IV 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 918 
Honoring the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural, social, and 
political movement in American history. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 9, 2022 
Mr. ESPAILLAT (for himself, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. 
NADLER, Mr. BOWMAN, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Mr. 
MEEKS, Mr. JEFFRIES, Mr. SUOZZI, Ms. MENG, Mr. TORRES of New 
York, Mr. JONES, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. NORTON, Mr. EVANS, Mr. 
BISHOP of Georgia, and Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform 
RESOLUTION 
Honoring the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural, 
social, and political movement in American history. 
Whereas the Harlem Renaissance radically redefined the 
Black experience and continues to influence future gen-
erations of artists, writers, and intellectuals, creating in-
delible impacts on culture in the United States and the 
world; 
Whereas approximately 6,000,000 Black people moved from 
the American South to Northern, Midwestern, and West-
ern States between the 1910s until the 1970s, a popu-
lation shift which we know today as ‘‘The Great Migra-
tion’’, one of the largest movements of people in United 
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•HRES 918 IH 
States history seeking to escape the radically racist sys-
tem of Jim Crow segregation policies; 
Whereas ‘‘the Great Migration’’ of Blacks from the Southern 
States and the arrival of African diasporans notably from 
the Caribbean and Latin America seeking economic op-
portunities, better housing and education, and social jus-
tice and civil rights also served the World War I efforts 
as patriotic Americans despite segregation and systemic 
racial discrimination in the Army; 
Whereas the most celebrated African-American regiment in 
World War I, the 369th Infantry Regiment, the Harlem 
Hellfighters (Black Rattlers), mostly New Yorkers 
(Blacks and Latinos) and residents of Harlem, entered 
the battlefields on October 15, 1918, fought bravely in 
the Meuse-Argonne Offensive alongside the French 
troops, and were awarded the highest honor by the 
French Government, the Croix de Guerre; 
Whereas 
the 
369th 
Infantry 
Regiment, 
the 
Harlem 
Hellfighters, fought with bravery in battle, under the 
leadership of Lieutenant James Reese Europe, the 369th 
Regiment military band also became known for its rag-
time music and is credited for introducing American jazz 
to Europe; 
Whereas its triumphant return to the United States and pa-
rade which drew thousands on February 17, 1919, is 
considered the start of the Harlem Renaissance era; 
Whereas Harlem in New York City was one of the most pop-
ular destinations for these families, a formerly all-White 
neighborhood that by the 1920s became home to some 
200,000–500,000 African Americans; 
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•HRES 918 IH 
Whereas this considerable population shift fostered the birth 
of an African-American cultural movement; 
Whereas leading organizations such as the National Urban 
League and the National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People (NAACP) headed by well-known 
figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, 
Walter White, and Jessie Fauset who provided aesthetic 
guidance and financial support both for this cultural 
awakening that spanned from the 1910s to the mid- 
1930s, and to withstand and overcome segregated 
churches, schools, housing, stores, theaters, hotels, and 
restaurants which persisted even in Harlem in one form 
or another as late as the 1960s; 
Whereas in 1914, Marcus Garvey, of Jamaican descent, 
founded the United Negro Improvement Association and 
advocated for stronger connections between African 
Americans and the worldwide African diaspora, was also 
a leading intellectual during the Harlem Renaissance; 
Whereas educator, writer, and philosopher Alain Locke com-
piled an anthology reflecting the works of African Ameri-
cans seeking social, political, and artistic change called 
the ‘‘New Negro’’ whose name came to define a move-
ment which today we know as the Harlem Renaissance; 
Whereas statesman Asa Philip Randolph helped establish our 
Nation’s first federally recognized labor union to protect 
Black workers, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 
in 1925, in Harlem; 
Whereas bold and exciting forms of Black music evolved, 
along with venues to listen and to dance to the music 
such as Harlem’s Minton’s Playhouse, the Cotton Club, 
Small’s Paradise, Baby Grand, Lenox Lounge, Savoy 
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Ballroom, Renaissance Ballroom, and Alhambra Ball-
room; 
Whereas blues, ragtime, and jazz became the key form of 
form of cultural expression in Harlem, where legendary 
artists such as Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong, Duke 
Ellington, Cab Calloway, Lena Horne, Bessie Smith, 
Count Basie, Ethel Waters, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holi-
day, Ivie Anderson, Mamie Smith, Noble Sissle, Eubie 
Blake, Jelly Roll Morton, and many performers com-
posers and arrangers rose to prominence; 
Whereas Edward Kennedy ‘‘Duke’’ Ellington, with Billy 
Strayhorn, a gay great affectionately known as, ‘‘Sweet 
Pea’’, was a composer, pianist, and jazz orchestra leader 
for five decades writing over 1,000 songs, and Louis 
Armstrong, the ‘‘Jazz Ambassador’’, became three of the 
most influential musicians in the history of jazz with a 
distinctive voice and a unique style; 
Whereas the era also saw the burgeoning of literary work by 
and about African Americans by writers like Sterling A. 
