I didn’t go back there [Eatonville, Florida] so that the home folks could make admiration over me because I had been up North to college and come back with a diploma and a Chevrolet. I knew they were not going to pay either one of these items too much mind … they’d stand flat-footed and tell me that they didn’t have me, neither my sham-polish, to study ‘bout. And that would have been that.Footnote 1
—Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men
In her 1930s work, Mules and Men, novelist, anthropologist, and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston offered readers an in-depth look at Black Southern rural life, especially its diverse songs, stories, customs, conjure, and rituals. She also documented experiences that later helped highlight the “beyond Harlem” realities of the New Negro or Harlem Renaissance in both popular and scholarly discussions. Like many Harlem Renaissance writers, musicians, and visual and performing artists, Zora Neale Hurston—born in Alabama but raised in Florida—has a biography that underscores the importance of the Great Migration to the Harlem Renaissance. Born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama, Hurston moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida, as a toddler, where she thrived in the nation’s first incorporated all-Black town and drew inspiration for her later work, especially Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). Hurston left Florida to live and study in Baltimore, Washington, DC, and ultimately Harlem. She traveled back to Florida and other parts of the South, as well as to Jamaica and Haiti, collecting folklore and exploring African diaspora religions, which influenced her writing.
Tracing Hurston’s movements shows that the Great Migration of African Americans from the US South to the North, Midwest, and West, which began in the 1910s, was often more than a one-way journey. As Hurston’s life shows, the origins, destinations, and points of return of the Great Migration shaped the intellectual, artistic, and political dimensions of the celebrated Harlem Renaissance. Although Harlem was considered the era’s hub, its influence and viewpoints spread across the United States and beyond. For example, artists of the Harlem Renaissance lived in California, Washington, DC, and even abroad in Paris for extended periods. Chicago’s concentration of artists, writers, and musicians created another renaissance in later years. Florida was part of this social and cultural landscape, serving as a complex point of origin and return, especially, as Hurston notes, for Black people arriving from “all over the South.”Footnote 2 In what follows, we detail our curation of two exhibitions—Silhouettes: Image and Word in the Harlem Renaissance and Reveal the Beauty: The Art and Literature of the Harlem Renaissance, Featuring Works from the Dorothy Porter Wesley and Norwood Collections—to reflect on Florida and South Florida, especially Miami and Fort Lauderdale, as vibrant regions rich with opportunities to explore the broader legacy of the Harlem Renaissance.
Shortly after starting work at Florida International University and returning to Miami, my (Christian) hometown, in 2020, colleagues Nathaniel Cadle and Rebecca Friedman introduced me to a strong network of museum curators, librarians, and historians in Miami through The Wolfsonian-FIU, on Miami Beach, and FIU’s Public Humanities Lab. Cadle and I embarked on an exciting project to showcase a recent donation to The Wolfsonian—a substantial collection of books, many first editions, and photographs from the Harlem Renaissance. With support from colleagues, Cadle and I curated “The Harlem Renaissance: Origins, Influences, and Currents,” an online exhibit on the Google Arts & Culture platform that drew on research and teaching interests to explore the significance of material culture and artistic collaboration during that period. The exhibit showcased Aaron Douglas, other visual artists, and Hurston, Johnson, and other writers. It emphasized the intricate connections and collaborations between art and literature that defined the period.
Photograph of pages from One Way Ticket (1940) by Langston Hughes and Jacob Lawrence/Authors
Following the online exhibit’s debut, Casey Steadman and Jon Mogul of The Wolfsonian-FIU reached out to me (Norwood), a local collector and curator, to focus on visual art from the Harlem Renaissance. Inspired by the volume One Way Ticket (1949), which features Langston Hughes’ poetry and Jacob Lawrence’s illustrations, I proposed a new exhibition. It would examine how illustrated publications served as platforms for emerging modern artists and as vehicles for sharing stories and images beyond traditional fine arts circles. Drawing on our expertise and prior work, we (Norwood and Christian) collaborated with The Wolfsonian-FIU’s curatorial team to organize Silhouettes around four themes: “Enter the New Negro”; “The Road to Racial Uplift”; “Beyond Harlem”; and “Harlem on Stage.”
