Kennedy, Stetson, Herbert Halpert, and Zora Neale Hurston. Halimuhfack. June 18, 1939. Audio recording. Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/flwpa000014/.
This primary source is a valuable tool as it provides insight into the arts and culture of the Harlem Renaissance and the African American community. Songs produced during the 1920s and 1930s afford students the opportunity to become immersed in the perspectives of visual artists, musicians, and writers who addressed African American themes including identity, inequality, and civil rights. Additionally, utilizing songs in the curriculum offers interdisciplinary opportunities for students to make connections between language arts, history, and music.
Part of a collection titled “Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1937 to 1942,” the Halimuhfack recording features Zora Neale Hurston performing at the Federal Music Project Office in Jacksonville, Florida, on June 18, 1939. Originally of Eatonville, Florida, she was already a published novelist and folklorist when she took a job with the Federal Writers' Project. Halimuhfack was a song, learned on the east coast of Florida. After performing the song, Zora Neale Hurston describes how she collects and learns songs, including those she has published.
From the end of the Civil War to the Great Migration, African American people strived for a better standard of living and migrated north for industrial jobs and racially tolerant communities. As African Americans found their place in society after the abolition of slavery, the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s was an era of spiritual and social expression filled with African American poetry, painting, jazz, swing, opera, and dance. Writers such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston explored themes of identity, inequality, and civil rights. The poems and songs of the Harlem Renaissance offer insight into African American culture while changing how people of other races viewed African Americans and understood African American life.
- Listen to the recording. What do you notice about the lyrics, the vocals, and the instruments used in the song? What are you wondering?
- What was the purpose of the recording, and who might be interested in hearing it?
- What does the song tell you about the vocalist and about the time period of the Harlem Renaissance?
- How did the songs and poems written by African Americans in the 1920s and 1930s influence music and poetry today?
Common Core State Standards
RH.6-8.2 Key Ideas and Details: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
- This primary source sound recording invites students to appreciate African Americans’ contributions to the arts during The Harlem Renaissance. Performing “jook” songs, Zora Neale Hurston is a voice for African American women and their experiences. Integrating song lyrics, along with photographs and manuscripts, into a speakeasy presentation allows students to integrate multiple sources highlighting various perspectives in arts and culture.
WHST.6-8.7 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
- After conducting research projects based on focus questions, students will be able to present information about a selected topic from the 1920s in a speakeasy format while focusing on the impact of African American contributions to arts and culture then and now. This primary source can be paired with the primary resource set for the Harlem Renaissance provided by the Library of Congress for further research.
Primary source songs and poems give students an immersive experience into the Harlem Renaissance and the 1920s. Consider developing a list of topics including historical figures, the Jazz Age, the Prohibition era, and the Lost Generation for students to research and to present at a speakeasy event. Students can utilize the Harlem Renaissance primary source set found in the Library of Congress’s classroom materials for teachers. Within the mini unit, teachers facilitate lessons about how to avoid plagiarism and how to create a works-cited page using MLA format. After synthesizing information researched, students present the information about their topic to their peers in a live performance and in costume. Adding traditional elements like simple electricity and even candles or gas lighting to the event makes a memorable experience and makes the speakeasy feel authentic to the students.
- The history of slavery in the United States is a difficult topic and can present challenges when teaching about this time period. It is essential that students understand the socioeconomic struggles that African Americans experienced in order to be empathetic to their plight and to celebrate their cultural heritage and their contributions to the arts.
Links to resources for approaching those topics
- Edutopia provides an article sharing how to approach these complex topics about African American history in a culturally responsive manner: “Extending Black History Lessons Beyond February: Black history lessons shouldn’t stop once February ends—Black Americans’ contributions to society can be highlighted year round.”
- Photograph: portrait of Zora Neale Hurston
- Sound recording: “Dat Old Black Gal” performed by Zora Neale Hurston
- Manuscript and mixed materials: Frederick Douglass Papers: Addition I, 1851-1964; Poems
- Photograph: portrait of Louis Armstrong, between 1938 and 1948
- Photograph: portrait of Langston Hughes
- Facing History & Ourselves: “Exploring Black History through Black Poets”
- National Museum of African American History and Culture: “A New African American Identity: The Harlem Renaissance”
- com: “The Roaring Twenties”
- Library of Congress: The Great Migration primary source set