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Difficulty: MediumThe New Negro Movement and Cultural Debates

Read the following review of Claude McKay’s novel *Home to Harlem* (1928), written by W. E. B. Du Bois and published in *The Crisis*:

> "[The novel] for the most part caters to that grosser demand on the part of white readers for license and sensuality... it looks as though McKay has tried to write something that would sell, rather than something that represents the deep, true soul of Negro life."

Which of the following debates from the New Negro Movement is best represented by the critique in the excerpt?

  1. A
    The dispute over Marcus Garvey’s nationalist, mass-populist agenda and the elite-led international congresses of the Pan-African movement.
  2. B
    The debate among civil rights activists over whether to pursue political integration and American citizenship or organize emigration to Africa.
  3. The conflict over whether Black literature should focus on positive, middle-class representations for racial uplift or depict working-class life with raw realism.Answer
  4. D
    The ideological opposition between Booker T. Washington’s advocacy for industrial labor and W. E. B. Du Bois’s promotion of the 'Talented Tenth' for social equality.

Answer

The conflict over whether Black literature should focus on positive, middle-class representations for racial uplift or depict working-class life with raw realism.
The correct answer is the conflict over whether Black literature should focus on positive, middle-class representations for racial uplift or depict working-class life with raw realism. W. E. B. Du Bois's critique of Claude McKay's *Home to Harlem* encapsulates the Harlem Renaissance debate between respectability politics and artistic freedom. Intellectuals like Du Bois argued that art should act as propaganda to uplift the race by showing moral, educated, and middle-class Black figures. In contrast, writers like McKay and Langston Hughes believed that true artistic expression required representing working-class African American life honestly, including its joys, struggles, and vernacular, without censoring elements to please white or elite Black critics.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the tone and subject of the review of Claude McKay’s novel in the excerpt.
The reviewer critiques the depiction of 'license and sensuality' for white audiences and argues it fails to represent the 'true soul' of Black life.
This establishes that the author of the critique believes art has a moral duty to present a respectable and 'true' image of the race rather than appealing to popular tastes or raw realism.
2
Connect this critique to the core aesthetic conflicts of the Harlem Renaissance.
The conflict is identified as the debate over respectability politics (portraying middle-class achievement to combat prejudice) versus artistic realism (representing all strata of Black life, including the working class, without censorship).
This links the specific primary source critique directly to the broader cultural debates surrounding the New Negro Movement.

Key Concept

The debate over respectability politics and the purpose of art (racial uplift vs. artistic freedom) during the New Negro Movement.
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

The New Negro Movement and Cultural Debates

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