Photograph of the Silhouettes exhibition statement and Art Student (1940) by Laura Wheeler/Allyson Ifergan
Silhouettes ran from November 2023 to June 2024. It showcased 15 books and magazines, some featuring Douglas’s covers and interior illustrations, along with works by other Black illustrators and authors, including Arna Bontemps, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and James Weldon Johnson. It also featured paintings, sculptures, and prints by prominent African American artists from the 1920s to 1940s, including works by Douglas, Eldzier Cortor, Sargent Claude Johnson, Loïs Mailou Jones, Augusta Savage, Dox Thrash, Laura Wheeler Waring, and Charles White. Photographs by Carl Van Vechten captured artists such as Douglas, Horace Pippin, and Richmond Barthé, as well as performers such as Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday.
After wrapping up Silhouettes, we began planning Reveal the Beauty, which opened on February 1, 2025. Shifting the focus north to Broward County rather than Miami-Dade, the exhibition showcased well-known figures—Loïs Mailou Jones, Augusta Savage, Aaron Douglas, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and James Weldon Johnson—alongside lesser-known artists and activists who helped bring the Harlem Renaissance to life. In partnership with the Broward County Public Library’s African American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARLCC) and its director, Dr. Tameka Hobbs, we drew on the Center’s Dorothy Porter Wesley Rare Book Collection—an invaluable cultural resource—to deepen understanding of the era. By pairing selected items—novels, poetry, and newspapers from a collection of over 3,000 materials—with visual art, the exhibition made the Harlem Renaissance’s local, living history more tangible.
Photograph of Reveal the Beauty opening panel/Authors
Reveal the Beauty ran from February to July 2025 and highlighted not only renowned artists and writers but also how platforms such as Survey, Negro History Bulletin, and The Crisis played vital roles in sharing their work and building a new self-image grounded in authenticity and racial pride. The exhibition highlighted the crucial contributions of Dorothy Porter Wesley, a prominent librarian and scholar, and celebrated her efforts to preserve and promote African American literature and culture throughout her lifetime. Her collection is a crucial archive of 19th- and 20th-century Black authors that deepens our understanding of the era. Books and other print materials from her collection, along with art from Norwood’s collection—especially a series of Loïs Mailou Jones’s paintings—were showcased throughout the exhibition.
1. The Florida roots of three key figures in the Harlem Renaissance
Many paths led north during the Great Migration. The route from Florida to Harlem was traveled by thousands, including Hurston, Augusta Savage, and James Weldon Johnson. Their contributions to literature, art, and civil rights extend beyond their achievements and reflect a deep connection to Florida’s rich cultural history. Many Black towns and cities, from Jacksonville to Miami, showcased vibrant arts and cultural scenes in the 1920s and beyond, earning the nickname “Harlem of the South.” In Miami, for example, the Overtown neighborhood (originally “Colored Town”) had a “thriving corridor of music halls, restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues” along Northwest Second Avenue, which came to be known as “Little Broadway.”Footnote 3 As Davarian Baldwin, Minkah Makalani, and contributors to the volume Escape from Harlem: The New Negro Renaissance beyond Harlem (2013) remind us, considering the Florida origins of the Harlem Renaissance does not “initiate the process of mapping the global sites of early-20th-century black internationalism,” but instead draws “attention to how New Negroes and their global allies already lived.”Footnote 4
Hurston, Johnson, and Savage left Florida in their youth or as young adults, along with many of their peers from other Southern states, the Caribbean, and Africa, and eventually arrived in Harlem. Although each had specific reasons for leaving the state, the opportunities awaiting them elsewhere and the challenges of living in the segregated South undoubtedly influenced their decisions. As historian Maxine Jones argues, “For African Americans, life had not changed much in the past half-century. They had discovered that surviving in freedom was almost as difficult as surviving slavery. They were reminded almost daily of their place in society, and the violence against the entire Black communities of Ocoee in 1920 and Rosewood in 1923 remained permanently etched in their minds. Lynchings and violence against African Americans remained a constant threat in the segregated communities of Florida. Often forced out of jobs that traditionally had been theirs, African Americans found it difficult to get ahead economically.”Footnote 5 Although he accomplished a great deal in his early adult years in Jacksonville, including becoming the first African American to pass the bar exam and serving as the principal of the state’s first Black high school, Johnson was nearly lynched for sitting with a woman whom a crowd of white male observers believed to be white.Footnote 6 In his autobiography, Johnson later reflected, “Long after the close of the Reconstruction period, Jacksonville was known far and wide as a good town for Negroes.”Footnote 7 He added, “Jacksonville is today a one hundred percent Cracker town, and each time I have been back there, I have marked greater and greater changes.” Johnson and his family largely withstood the harsh realities of Jim Crow America in Florida at the beginning of the 20th century. Black Jacksonville also allowed Johnson to see himself beyond those limits and, importantly, nurtured and supported his diverse interests, especially in music. Johnson became a notable poet, anthologist, and novelist. He authored the pioneering The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912). He was also the first African American to serve as the NAACP’s executive secretary.
