Changes in the lives of African Americans
The narrator tells that in recent times something “beyond the watch and guard of statistics” had happened in the life of the American black people. The image of “a black” and his social behavior have changed dramatically. New generations of black people are not like their fathers – they became more self-confident, they are not afraid anymore, they consider themselves just and their rights unique and special. “… the younger generation is vibrant with new psychology, new spirit is awake in the masses, and under the very eyes of the professional observers is transforming what he has been a perennial problem into the progressive phases of the contemporary Negro life”. The image represents how the character of American black people has changed.
The life of the black community
With renewed self-respect and self-dependence, the life of the black community is about to enter a new dynamic phase, they will no longer be dependent on the public thought and prejudice, they will care just of their problems and do things they love to do regardless if other people accept them or not. What is more important, these changes influence not only the daily routine of black people, but their spiritual life as well: “… in life attitudes, self-expression of The Young Negro, in his poetry, his art, his education and his new outlook ”. Now all this aspect of spiritual life will be a part of his life, states the author.
The tide of migration
After the Civil War, black people began to massively migrate to the other parts of the country and it caused a lot of problems and conflicts between prejudiced locals and the black people themselves. “The wash and rush of this human tide on the beach line of the northern city centers is to be explained primarily in terms of a new vision of opportunity, of social economic freedom…”. Black people felt the spirit of new life, new opportunities an possibilities, they realized that they can have more if they go here or there and it was impossible to stop them on their way to better life even such unpleasant and dangerous obstacle as Ku Klux Klan. The image describes reasons of black people migration and how they felt about it.
Harlem
Harlem is the district of Manhattan where there has historically been a big community of African Americans, “the first concentration in history of so many diverse elements of Negro life”. this place, the author says, has brought together the black people of the North and the black people of the South, the man from big city and rural man, poor, rich, old, young, musician, poet and many other completely different people and united them into one community. They couldn’t find the understanding of society but they found it in each other, their constant interaction helps them and sheers them up. The atmosphere of the place is absolutely unique. The image describes the center of black people social and cultural life in the North.
