During World War I, a regiment of African American soldiers fought in France while Jim Crow laws oppressed many black citizens back in the U.S. This volume from the America’s Living History series opens with those soldiers’ wartime experiences and their triumphant return, which heralded the Harlem Renaissance, a vigorous flowering of African American culture centered in Harlem during the 1920s. The opening pages create a valuable historical context for understanding the origins and spirit of the movement, and the chapters that follow provide a broad view of the topic, while spotlighting many notable individual writers, musicians, actors, and visual artists. Period photos and color reproductions of paintings illustrate the book, which uses attractive tan-and-mahogany-brown backgrounds for featured design elements.