For Johnson, Savage, Hurston, and other lesser-known figures, local Black communities in Florida offered modest support for their talents and interests. Augusta Savage faced mixed experiences managing her sculpture practice during her early years in Florida. However, a move to West Palm Beach, Florida, gave her a chance to return to her art. She later received a special award and a ribbon of honor for her entry at the county fair.Footnote 8 Encouraged by this early recognition of her talent, Savage moved to Harlem, where she created powerful sculptures, including her renowned piece The Harp (or “Lift Every Voice and Sing”), made for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. In the same year, Savage became the first African American woman to own an art gallery in the United States, opening the Salon of Contemporary Negro Art, which aimed to elevate Black visual artists in a racially exclusive art world. Through her dedication to education, she founded the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts, nurturing talented young Black artists and ensuring future generations have the support needed to achieve their potential and succeed.
In moving from the Orlando area to Jacksonville, Zora Neale Hurston was often seen as “a little colored girl” rather than “a Zora,” reflecting how she was treated and felt in Eatonville.Footnote 9 Hurston’s talent for storytelling and her keen ear for the subtleties of Black oral traditions were undoubtedly shaped in Eatonville, as evidenced by her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). Through her groundbreaking works, Hurston emphasized the experiences, voices, and culture of Black communities in Florida and the South. Her narratives, often marked by the rhythms of Black vernacular speech, celebrated the lives of rural Black working-class people and explored complex themes of identity and self-discovery. Although she died in poverty and was virtually unknown in Florida after returning to the state in her later years, Hurston’s independence and authentic portrayal of Black life have endured, undergirding her position as a key figure in both Florida’s literary and cultural scenes and beyond America.
2. The importance of celebrating and supporting Black art and literature together
Like the collaborative efforts that supported the Harlem Renaissance—evidenced by contributions from writers, artists, leaders, and patrons, as well as projects such as the 1925 Survey Graphic issue on Harlem, Alain Locke’s anthology The New Negro, and the 1926 collaboration between Aaron Douglas and Langston Hughes in Opportunity—our efforts also relied on partnerships and collective engagement. With each exhibition and as more people joined our efforts, we were reminded that the Harlem Renaissance flourished on a collaborative ethos. The Wolfsonian-FIU and the African American Research Library and Cultural Center exemplify the crucial role of institutional collaboration in preserving and promoting Black art and history in South Florida.
The Wolfsonian-FIU, founded in 1995, houses a remarkable collection of over 200,000 objects produced during the transformative era from 1850 to 1950, including significant materials from the Harlem Renaissance. The collection highlights the impact of Black artistic, literary, and musical expression on identity and social change, showcasing Florida’s vibrant Black heritage. Similarly, the AARLCC in Fort Lauderdale, founded in 2002 under Samuel F. Morrison’s vision, preserves manuscripts, photographs, and artifacts from prominent figures such as Langston Hughes and Esther Rolle. It is a cultural center that celebrates the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance and Black achievement along Florida’s Atlantic coast. Further deepening the landscape, institutions such as Fisk University Galleries and Florida Memorial University bolster Black cultural heritage through their extensive collections and historical focus. Fisk University Galleries house over 4,000 works spanning three centuries, including pieces by prominent African American artists such as Aaron Douglas and Elizabeth Catlett, and host exhibitions dedicated to early- to mid-20th-century Black art. Florida Memorial University’s special collections, rooted in the school’s historic journey since 1879, contain documents and artifacts that highlight the region’s strong connections to Black history and the ongoing effort to preserve and honor influential figures like James Weldon Johnson and Zora Neale Hurston. These institutions serve as vital anchors, fostering understanding of Black resilience and achievement while regularly creating educational opportunities and cultural awareness across Florida.
