Issues of Whiteness and Blackness

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Research Proposal – Issues in the Harlem Renaissance: Women and Race
The Harlem Renaissance represented a cultural movement of the African Americans between the years 1920 to 1930. The struggles that black women endured and conquered during this period were unacceptable and had been portrayed by several black female writers of this period.
The main argument is that writers had differing views regarding the social status of the African Americans and especially women during the Harlem Renaissance. W.E.B. Du Bois believed that civil rights movements during the renaissance were not fruitful because African Americans were still trapped in black bodies (Hartnell 521). In a nutshell, Du Bois argues that African Americans were yet to realize freedom. In this essay, I wish to refute Du Bois’ views because I believe his views are not a representation of what ensued. In fact, I believe that the Southern whites felt deprived by the latest developments of the African American campaign struggles for freedom because they were forced to consider all persons of the African descent as their equals.
The final research paper will review how the African American culture received recognition during the Harlem Renaissance because it was a turning point when all people of color came together to fight for their freedom and liberation from the white folks. However, the paper will emphasize on female authors such as Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes who were in the front line to fight for the liberation of African American liberation, and Harlem renaissance set the stage for all this (Wallace 8).

I will be discussing how female African Americans writers fought for cultural expression and their achievements. Although the Harlem Renaissance ended immediately after the Great Depression, the accomplishments of that era can be felt through the cultural and political development of people of color. I will be arguing that female authors, actors, and musicians were the pacesetters in the campaign against the oppression of Americans of African descent. They were a source of motivation, and they ensured that their works are aimed towards uplifting the social status of the people of color.
Similarly, the paper will review Langston Hughes poem of 50-50 which showcases the black woman as being dependent on a man. In the poem, the man sees the woman as silly and not thinking and also desires her body and money (Wallace 1). My research will as well focus on Marita Bonner’s writings. She explicitly explains some of the issues that were unfair to the black women such as the brutal killings of their children like for instance Lizabeth, unemployment, poor houses, and poverty. Her stories were able to expose the brutality of the Harlem Renaissance on black women.
However, despite the challenges black women faced, they were able to develop their morals, ideas, and identity. They were able to redefine themselves as people without any stigma of race or gender. Writers like Zola Neale Hurston exposed the thinking process of black women in her writings. She showed their ability of thinking regarding function such that they developed a mental picture of ideas before they put them into writing. She describes this as a form of natural intelligence that women had despite being unable to get a formal education.
Works Cited
Hartnell, Anna. “WEB Du Bois, William Faulkner, and the dialectic of black and white: in search of Exodus for postcolonial American south.” Callaloo 33.2 (2010): 521-536.
Wallace, Maurice Orlando. Langston Hughes: The Harlem Renaissance. Marshall Cavendish, 2008.