
helped to transform the Harlem landscape;
Whereas acclaimed photographers James Van Der Zee, Morgan and Marvin Smith,
Austen Hansen, and Gordon Parks were known as the ``unofficial
chroniclers of African-American life in Harlem'' and their vast
portfolios of formal and informal photographs help to provide a
resounding visual legacy of this moment in history;
Whereas the Harlem Renaissance is remembered for the literature that came from
the movement, including ``Home to Harlem'' by Claude McKay, ``Not
Without Laughter'' by Langston Hughes, ``The Infants of the Spring'' by
Wallace Thurman, ``Smoke Lillies and Jade'' by Richard Bruce Nugent,
``Black No More'' by George Schuyler, and ``Their Eyes Were Watching
God'' by Zora Neale Hurston, and publisher and writer Dorothy West's
``The Living is Easy'';
Whereas the development of Harlem as a Black cultural mecca in the early 20th
century and the subsequent social and artistic movements that produced a
golden era in African-American culture manifested in dance, design,
architecture, poetry, literature, politics, fashion, scholarship, music
and stage performance, and art;
Whereas Harlem attracted a remarkable concentration of intellect and talent and
served as the symbolic capital of this cultural awakening, while other
New York City neighborhoods, as well as communities in Chicago,
Cleveland, and Los Angeles, also nurtured social and creative movements;
Whereas the Harlem Renaissance embraced literary, musical, theatrical, and
visual arts, its participants also sought to foster a new image of ``the
Negro'' that challenged the racist and derogatory stereotypes with which
Whites had characterized Black people and instead sought to engender
pride in Black culture and heritage;
Whereas crucial to the movement were magazines such as The Crisis, published by
the NAACP, Opportunity, published by the National Urban League, and The
Messenger, a socialist journal eventually connected with the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters; and
Whereas the Harlem Renaissance was not dominated by a particular school of
thought but rather characterized by intense debate, the movement laid a
foundation for later African-American literature and consciousness
worldwide: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes that the Harlem Renaissance represented a
pivotal moment in America history for African Americans and the
African diaspora community of intellectuals, artists,
performers, writers, poets, and musicians whose works of
political discourse and creative expression set a path for
self-determination and self-empowerment which is still evident
today;
(2) recognizes that the Harlem Renaissance gave Black
people pride in and control over how the Black experience was
represented in American culture and set the stage for the civil
rights movement and continues to inform the activities of today
for social justice and equal rights;
(3) supports efforts to recognize, promote, preserve, and
celebrate the rich history of the Harlem Renaissance and its
continuum through contemporary interpretive programs;
(4) protects Harlem's historic assets, its cultural legacy,
the rich history of its people against encroachments resulting
in the displacement and uprooting of low- and moderate-income
residents, and undermine its world-renowned cultural identity
and unique neighborhood character, which are economic tools not
only for Harlem, but New York City, in general; and
(5) celebrates the lasting impact of the Harlem Renaissance
on the art, literature, music, discourse, and culture of the
United States.
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