Furthermore, collections and organizations such as the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Hampton Art Lovers, and Kenkeleba Gallery exemplify the breadth of Black artistic expression and advocacy. The DeWoody Collection, based in West Palm Beach, showcases contemporary and emerging artists, while Hampton Art Lovers actively promotes Black creativity through exhibitions and community engagement. Kenkeleba Gallery in New York, founded to support African American and African diaspora artists, highlights the importance of cultural preservation and the celebration of overlooked artists. These initiatives, along with Florida Memorial’s special collections and the Norton Museum’s commitment to Black Floridian art, underscore the value of collaborative efforts that foster appreciation, education, and the ongoing growth of Black cultural legacy across the region and beyond. The anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance significantly strengthened our efforts, along with those of our colleagues, to demonstrate how collaboration has historically driven Black cultural expression. The swift and enthusiastic support from individuals and institutions in South Florida underscored a long-standing regional commitment to enriching its cultural landscape and a shared desire to deepen understanding of African American history—especially amid efforts to limit access to this knowledge. Our strategic decisions to debut Silhouettes during Miami Art Week 2023 and to hold Reveal the Beauty during Black History Month 2025 reflected these efforts to broaden awareness of Black history and culture. Both exhibitions aimed to reach a broad audience and foster a deeper appreciation of this rich heritage, with support growing as visitors expressed curiosity and surprise at the Harlem Renaissance’s expansive scope.
As Norwood has argued, Black Art profoundly shapes South Florida’s cultural identity, serving as a mirror of the region’s diverse African diaspora.Footnote 10 Artists such as Barkley Hendricks, Musa Hixon, La Vaughn Belle, and Bisa Butler present narratives rooted in Black experiences, histories, and identities. At the same time, institutions such as Hampton Art Lovers, Prizm Art Fair, and the historic Ward Rooming House provide vital platforms for Black artists to present their work, fostering community engagement and elevating distinct voices within the global art scene, as exemplified by Art Basel. These spaces and events create intersections where Black art not only exists but flourishes, underscoring its cultural importance and potential for social change. The involvement of Black artists and institutions during Miami’s Art Basel and Miami Art Week spotlights themes of resistance, resilience, and heritage—highlighted through exhibitions like Basel BAE and Art Africa, which feature artists from HBCUs and the wider African diaspora—ensuring their visibility and fostering a sense of empowerment. Historical works such as Ernie Barnes’s paintings and vintage Black photography underscore the importance of community patronage in elevating Black art into mainstream recognition.
Community-led initiatives, such as Hampton Art Lovers’ annual Point Comfort Art Fair and Overtown’s celebrations, deepen this cultural impact. Point Comfort, held at the historic Ward Rooming House, showcases Black artistry and tells stories of resilience rooted in the transatlantic slave trade, connecting contemporary expression with a profound historical legacy. It serves as an educational platform and a vibrant space for diverse exchanges—culminating in an event that celebrates identity, creativity, and the enduring influence of African American culture on the broader artistic landscape. Similarly, neighborhood celebrations and efforts by community patrons support Black art beyond gallery walls, fostering collective pride, cultural advocacy, and societal change. In a region that celebrates multiculturalism and global influence, Black art remains a vital element of South Florida’s cultural fabric—championing heritage, inspiring future generations, and contributing to the economy through its intrinsic artistic value. The ongoing dedication to supporting and promoting Black creativity ensures these powerful narratives resonate locally, nationally, and internationally.
3. Exhibiting Harlem Renaissance legacies
With both exhibitions, our primary goal was to highlight the visual impact of the Harlem Renaissance. For Norwood in particular, this meant gathering and showcasing ample evidence that the Harlem Renaissance is the greatest art movement in American history. By curating works from various institutions, we achieved this goal. For example, Silhouettes opened with a striking cover image—a mask-like face with a sphinx and an earring—that immediately drew the viewer’s attention and set the tone for the entire experience.
