THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT (1965-1975)
POSTED ON MARCH 21, 2014 BY CONTRIBUTED by HANNAH FOSTER
BLACKPAST
The Black Arts Movement was the name given to a group of politically motivated Black poets, artists, dramatists, musicians, and writers who emerged in the wake of the Black Power Movement. The poet Imamu Amiri Baraka is widely considered to be the father of the Black Arts Movement, which began in 1965 and ended in 1975.
After Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965, those who embraced the Black Power movement often fell into one of two camps: the Revolutionary Nationalists, who were best represented by the Black Panther Party, and the Cultural Nationalists. The latter group called for the creation of poetry, novels, visual arts, and theater to reflect pride in Black history and culture. This new emphasis was an affirmation of the autonomy of Black artists to create Black art for Black people as a means to awaken black consciousness and achieve liberation.
The Black Arts Movement was formally established in 1965 when Baraka opened the Black Arts Repertory Theater in Harlem. The movement had its greatest impact on theater and poetry. Although it began in the New York/Newark Area, it soon spread to Chicago, Illinois, Detroit, Michigan, and San Francisco, California. In Chicago, Hoyt Fuller and John Johnson edited and published Negro Digest (later Black World), which promoted the work of new black literary artists. Also in Chicago, Third World Press published black writers and poets. In Detroit, Lotus Press and Broadside Press republished older works of Black poetry. These Midwestern publishing houses brought recognition to edgy, experimental poets. New black theater groups were also established. In 1969, Robert Chrisman and Nathan Hare established The Black Scholar, which was the first scholarly journal to promote black studies within academia.
There was also a collaboration between the cultural nationalists of the Black Arts Movement and mainstream Black musicians, particularly celebrated jazz musicians including John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Archie Shepp, and others. Cultural nationalists saw jazz as a distinctly Black art form that was more politically appealing than soul, gospel, rhythm, blues, and other genres of black music.
Although the creative works of the movement were often profound and innovative, they also often alienated both Black and White mainstream culture with their raw shock value which often embraced violence. Some of the most prominent works were also seen as racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, and sexist. Many works put forth a Black hyper-masculinity in response to the historical humiliation and degradation of African American men but usually at the expense of some Black female voices.
The movement began to fade when Baraka and other leading members shifted from Black Nationalism to Marxism in the mid-1970s, a shift that alienated many who had previously identified with the movement. Additionally, Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Gil Scott-Heron, Maya Angelou, and James Baldwin achieved cultural recognition and economic success as their works began to be celebrated by the white mainstream.
The Black Arts Movement left behind many timeless and stirring pieces of literature, poetry, and theater. Ironically despite the male-dominated nature of the movement, several black female writers rose to lasting fame including Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, Audre Lorde, and June Jordan, among others. Additionally, the Black Arts Movement helped lay the foundation for modern-day spoken word and hip-hop.
[ https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/black-arts-movement-1965-1975/]
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
- Slavery Comes to North America, 1619 –
1601-1700 1619 Approximately 20 Blacks from a Dutch slaver are purchased as indentured workers for the English settlement of Jamestown. These are the first Africans in the English North American colonies. - Rise of the Cotton Industry, 1793 –
1701-1800 1793 The United States Congress enacts the first Fugitive Slave Law. Providing assistance to fugitive slaves is now a criminal offense. 1701-1800 1793 Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin in Georgia which he patents on March 13. The development of the cotton gin provides a major boost to the slave-based cotton economy of the South. - Nat Turner’s Revolt, August 1831 –
1801-1900 1831 North Carolina enacts a statute that bans teaching slaves to read and write. 1801-1900 1831 Nat Turner leads a slave rebellion in Southampton, Virginia, killing at least 57 Whites. 1801-1900 1831 Alabama makes it illegal for enslaved or free Blacks to preach. - Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad, 1831 –
1801-1900 1831 William Lloyd Garrison of Boston founds The Liberator, the first abolitionist newspaper in the United States. 1801-1900 1831 Jarena Lee’s The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee, A Coloured Lady, was the first autobiography by an African American woman. - Dred Scott Case, March 6, 1857 –
