During the 20th century, a unique awakening of mind and spirit, racial consciousness, and artistic progress emerged within the African American community of New York. This emergence gave birth to the largest artistic movement in African-American history. After the failure of the Reconstruction period, the Negro was no longer considered either a person or an America. The idea that a black person was an American was completely unacceptable to the white ruling class. The acceptance of lynching and the denial of the right to vote and equal protection under the law, as well as equality in education and housing in the Southern states, asserted their non-personality in America . During the 20th century, a new generation of black people, 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 black people and their culture in America. How could this be done, what could they do to change things? World War I, the Immigration Act of 1921, the flooding of the Mississippi River in 1927, and other factors led to the Great Migration north. This allowed thousands of blacks to eventually leave the backward Southern states and settle in the progressive North. Many emigrated to New York and ended up in Harlem. Harlem was primarily a Jewish neighborhood until the black community moved there. Harlem, where blacks finally became the majority. In Harlem, a new black cultural identity began to emerge. It manifested itself through social, religious, civic, and cultural organizations, as well as through newspapers and magazines devoted to black interests. Hearing... middle of paper... the night is dark. Black as the depths of my Africa. I have been 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 appeared. I made a mortar to enemy the Woolworth Building. I was a singer. From Africa to Georgia. I carried my songs of sorrow. I did ragtime. I was a victim.The Belgians cut off my hands in the Congo.Works CitedEncyclopeida of The Harlem Renaissance, Aberjhani & West S. (2003) New York, CheckmarkBefore and Beyond Harlem, Berry, F. (1992) New Jersey , Carol Publishing Co. The Collection Poems of Langston Hughes, Rapersad, A. & Roessel, D. (Eds.) (1995), New York, Vintage Books