Photograph of FIRE!! Magazine cover (1926) at entrance to Silhouettes exhibition/Carl Juste
This vibrant cover, reproduced on a wall at the exhibition’s entrance, was the defining visual of FIRE!!, a groundbreaking periodical created in 1926 by Harlem intellectuals and artists. Led by Douglas, Hughes, Hurston, Richard Bruce Nugent, and Wallace Thurman, FIRE!! celebrated Black America’s diversity while challenging the aesthetic conservatism of the racial uplift movement. It pushed artistic boundaries through experimental literature, bold commentary, and innovative illustrations, emphasizing artistic independence and racial pride. The magazine’s only issue featured provocative content, including Thurman’s story about a young prostitute and Nugent’s pioneering story of same-sex desire. The iconic cover—a vivid red-and-black depiction of a Sphinx over an African mask—captures the publication’s spirit, blending Egyptian imagery with African symbolism. This powerful visual introduces the exhibition and embodies the rebellious, innovative energy of the Harlem Renaissance, making it the perfect opening image to explore the movement’s bold pursuit of cultural expression and racial identity.
In the Silhouettes section titled “Road to Racial Uplift,” we built on this momentum through various media, highlighting several artists and writers whose work helped us tell stories about the role of religion in Black life during that period. Our goal was to visually narrate how millions of people joined the Great Migration and took their faith—and sometimes their churches and pastors—with them. A figure of Bishop Brooks, carved by Leslie Garland Bolling, was especially representative. The sculpture vividly captures the dignified presence of Bishop William S. Brooks, a prominent African Methodist Episcopal Church leader and influential figure in early 20th-century African American history. Born in 1865, Brooks was consecrated as the 44th Bishop of the AME Church in 1920, presiding over the Sixteenth Episcopal District in West Africa. Notably, he raised $100,000 for the construction of Monrovia College in Liberia and traveled extensively through the Middle East and Europe, documenting his experiences in two published works. His efforts also extended to the United States, where he served in Texas until his death in 1934. Bolling, a self-taught African American sculptor, created this wooden figure in the same year, showcasing his skill in depicting influential Black figures through small-scale, detailed carvings. Recognized for his portrayals of everyday life and notable figures like Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Bolling’s work gained national recognition during the Harlem Renaissance, with exhibitions across Virginia and New York. His “Portrait of Bishop Brooks” is a signed, stained-pine sculpture standing 15.5 inches tall, inscribed with the title and dated October 10, 1934, reflecting Bolling’s mastery at capturing the dignity and essence of African American leaders through accessible, powerful art. Also important to achieving such resonance was how artists and writers engaged with and drew from Black experiences beyond Harlem and the United States. One illustrative painting in this regard was Aaron Douglas’s “Study for Haitian Mural, Wilmington, Delaware.”
Photograph of Mural Study (1942) Aaron Douglas/Carl Juste
Douglas created a series of landscape paintings capturing this tropical fertility during his 1938 trip to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Virgin Islands. This mural, commissioned for his cousin Grace Goens’s home, exemplifies his distinctive style—an inventive blend of traditional African motifs, Cubism, and graphic design. Here, Douglas emphasizes Haiti’s African roots by centering a drummer and a West African sculpture within concentric circles, symbolizing cultural continuity and vitality. His exploration of Haiti’s nationalist history and vibrant landscape was influenced by earlier works, including illustrations for Eugene O’Neill’s Emperor Jones (1920) and Paul Morand’s Black Magic (1928), which depict themes of Haitian revolutionary spirit and are showcased in Silhouettes. Douglas’s Haitian works, including this mural and later studies, demonstrate his strong connection to Haiti’s rich history and culture, linking the country’s revolutionary legacy to the broader African diaspora and shaping his creative style during the Harlem Renaissance.