1801-1900 1857 On March 6, the Dred Scott Decision is handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court. - John Brown’s Raid, October 16, 1859 –
1801-1900 1859 On October 16, John Brown leads twenty men, including five African Americans (John Copeland, Shields Green, Lewis S. Leary, Dangerfield Newby, and Osborne Anderson), in an unsuccessful attempt to seize the Federal Armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now We - Civil War and Emancipation, 1861 –
1801-1900 1859 Harriett Wilson of Milford, New Hampshire publishes Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, the first novel by an African American woman. - The Post-Slavery South, 1865 –
1801-1900 1865 On February 1, 1865, Abraham Lincoln signs the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawing slavery throughout the United States. 1801-1900 1865 On March 3, Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau to provide health care, education, and technical assistance to emancipated slaves. Congress also charters the Freedman’s Bank to promote savings and thrift among the ex-slaves. 1801-1900 1865 Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9 at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War. 1801-1900 1865 On April 15, President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in Washington, D.C. 1801-1900 1865 On June 19, enslaved African Americans in Texas finally receive news of their emancipation. From that point, they commemorate that day as Juneteenth. 1801-1900 1865 Between September and November, a number of ex-Confederate states pass so-called Black Codes. 1801-1900 1865 The Ku Klux Klan is formed on December 24th in Pulaski, Tennessee by six educated, middle-class former Confederate veterans. The Klan soon adopts terror tactics to thwart the aspirations of the formerly enslaved and their supporters. 1801-1900 1865 John S. Rock is the first African American to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. 1801-1900 1865 Martin R. Delany‘s appointment as Major by President Abraham Lincoln makes him the highest-ranking African American officer during the Civil War. 1801-1900 1865 On January 16, General William T. Sherman issues Special Field Order No. 15 which gives 400,000 acres of abandoned coastal land in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida to formerly enslaved people. This order becomes the basis for subsequent “40 acres and a mule. 1801-1900 1865 With the approval of the Georgia Legislature on December 6, the 13th Amendment took effect and outlawed slavery throughout the United States and its possessions. 1801-1900 1889 Frederick Douglass is appointed Minister to Haiti. - ‘Separate But Equal,’ 1896 –
1801-1900 1896 Plessey v. Ferguson is decided on May 18 when the U.S. Supreme Court rules that Southern segregation laws and practices (Jim Crow) do not conflict with the 13th and 14th Amendments. The Court defends its ruling by articulating the separate but equal doctrine 1801-1900 1896 On July 21 the National Association of Colored Women is formed in Washington, D.C. Mary Church Terrell is chosen as its first president. 1801-1900 1896 In September George Washington Carver is appointed director of agricultural research at Tuskegee Institute. His work advances peanut, sweet potato, and soybean farming. - Washington, Carver & Du Bois, 1900 –
1801-1900 1900 In January James Weldon Johnson writes the lyrics and his brother John Rosamond Johnson composes the music for Lift Every Voice and Sing in their hometown of Jacksonville, Florida in celebration of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. The song is eventually referred to as the Black (Negro) Anthem. 1801-1900 1900 On August 23, the National Negro Business League is founded in Boston by Booker T. Washington to promote business enterprise. - NAACP Founded, 1909 –
1801-1900 1900 An estimated 30,000 black teachers have been trained since the end of the U.S. Civil War in 1865. They are a major factor in helping more than half the Black population achieve literacy by this date. 1901-2000 1903 W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folks is published on April 27. In it Du Bois rejects the gradualism of Booker T. Washington, calling for agitation on behalf of African American rights. - Marcus Garvey and the UNIA, 1916 –
1901-2000 1916 Marcus Garvey founds the New York Division of the Universal Negro Improvement Association with sixteen members. Four years later the UNIA holds its national convention in Harlem. At its height, the organization claims nearly two million members. 1901-2000 1916 In January the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) begins publishing the Journal of Negro History which becomes the first scholarly journal devoted to the study of African American history. - Harlem Renaissance, 1920