Brown, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Langston Hughes, Zora 
Neale Hurston, Nella Larson, Wallace Thurman, and 
Countee Cullen, to name just a few; 
Whereas two of the first works that had a significant impact 
on the culture of the Harlem Renaissance were the po-
etry anthologies known as ‘‘Harlem Shadows’’ by Claude 
McKay and ‘‘Cane’’ by Jean Toomer; 
Whereas artist Aaron Douglas, a figure of the Harlem Ren-
aissance, ‘‘defined a modern visual language that rep-
resented Black Americans in a new light’’ and later be-
came known as the ‘‘father of African-American art’’, 
along with noted sculptor Richard Barthe and several 
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•HRES 918 IH 
leading women artists, including Augusta Savage and 
Elizabeth Catlett; 
Whereas acclaimed Black architects including Vertner Wood-
son Tandy, George Washington Foster, John Lewis Wil-
son, and Norma Merrick Sklarek all helped to transform 
the Harlem landscape; 
Whereas acclaimed photographers James Van Der Zee, Mor-
gan and Marvin Smith, Austen Hansen, and Gordon 
Parks were known as the ‘‘unofficial chroniclers of Afri-
can-American life in Harlem’’ and their vast portfolios of 
formal and informal photographs help to provide a re-
sounding visual legacy of this moment in history; 
Whereas the Harlem Renaissance is remembered for the lit-
erature that came from the movement, including ‘‘Home 
to Harlem’’ by Claude McKay, ‘‘Not Without Laughter’’ 
by Langston Hughes, ‘‘The Infants of the Spring’’ by 
Wallace Thurman, ‘‘Smoke Lillies and Jade’’ by Richard 
Bruce Nugent, ‘‘Black No More’’ by George Schuyler, 
and ‘‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’’ by Zora Neale 
Hurston, and publisher and writer Dorothy West’s ‘‘The 
Living is Easy’’; 
Whereas the development of Harlem as a Black cultural 
mecca in the early 20th century and the subsequent so-
cial and artistic movements that produced a golden era 
in African-American culture manifested in dance, design, 
architecture, poetry, literature, politics, fashion, scholar-
ship, music and stage performance, and art; 
Whereas Harlem attracted a remarkable concentration of in-
tellect and talent and served as the symbolic capital of 
this cultural awakening, while other New York City 
neighborhoods, as well as communities in Chicago, Cleve-
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•HRES 918 IH 
land, and Los Angeles, also nurtured social and creative 
movements; 
Whereas the Harlem Renaissance embraced literary, musical, 
theatrical, and visual arts, its participants also sought to 
foster a new image of ‘‘the Negro’’ that challenged the 
racist and derogatory stereotypes with which Whites had 
characterized Black people and instead sought to engen-
der pride in Black culture and heritage; 
Whereas crucial to the movement were magazines such as 
The Crisis, published by the NAACP, Opportunity, pub-
lished by the National Urban League, and The Mes-
senger, a socialist journal eventually connected with the 
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; and 
Whereas the Harlem Renaissance was not dominated by a 
particular school of thought but rather characterized by 
intense debate, the movement laid a foundation for later 
African-American literature and consciousness worldwide: 
Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) recognizes that the Harlem Renaissance 
represented a pivotal moment in America history for 
African Americans and the African diaspora commu-
nity of intellectuals, artists, performers, writers, 
poets, and musicians whose works of political dis-
course and creative expression set a path for self-de-
termination and self-empowerment which is still evi-
dent today; 
(2) recognizes that the Harlem Renaissance 
gave Black people pride in and control over how the 
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•HRES 918 IH 
Black experience was represented in American cul-
ture and set the stage for the civil rights movement 
and continues to inform the activities of today for 
social justice and equal rights; 
(3) supports efforts to recognize, promote, pre-
serve, and celebrate the rich history of the Harlem 
Renaissance and its continuum through contem-
porary interpretive programs; 
(4) protects Harlem’s historic assets, its cul-
tural legacy, the rich history of its people against en-
croachments resulting in the displacement and up-
rooting of low- and moderate-income residents, and 
undermine its world-renowned cultural identity and 
unique neighborhood character, which are economic 
tools not only for Harlem, but New York City, in 
general; and 
(5) celebrates the lasting impact of the Harlem 
Renaissance on the art, literature, music, discourse, 
and culture of the United States. 
Æ 
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