Although Haitian migration to South Florida began primarily in the 1950s, Haiti and its diaspora strongly influenced the creative expressions of the Harlem Renaissance.Footnote 11 In addition to Haitian migrants who moved to Harlem after the US occupation in 1915, Haiti, as the first Black republic in the Western Hemisphere, inspired many writings and artworks. This reflected a broader awakening of interest in the connections among Black Americans, the wider African diaspora, and Africa. Haiti played a significant role in the Harlem Renaissance’s imagination, symbolizing Black anticolonialism after gaining independence from France through a revolutionary process over a century earlier. Its unique Afro-Caribbean culture captivated artists and writers alike. Haiti inspired many works that celebrated its revolutionary history and vibrant landscape.
For Reveal the Beauty, Loïs Mailou Jones’ Portrait of Haitian Women and Voodoo Veve Masks (1956) further emphasized Haiti’s inspiration. Part of Norwood’s collection, the portrait reflects the development of her art during her visits to Haiti in the 1950s and 1960s, especially highlighting her use of more geometric and abstract shapes and vivid colors that boldly celebrate Haiti’s proud history. In honoring the connection between Haiti and the Harlem Renaissance—given the large Haitian and Haitian American population in South Florida—we curated Silhouettes and Reveal the Beauty to show how Haiti influenced experiences beyond Harlem. As both exhibitions demonstrated, revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture inspired artworks by Jacob Lawrence and Richmond Barthé, while writers like Arna Bontemps, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston traveled there in the 1930s. Aaron Douglas also visited. In doing so, we aimed to help audiences in South Florida learn more about and appreciate the important role Haiti played in the Harlem Renaissance.
A vibrant part of the Silhouettes subsection titled “From Florida to Harlem” was Hurston’s 1935 book Mules and Men. Along with copies of Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934), Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Johnson’s God Trombones (1927), Savage’s sculpture Gamin (1929), and a wall-length display of the engrossing quote from Mules and Men that opens this chapter, Hurston’s second work focusing on Florida helped us convey the vibrancy of the past and the southern experiences informing the Harlem Renaissance. Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias’s dust jacket for Mules and Men powerfully captures Hurston’s self-view as a writer—observing, listening to, and marveling at Black folklife. An anthropologist, dramatist, dancer, folklorist, humorist, novelist, and dynamic storyteller, Hurston studied and celebrated the artistry of Black vernacular speech, especially as it was shared in communities throughout the South and Florida. Like her novels, Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934) and the critically acclaimed Their Eyes Were Watching God, the nonfiction Mules and Men centers on the town where Hurston grew up, Eatonville, Florida, the oldest all-Black town in the United States. As an anthropologist, Hurston collected stories that reflected the voices, memories, pains, longings, and songs of the people of this community, presenting them as testimony and art.
Silhouettes captured important nuances of the Great Migration, which James Weldon Johnson helped articulate in his 1927 volume God’s Trombones. On display as a centerpiece of the section “Sacred Kinship,” Johnson’s wall-length quote reminded attendees that when millions joined the Great Migration, they took their faith with them, and pastors and churches followed north. As Johnson writes, “The old-time Negro preacher of parts was above all an orator, and in good measure an actor. He knew the secret of oratory, that at bottom it is a progression of rhythmic words more than it is anything else. Indeed, I have witnessed congregations moved to ecstasy by the rhythmic intoning of sheer incoherencies. He was a master of all the modes of eloquence.”Footnote 12 God’s Trombones, a symbolic study of African American spiritual, religious, and daily life, is among the most celebrated works by two key figures of the Harlem Renaissance: Johnson and Aaron Douglas. In God’s Trombones, Johnson transformed seven uplifting sermons by African American preachers into poetry. Having heard these sermons as a child and as an adult, Johnson aimed to counter denigrating stereotypes of the preachers and to pay tribute to their stirring language, which he called “a fusion of Negro idioms and Bible English.”Footnote 13 Douglas’s illustrations in God’s Trombones, with their silhouettes, angular forms, and concentric circles, are autonomous artworks that express the sermons’ themes rather than direct translations of the poems. The American Institute of Graphic Arts selected these images for its 1927 exhibition of American book illustration. Douglas called them “my best work so far” and created oil paintings from them in the 1930s.Footnote 14 A copy of God’s Trombones is part of the Porter Wesley collection at AARLCC. So, we displayed it during Reveal the Beauty.
