Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson and the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance (c. 1918–37) was a blossoming of African American culture, particularly in the creative arts, and the most influential movement in African American literary history. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to reconceptualize “the Negro” apart from the white stereotypes that had influenced black peoples’ relationship to their heritage and to each other. They also sought to break free of Victorian moral values and bourgeois shame about aspects of their lives that might, as seen by whites, reinforce racist beliefs. Never dominated by a particular school of thought but rather characterized by intense debate, the movement laid the groundwork for all later African American literature and had an enormous impact on subsequent black literature and consciousness worldwide. While the renaissance was not confined to the Harlem district of New York City, Harlem attracted a remarkable concentration of intellect and talent and served as the symbolic capital of this cultural awakening. (britannica.com)
On the dance floor, young couples raised eyebrows by gyrating wildly to jazz. Jazz became the music of the age as black musicians — notably “King” Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and composer W.C. Handy — mixed African rhythms with a cornucopia of American sounds and brought the melodious concoction with them north from New Orleans to Kansas City, St. Louis, and then Chicago and New York. The lives of many African-Americans were also changing. Beginning in 1917, more and more decided to forsake dead-end southern sharecropping for a chance at a new life in the rapidly expanding industrial north. By the end of the 1920s, about one million had migrated to cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland, taking poorly paid jobs whites did not want. Excluded from most conventional opportunities, many blacks also went into business on their own, including Garrett Morgan, the first to mass-produce the traffic light. The Harlem area in New York City produced a veritable explosion of African American literature. Langston Hughes’ poetry and prose contributed much to this flowering of black culture and pride. Black huckster Marcus Garvey rose and fell, but his calls for Black Nationalism caused many Americans, both black and white, to examine their own attitudes on race. (Dr. Peter Bales)
Documentary: Bill Bojangles Robinson
Link on YouTube: https://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=UWtImcRU_ug
Based upon the above documentary, write the following essay:
In the first part of your essay, describe the Harlem Renaissance. Bill “Bojangles” Robinson embraced the Harlem Renaissance and it catapulted him to even greater stardom. Explain.
In the second part of your essay, discuss Bill Robinson’s goals when he went out to Hollywood to make movies, and the issues he had to deal with as he tried to achieve those goals.
Conclude with a paragraph discussing why you think so many people of all stripes turned out to honor him at his public funeral in New York City in 1949.
Each essay should be around one to two typed pages (double-spaced/12 pt. font) containing two paragraphs or more. You are trying to show me what you learned, so the more detail and explanation you provide the better. Writing does count, so look over your work for clarity, spelling, and grammar. Also be sure to use capital letters properly for names, places, and institutions.
The only materials you are allowed to use must come ONLY from sources I provide, whether they be online lectures, readings in your textbook, assigned documentaries, or PowerPoint presentations. Those that plagiarize will fail the course and be reported, while those using materials from outside the lectures, but have not plagiarized, will receive a zero on any question in which any outside material is used. In other words, do not copy anything from the internet, paste it into your essay, and try to pass it off as your work. Just don’t do it. All of your submissions are run through “SafeAssign,” a program that searches the internet and reports plagiarism.
MAKE SURE ALL YOUR ESSAYS ARE IN MICROSOFT WORD FORMAT AND DOUBLE-SPACED NOT SINGLE-SPACED.