The Harlem Renaissance began as a literary and creative movement for Black intellectuals in Manhattan, New York. Poets, novelists, and painters, through their work, depicted the lives of African Americans and what life was like in America as a person of color. Before the Harlem Renaissance African American literature and art had become prominent during the 1800s. Among those was Carter G. Woodson, the son of Virginia slaves who went on to earn a Ph.D. in history at Harvard, created many associations that aimed for representation in telling the black narrative. This era helped African Americans gain control over the representation of black culture and experience. Some novelists and artists that paved the way for the Black Pride movement were W.E.B DuBois, Langston Hughes, Claude Mckay's breakthrough in the poetry of his collection Harlem Shadows in 1922. Zora Neale Hurston, an anthropologist, and folklorist also had input during the Harlem renaissance working for FIRE a publisher back then that exoticized the lives of Harlem residents through their magazine.
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