Foundational to the Harlem Renaissance, as it was to both Silhouettes and Reveal the Beauty, Alain Locke’s anthology The New Negro was critical in shaping how we narrated and visualized the story of African Americans’ collective identity reformation. With another wall-length display, this time featuring Locke’s words, we invited viewers at Silhouettes to “Enter [with] the New Negro.” As Locke states in the volume, “Discover in the artistic self-expression of the Negro to-day a new figure on the national canvas and a new force in the foreground of affairs. Whoever wishes to see the Negro in his essential traits, in the full perspective of his achievement and possibilities, must seek the enlightenment of that self-portraiture which the present developments of Negro culture are offering.”Footnote 15
In this section of Silhouettes, the 1925 copy of The New Negro on display was open to a spread featuring Aaron Douglas’ art on the left and two poems by Countee Cullen—“To A Dark Girl” and “Two A Brown Boy”—on the right.Footnote 16 Paired with photographs of artists Aaron Douglas, Richmond Barthé, and Horace Pippin, as well as family portraits on loan from the Douglas estate, the display highlighted the book’s illustrations by Douglas and portraits of distinguished African Americans by German artist Winold Reiss. The New Negro is often described as the anthology that defined the Harlem Renaissance. Adapted from a special issue of the journal Survey focused on life in Harlem, New York, the book was an innovative collection by writers and artists intended to set the stage, in Locke’s words, for “the Negro to speak for himself.”Footnote 17 Locke understood that the historic migration of people within the United States and worldwide created an unprecedented opportunity to circulate positive ideas and images about Black people. The New Negro contributed much to this effort through art, literature, and music, and heralded the figure of the “New Negro” as a national and international phenomenon.
As part of Reveal the Beauty, The New Negro was a centerpiece of the anthological look back at the Harlem Renaissance we fostered. The 1925 copy on display for our exhibition at the AARLC was first paired with a copy of the Survey Graphic special issue on Harlem that preceded it, then with other volumes, specifically Locke’s Negro and His Music (1936) and Negro Art: Past and Present (1940), poet and editor Sterling Brown’s Negro Poetry and Drama (1937), and historian Cater G. Woodson’s Negro in Our History (1921). Woodson’s volume was an especially compelling illustrated book for the exhibition. With a dust jacket designed by artist James Wells featuring images of Black contributions to the arts, sciences, and education, which we reproduced for viewing alongside it, this copy of Negro in Our History was open, showing a picture of Frederick Douglass and the title page where Woodson autographed and dedicated the volume to Dorothy Porter Wesley.
Photograph of Carter G. Woodson and Negro History Bulletin panel in Reveal the Beauty/Authors
Woodson emphasized the role of visual art in sharing African American history throughout his work, especially through the important Negro History Bulletin. Because the Dorothy Porter Collection includes issues from several years of the journal’s history, we showcased it to highlight the Bulletin’s use of visual art and Woodson’s collaborations with artists. Loïs Mailou Jones played a key role by contributing illustrations and creative exercises that promoted artistic expression among African American students, for whom Woodson created the Bulletin. Indeed, the Negro History Bulletin provided a rich array of resources for teachers and students. Its first issue featured engaging articles such as “The Thrilling Escape of William and Ellen Craft,” complemented by illustrations that highlighted key historical stories and emphasized resilience and ingenuity in the African American community.Footnote 18 Each edition served as an educational tool, helping children and educators see themselves in the historical narratives and fostering a sense of pride and identity.
Expanding their collaboration under the auspices of Associated Publishers, a subsidiary of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History), which Woodson founded in 1915, Mailou Jones produced Important Events and Dates in Negro History (1936), a poster-sized broadside. Reproduced at wall size for Reveal, the month-by-month timeline highlighted key commemorations—beginning with the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863—and was designed to accompany Woodson’s 1936 textbook, The African Background Outlined, or Handbook for the Study of the Negro. The listing was framed by a graphic border of African motifs that reflect Jones’s growing interest in ancestral legacy and her early work as a textile designer.