1901-2000 1920 Former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson opens the Club Deluxe in Harlem. Two years later gangster Owney Madden buys the club and changes its name to the Cotton Club. - African Americans in WWII, 1941
1901-2000 1921 Shuffle Along by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake opens on Broadway on May 23. This is the first major play of the Harlem Renaissance. 1901-2000 1924 Photographer James Van Der Zee begins his career by capturing images of Marcus Garvey and the UNIA. 1901-2000 1925 The New Negro by Alain Locke is published in New York City. 1901-2000 1926 Carter G. Woodson establishes Negro History Week in February between the Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass Birthdays. 1901-2000 1926 The Carnegie Corporation purchases Arturo Schomburg‘s collection of books and artifacts on African American life. The collection becomes the basis for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City. 1901-2000 1927 Chicago businessman Abe Saperstein forms the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team in Chicago on January 30. 1901-2000 1929 Fats Waller‘s musical, Aint Misbehavin, opens on Broadway. 1901-2000 1932 Gospel Composer Thomas Dorsey writes “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” 1901-2000 1932 Dudley Murphy releases the film The Emperor Jones starring Paul Robeson. 1901-2000 1934 Zora Neale Hurston‘s first novel, Jonahs Gourd Vine, is published. 1901-2000 1934 After operating under a number of names, the Apollo Theater opens under its current name in Harlem. 1901-2000 1937 In October, Katherine Dunham forms the Negro Dance Group, a company of Black artists dedicated to presenting aspects of African American and African-Caribbean Dance. The company eventually becomes the Katherine Dunham Group. 1901-2000 1938 Jacob Lawrence holds his first solo exhibition at the Harlem YMCA and completes his Toussaint L’Overture series. 1901-2000 1939 Popular contralto Marian Anderson sings at Lincoln Memorial before 75,000 people on Easter Sunday after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to perform at Constitution Hall. 1901-2000 1939 Bill Bojangles Robinson organizes the Black Actors Guild. 1901-2000 1940 On February 29, Hattie McDaniel receives an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in her role in Gone With the Wind. She becomes the first Black actor to win an Academy Award. 1901-2000 1940 Richard Wright publishes his first novel, Native Son. 1901-2000 1941 Mary Lucinda Dawson founds the National Negro Opera Company in Pittsburgh. 1901-2000 1942 While teaching at Livingstone College in North Carolina, Margaret Walker publishes For My People, which she began as her master’s thesis at the University of Iowa. - Jackie Robinson, 1947
1901-2000 1948 Timmie Rogers, comedian, dancer, and singer, launches the first all-Black variety show, Sugar Hill Times, on CBS Television. 1901-2000 1950 On May 1, Gwendolyn Brooks of Chicago becomes the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize. She wins the prize in Poetry. 1901-2000 1950 Juanita Hall became the first African American to win a Tony award. She was honored for her role in the Broadway play, South Pacific. 1901-2000 1952 Ralph Ellison publishes Invisible Man. 1901-2000 1953 James Baldwin publishes his first novel, the semi-autobiographical Go Tell It On The Mountain. - Brown v. Board Of Education, May 17, 1954
1901-2000 1954 On May 17, the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education declares segregation in all public schools in the United States unconstitutional, nullifying the earlier judicial doctrine of separate but equal. 1901-2000 1954 Malcolm X becomes Minister of the Nation of Islam‘s Harlem Temple 7. - Emmett Till, August 1955
1901-2000 1955 On January 7 Marian Anderson becomes the first African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera - Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, December 1955
1901-2000 1956 On November 11, Nat King Cole becomes the first African American to host a prime time variety show on national television. He appears on NBC. 1901-2000 1956 Harry Belafonte‘s “Calypso,” released by RCA Records, is the first album in history to sell more than one million copies. - Central High School integrated, September 1957
1901-2000 1958 The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater is formed in New York. 1901-2000 1959 Lorraine Hansberry‘s “A Raisin in the Sun” opens in New York on March 11 with Sidney Poitier in the starring role. It is the first play by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. 1901-2000 1959 Ella Fitzgerald and William “Count” Basie become the first African American performers to win Grammy awards. - Sit-in Movement and Founding of SNCC, 1960
1901-2000 1960 On Nov. 8, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy defeats Vice President Richard Nixon in one of the closest elections in history. Many observers credit African American voters with Kennedy’s narrow margin of victory. - CORE and Freedom Rides, May 1961
