The Harlem Renaissance and Blacks’ Employment in Cultural Expression Occupations

Was the 1920s Harlem Renaissance an era of expanding opportunities for blacks to become artists, writers, musicians, and entertainers in the premier black communities of Harlem (New York) and Bronzeville (Chicago)? The present study addresses this question by analyzing location quotients, calculated with Census data for 1910–1940, of blacks’ representation in these cultural expression occupations in New York and Chicago, relative to all other US places. Results show that blacks’ representation in most cultural expression occupations increased only slightly or fell precipitously in New York and Chicago in the 1920s, implying that many blacks who aspired to enter such pursuits in the two cities were discouraged or pushed out by occupational saturation. The study concludes that during the Harlem Renaissance, blacks’ cultural expression employment—a key dimension of blacks’ placemaking—in Harlem and Bronzeville lacked the support anticipated by many studies of urbanism and early twentieth-century black communities.