The city of New York is significant to african american literature because a substantial amount of black writers' work originates from there and it continues to influence black culture today. The Great Migration brought many people including african americans to more urban areas like New York City. This movement from southern regions of the United States to northern regions gave rise to the Harlem Renaissance, where a great deal of black authors, poets, and songwriters wrote literature embracing their african american roots. As a result, New York City manufactured its own culture that differed from any other way of life around the world. I have constructed a list of key words to help better understand the importance of urban geography and its relation to New York City.
Lack of Opportunity
African American people were denied the the ability to live a free and equal life in America. They faced disadvantages like oppression, incarceration and discrimination.
Text excerpt: Fredrick Dougla** "Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Dougla**"
"When I carried to him my weekly wages, he would, after counting the money, look me in the face... and say, 'Is this all?' He was satisfied with nothing less than six dollars... sometimes he gave me six cents, to encourage me."
Searching for a Way Out
Black people were constantly looking for a way to escape their inner feelings of rejection through outlets like d** and music.
Text excerpt: Henry Dumas "Will the Circle be Unbroken?"
"The black audience... had begun to move in soundless rhythm as if it were tiny twitching of an embryo. The drums took an oblique...Magwa's hands probed the skins...The audience breathed, and Probe moved into the inner ranges of the sax."
Space
In New York City there is very limited capacity to expand outward, so people there are forced to expand upward into building and skyscrapers. With the cramped spaces, black people feel a need to declare their own territories.
Text excerpt: Helene Johnson "My City"
"But ah! Manhattan's sights and sounds, her smells/ Her crowds, her throbbing force, the thrill that comes/ From being of her part, her subtle spells,/ Her shining towers, her avenues, her slums"
The Corner Life
The notion that black people have no other option than to adhere to the stereotypic behavior of a poor black man living on the streets on New York.
Text excerpt: James Baldwin "Sonny's Blues"
I was sure that was the first time Sonny had ever had [h**n], he couldn't have been much older than these boys now... All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of the movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness."
Survival
African American people were trying to sustain themselves and their families in a country where they were overworked, underpaid, and overall unwanted.
Text excerpt: Harriet Jacobs "The Fugitive Slave Law"
"Ellen liked her school... But when it was accidentally found out that her mother was a fugitive slave, every method was used to increase her advantages and diminish her expenses."
Acceptance
There was an idea that white people thought that black people did not belong in America, but African Americans yearned to be welcomed into their new home.
Text excerpt: Rudolph Fisher "The City of Refuge"
"He was a Negro! Yet most of the vehicles that leaped or crouches at his bidding carried white pa**engers... 'Done died an woke up in Heaven,' thought King Solomon, watching, fascinated."