The Harlem Renaissance is a period in American History marked by an explosion of expression by African-American and Caribbean writers, visual artists and musicians. Established and supported by organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League (NUL), Harlem Renaissance artists explored themes such as legacy, racism, oppression, alienation, rage, hope and pride through the creation of novels, essays, plays and poetry. In its 20-year span–from 1917 to 1937–Harlem Renaissance writers created an authentic voice for African-Americans that showed their humanity and desire for equality in United States’ society.

1917

• Asa Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen co-found the political and literary magazine, The Messenger.

1919

• Writer and educator Jessie Redmon Fauset becomes the literary editor of the NAACP’s publication, The Crisis.

1922

• Claude McKay publishes his first volume of poetry, Harlem Shadows. The collection is considered the first major text of the Harlem Renaissance.

• James Weldon Johnson’s anthology, Book of American Negro Poetry, is published.

1923

• Jean Toomer’s Cane is published.

• The NUL establishes the journal, Opportunity.
  Charles S. Johnson serves as the journal’s editor.

1924

• As editor of Opportunity, Johnson hosts a dinner at the Civic Club in New York City. This dinner is considered the official launching of the Harlem Renaissance.

1925

• The literary magazine, Survey Graphic, publishes a special issue, Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro. The issue is edited by Alain Locke.

• Color, Countee Cullen’s first collection of poetry is published.

1926

• Locke edits the anthology, The New Negro. The collection is an expanded version of Survey Graphic’s, Harlem issue.

• Langston Hughes publishes his first book of poetry, The Weary Blues.

• The short-lived literary and artistic magazine, Fire!! is published. Hughes, Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas and Richard Bruce Nugent are founding editors of the magazine.

• White writer Carl Van Vechten publishes Nigger Heaven.

1927

• James Weldon Johnson’s collection of poems, God’s Trombones, inspired by sermons of African-American preachers is published.

1928

• McKay publishes his first novel, Home to Harlem. The text becomes the first bestselling novel by an African-American author.

1929

• Thurman publishes his first novel, The Blacker the Berry.

1930

• Hughes’ novel, Not Without Laughter, is published.

• Journalist George Schuyler publishes the satirical novel, Black No More.

1932

• Sterling Brown’s collection of poetry, Southern Road, is published.

1933

• Public Works Administration (PWA) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) are established. Both agencies provide jobs to many African-American artists, such as Hurston.

1937
• Hurston’s second novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is published. The novel is considered the last novel of the Harlem Renaissance.

Article source: http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/timelines/a/Literary-Timeline-Of-The-Harlem-Renaissance.htm

Johnson served as United States counsel to Venezuela from 1906 to 1912 and during this time published his first novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man. Johnson published the novel anonymously, but rereleased the novel in 1927 using his name.

Returning to the United States, Johnson became an editorial writer for the African-American newspaper, New York Age. Through his current affairs column, Johnson developed arguments for an end to racism and inequality.

In 1916, Johnson became field secretary for the NAACP. In this position, he organized mass demonstrations against racism and violence. He also increased the NAACP’s membership rolls in southern states, an action that would set the stage for the Civil Rights Movement decades later. Johnson retired from his daily duties with the NAACP in 1930, but remained an active member of the organization.

Throughout his career as a diplomat, journalist and civil rights activist, Johnson continued to use his creativity to explore various themes in African-American culture. In 1917, for instance, he published his first collection of poetry, Fifty Years and Other Poems. In 1927, he published God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse. Next, Johnson turned to nonfiction in 1930 with the publication of Black Manhattan, a history of African-American life in New York. Finally, he published his autobiography, Along This Way, in 1933. The autobiography was the first personal narrative written by an African-American reviewed in The New York Times.

Article source: http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/biographies/p/James-Weldon-Johnson-Renaissance-Man.htm

In 1902, the organization’s first president, Mary Church Terrell, argued “Self-preservation demands that [black women] go among the lowly, illiterate, and even vicious, to whom they are bound to ties of race and sex…to reclaim them.” As such one of the NACWC’s main focuses was developing initiatives that would help service impoverished and disenfranchised African-Americans.

In Terrell’s first address as president of the NACW, she said, “The work which we hope to accomplish can be done better, we believe, by the mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters of our race than by the fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons.” She charged members of the organization with the task of developing employment training and fair wages for women while establishing kindergarten programs for young children and recreational programs for older children.

Article source: http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/segregation/p/National-Association-Of-Colored-Women.htm