Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • When The Negro Was in Vogue Text - Questions

    Uploaded by

    Sabrina Gomez
    305 views3 pages
    Hughes describes the 1920s as the height of the Harlem Renaissance, when white people became fascinated with Harlem culture and nightlife. However, Hughes notes that ordinary black residents did not feel the benefits and did not appreciate white patrons treating black clubs like zoos. Hughes was skeptical that white interest would last, as it could not overcome the fundamental racial inequality of the time.

    Original Description:

    Original Title

    When the Negro was in Vogue text _ questions

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    Hughes describes the 1920s as the height of the Harlem Renaissance, when white people became fascinated with Harlem culture and nightlife. However, Hughes notes that ordinary black residents did not feel the benefits and did not appreciate white patrons treating black clubs like zoos. Hughes was skeptical that white interest would last, as it could not overcome the fundamental racial inequality of the time.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    305 views3 pages

    When The Negro Was in Vogue Text - Questions

    Uploaded by

    Sabrina Gomez
    Hughes describes the 1920s as the height of the Harlem Renaissance, when white people became fascinated with Harlem culture and nightlife. However, Hughes notes that ordinary black residents did not feel the benefits and did not appreciate white patrons treating black clubs like zoos. Hughes was skeptical that white interest would last, as it could not overcome the fundamental racial inequality of the time.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    “When the Negro was in Vogue” by Langston Hughes (1940

    excerpt)
    “The 1920s were the years of Manhattan’s black Renaissance. . . .
    White people began to come to Harlem in droves. For several years they packed the
    expensive Cotton Club on Lenox Avenue. But I was never there, because the Cotton Club was a Jim
    Crow club for gangsters and monied whites. They were not cordial to Negro patronage, unless you
    were a celebrity like Bojangles. So Harlem Negroes did not like the Cotton Club and never
    appreciated its Jim Crow policy in the very heart of their dark community. Nor did ordinary Negroes
    like the growing influx of whites toward Harlem after sundown, flooding the little cabarets and bars
    where formerly only colored people laughed and sang, and where now the strangers were given the
    best ringside tables to sit and stare at the Negro customers—like amusing animals in a zoo.
    The Negroes said: “We can’t go downtown and sit and stare at you in your clubs. You won’t
    even let us in your clubs.” But they didn’t say it out loud—for Negroes are practically never rude to
    white people. So thousands of whites came to Harlem night after night, thinking the Negroes loved
    to have them there, and firmly believing that all Harlemites left their houses at sundown to sing and
    dance in cabarets, because most of the whites saw nothing but the cabarets, not the houses. . . .
    It was a period when, at almost every Harlem upper-crust dance or party, one would be
    introduced to various distinguished white celebrities there as guests. It was a period when almost
    any Harlem Negro of any social importance at all would be likely to say casually: “As I was remarking
    the other day to Heywood—,” meaning Heywood Broun. Or: “As I said to George—,” referring to
    George Gershwin. It was a period when local and visiting royalty were not at all uncommon in
    Harlem. And when the parties of A’Lelia Walker, the Negro heiress, were filled with guests whose
    names would turn any Nordic social climber green with envy. It was a period when Harold Jackman,
    a handsome young Harlem schoolteacher of modest means, calmly announced one day that he was
    sailing for the Riviera for a fortnight, to attend Princess Murat’s yachting party. It was a period
    when Charleston preachers opened up shouting churches as sideshows for white tourists. It was a
    period when at least one charming colored chorus girl, amber enough to pass for a Latin American,
    was living in a penthouse, with all her bills paid by a gentleman whose name was banker’s magic on
    Wall Street. It was a period when every season there was at least one hit play on Broadway acted
    by a Negro cast. And when books by Negro authors were being published with much greater
    frequency and much more publicity than ever before or since in history. It was a period when white
    writers wrote about Negroes more successfully (commercially speaking) than Negroes did about
    themselves. It was the period (God help us!) when Ethel Barrymore appeared in blackface in Scarlet
    Sister Mary! It was the period when the Negro was in vogue.
    I was there. I had a swell time while it lasted. But I thought it wouldn’t last long….for how
    could a large and enthusiastic number of people be crazy about Negroes forever. But some
    Harlemites thought the millennium had come. They thought the race problem had at last been
    solved through Art plus Gladys Bentley. They were sure the New Negro would lead a new life from
    then on in green pastures of tolerance created by Countee Cullen, Ethel Waters, Claude McKay,
    Duke Ellington, Bojangles, and Alain Locke.
    I don’t know what made any Negroes think that-except that were mostly intellectuals doing
    the thinking. The ordinary Negroes hadn’t heard of the Negro Renaissance. And if they had, it
    hadn’t raised their wages any….
     
    Read the excerpt above and answer the following questions (10 points total):
     
    1. What impressions of Harlem in the 1920s did you get from reading this essay? Write down
    words and phrases describing your impression and draw a sketch of Harlem in the 1920s based
    on your impression. (2 points)

    2. Why do you think white America suddenly became fascinated by Harlem? To formulate your
    response, think about the connotation of the word “vogue”, the different cultural attractions
    that Hughes describes, the reason Hughes gives for the closing of many Jim Crow clubs, and the
    state of race relations in the 1920s.

    3. What irony do you see in the situation described in this essay?

    4. Determine whether Hughes is objective in his writing or whether he seems sympathetic to


    any particular group. Support your conclusion with evidence from the essay. (2 points)

    5. How might the perspective of this essay be different if it had been written by one of the
    whites who “came to Harlem night after night” rather than by Hughes?

    6. How does Hughes’ use of the anaphora (“it was a period”) in the 3 rd paragraph reinforce the
    idea that the “equality” of Harlem couldn’t last?

    6. In this essay, Hughes mentions some of the African American cultural achievements and
    celebrities of the Harlem Renaissance. What specific cultural achievement and important
    celebrity might you include in an essay about African Americans today? Choose 1 each
    (achievement & celebrity). make sure to justify your choices. (2 points)

    You might also like