A closer look at Woodson’s Negro in Our History again shows Florida as part of this artistic legacy. Although Loïs Mailou Jones is more widely known, Wells’ Harlem Renaissance story, like Augusta Savage’s, has strong roots in Florida. James Lesesne Wells was born in 1902 on the campus of Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia, where his father was studying for the ministry. After his father’s early death, Wells spent most of his youth in Palatka, Florida, and attended Florida Baptist Academy in nearby Jacksonville on a scholarship. His artistic talent blossomed there, earning him awards at the 1915 Florida State Fair. Florida’s influence runs through his early development, shaping his passion for art and education before he moved north to pursue higher studies and career opportunities. His early successes in Florida laid the foundation for a lifelong commitment to advocating for African American art, especially highlighting printmaking’s accessibility to the masses, including Black and impoverished communities nationwide.
One final part of Reveal the Beauty took us back to Florida to honor the profound artistic influence of Augusta Savage. Photographs of Savage’s The Harp (1939), captured by a relative of one of our local collaborators, helped conclude the exhibition.Footnote 19 The three photos were taken at the 1939 New York World’s Fair by Paul Erdos, a young bookkeeper at the fair’s Artist’s Village attraction. They come from a photo album containing images of many major artworks and fairground pavilions. Savage’s sculpture stood 16 feet tall and was placed in the courtyard of the Contemporary Arts Building near one of the Fair’s gates. The piece depicted a kneeling Black man holding a bar of music and 12 Black chorus singers representing the strings of a harp, with the harp’s sounding board no less than the hand of God. The work represented the peak of Savage’s career.
Photograph of “Florida and the Harlem Renaissance” display featuring works by Bisa Butler, Augusta Savage, James Weldon Johnson, and Zora Neale Hurston/ Authors
4. Reciprocal stories
The Harlem Renaissance was a pivotal era in American history. Following the traumas of slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and post-Reconstruction, African Americans were institutionally and organizationally empowered to produce and circulate their own images and stories. Our teaching, scholarship, and curating often begin with this idea. Reflecting on the 100th anniversary of that era while curating these exhibitions, we could not help but notice how many issues and events from that time still feel relevant today. Images from that period resonate deeply, and its writing is timeless. It is a sobering yet inspiring fact that the peak of the Harlem Renaissance was a century ago, in 1925. As we have shared with different audiences over the years and, more recently, with visitors at both exhibitions, the more people immerse themselves in these images and texts, the more they feel as if they were created recently. From our perspective here in Florida, this was especially true as we learned more about our state’s role in the origins of the Harlem Renaissance.
Although the era’s celebrations remember Harlem as central, many experiences that influenced the music and poetry of James Weldon Johnson, the novels and folklore of Zora Neale Hurston, the sculptures of Augusta Savage, and the illustrations of James Wells began or were further developed in various parts of Florida. Curating Silhouettes: Image and Word in the Harlem Renaissance and Reveal the Beauty: The Art and Literature of the Harlem Renaissance, Featuring Works from the Dorothy Porter Wesley and Norwood Collections has highlighted the importance of telling the story of the Harlem Renaissance in Florida and revealed a reciprocal significance in narrating Florida’s story as part of the Harlem Renaissance. This resonates, as our understanding of the “Harlem[s] of the South” and the still underexplored contributions of Black people from several southern states, the Caribbean, and Africa to the art and culture of the 1920s beyond Harlem will continue to influence how we reflect on that period for the next hundred years.
Author contribution
Conceptualization: S.A.C., C.N.; Data curation: S.A.C., C.N.; Formal analysis: S.A.C., C.N.; Methodology: S.A.C., C.N.; Project administration: S.A.C., C.N.; Visualization: S.A.C., C.N.; Writing - original draft: S.A.C., C.N.; Writing - review & editing: S.A.C., C.N.
Acknowledgements
In addition to Casey Steadman, Jon Mogul, and Dr. Tameka Hobbs, the authors thank Luna Goldberg, Susana Perez, Sasha Lamadrid, Frank Luca, Richard Miltner, Michael Hughes, and the entire staff at The Wolfsonian-FIU, and Rochelle Pienn, Emily Calderon, Erin Purdy, Dr. Ramona La Roche, and the entire staff at the Broward County Library’s African American Research Library and Cultural Center.
Conflict of interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
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