During the 20th century, a unique awakening of mind and spirit, racial consciousness, and artistic advancement emerged in New York's African-American community. This emergency gave birth to the largest artistic movement in African-American history. After the failure of the Reconstruction period, the Negro was considered neither a person nor an America. The idea that a Negro was an American was totally unacceptable to the white ruling class. The acceptance of lynching, the denial of the right to vote, equal protection under the law, and equal education and housing in the Southern states asserted their non-personhood in America. Throughout the 20th century, a new generation of blacks, looking back on the slavery of their parents and grandparents, wanted more. They wanted racial equality, they wanted equal justice, they wanted to change the misperception of blacks and their culture in America. How was this possible, what could they do to change things? World War I, the Immigration Act of 1921, the Mississippi River flood of 1927, and other factors led to the Great Migration northward. This allowed thousands of blacks to finally leave the backward Southern states and move to the progressive North. Many immigrated to New York City and ended up in Harlem. Harlem was essentially a Jewish neighborhood, until the black community settled in Harlem, where blacks eventually became the majority. A new black cultural identity began to emerge in Harlem. It came out through social, religious, civic, and cultural organizations, even through newspapers and magazines dedicated to black interests. Listening to t... middle of paper... the night is dark. Black like the depths of my Africa. I was a slave Caesar told me to keep his door steps clean. I brushed Washington's boots. "I was a worker. Under my hands the pyramids arose. I created the mortar for the Woolworth Building. I was a singer. From Africa to Georgia. I brought my songs of pain with me. I made ragtime. I was a victim. The Belgians cut off my hands in the Congo. Works Cited Encyclopeida of The Harlem Renaissance, Aberjhani & West S. (2003) New York, CheckmarkBefore and Beyond Harlem, Berry, F. (1992) New Jersey, Carol Publishing Co. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Rapersad, A. & Roessel, D. (eds.) (1995), New York, Vintage Books