- Integration of Ole Miss, September 1962
- Birmingham Church Bombed, 1963
- ‘I Have a Dream,’ 1963
- Civil Rights Act of 1964, July 1964
1901-2000 1964 Sidney Poitier wins the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film, “Lilies of the Field.” He is the first African American male actor to win in that category. - Freedom Summer and the ‘Mississippi Burning’ Murders, June 1964
1901-2000 1964 On June 21 civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner are abducted and killed by terrorists in Mississippi. - Selma to Montgomery March, March 1965
- Malcolm X Shot to Death, February 1965
- Voting Rights Act of 1965, August 1965
1901-2000 1965 Alex Haley publishes The Autobiography of Malcolm X. - Rise of Black Power 1966
1901-2000 1966 On October 15, The Black Panther Party is formed in Oakland, California by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. 1901-2000 1967 On November 13, Carl Stokes and Richard G. Hatcher are elected the first Black mayors of Cleveland and Gary, Indiana, respectively. - Fair Housing Act, April 1968
- MLK Assassinated, April 4, 1968
1901-2000 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4. In the wake of the assassination 125 cities in 29 states experience uprisings. By April 11, 46 people are killed and 35,000 are injured in these confrontations. 1901-2000 1968 New York Senator and Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated on June 5 in Los Angeles. 1901-2000 1969 On December 4, Chicago police kill Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clarke. 1901-2000 1969 Jimi Hendrix headlines the Woodstock Musical Festival near Bethel, New York between August 15 and August 18. Over 500,000 people attend what is to that point the largest musical concert in history. 1901-2000 1970 On October 12, Charles Gordone becomes the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his play, “No Place to Be Somebody.“ 1901-2000 1971 Beverly Johnson is the first Black woman to appear on the cover of a major fashion magazine (Glamour). - Shirley Chisholm Runs for President, 1972
1901-2000 1977 The eighth and final night for the miniseries based on Alex Haley‘s Roots is shown on February 3. This final episode achieves the highest ratings to that point for a single television program. - The Bakke Decision and Affirmative Action, 1978
1901-2000 1978 Max Robinson becomes the first Black network anchor when he begins broadcasting for ABC-TV News from Chicago. 1901-2000 1979 The Sugar Hill Gang records “Rappers Delight” in Harlem. 1901-2000 1982 Bryant Gumbel is named anchor of The Today Show, becoming the first African American to hold the post on a major network. 1901-2000 1982 Michael Jackson‘s album, Thriller, is released. It will eventually sell 45 million copies worldwide, becoming the best selling album in music history. 1901-2000 1983 Vanessa Williams becomes the first African American crowned Miss America on September 18 in Atlantic City. In July 1984 she relinquishes her crown to Suzette Charles when nude photos of her appear in Penthouse magazine. 1901-2000 1983 On November 2, President Ronald Reagan signs a bill establishing January 20 as a federal holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. 1901-2000 1983 Alice Walker‘s The Color Purple wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. - Jesse Jackson Galvanizes Black Voters, 1984
1901-2000 1984 In September The Cosby Show starring Bill Cosby makes its television debut. The show runs for eight seasons and will become the most successful series in television history featuring a mostly African American cast. 1901-2000 1985 Gwendolyn Brooks of Chicago is named U.S. Poet-Laureate. She is the first African American to hold that honor. - Oprah Winfrey Launches Syndicated Talk Show, 1986
1901-2000 1987 Rita Dove wins the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Art and Literature 1901-2000 1987 August Wilson‘s play, Fences, wins a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award. 1901-2000 1987 Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. 1901-2000 1990 August Wilson wins a Pulitzer Prize for the play The Piano Lesson. 1901-2000 1991 Julie Dash releases Daughters of the Dust, the first feature film by an African American woman. - Los Angeles Riots, 1992
1901-2000 1993 On October 7, Toni Morrison becomes the first Black American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The work honored is her novel, Beloved. - Million Man March 1995
1901-2000 1995 The Million Man March organized by Minister Louis Farrakhan and other political activists is held in Washington, D.C. on October 17. - Colin Powell Becomes Secretary of State, 2001
2001- 2002 In March, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington win Oscars for best actress and best actor for their portrayals in Monster’s Ball and Training Day respectively. - Barack Obama Becomes 44th US President, 2008
- The Black Lives Matter Movement 2013
- George Floyd Protests 2020
- Kamala Harris Becomes the First Woman and First Black US Vice President, 2021
