Following WWI (and spurred on by relative economic prosperity and a spirit of optimism), Paris began to attract people from all parts of the globe, including significant numbers from the United States. Many African Americans musicians, stage and nightclub performers -- some of whom had first encountered Paris and French culture during WWI as soldiers -- returned to Paris during this period, eager to take advantage of Paris's international reputation as Europe's entertainment capital. - Professor Richard Powell (PBS NewsHour)
|
Depiction of Paris, France
|
Paris welcomed all dimensions of African American culture that was coming about.
It is difficult to pinpoint what it is about French culture, and Parisian culture in particular, that was especially welcoming to Black writers and artists in the twentieth century. Perhaps one answer is that French culture seems to value more than American (and perhaps more than British) culture the intellectual and the artistic.... It is simply that in France, the value placed on refinement, on aesthetics, and on the intellectual lifestyle is greater than it is here. So, it is possible to argue that the greater acceptance that Black writers and artists had in France is perhaps related more to them being writers and artists than African American. - Professor Jeffrey Stewart (PBS NewsHour)
|
An Artist of Paris: Josephine BakerBaker was a prominent artist in the Harlem Renaissance who resided in Paris, France. She was a dancer, singer, and an actress. When she passed, a square was made in Paris, France in her honor in Montparnasse.
|
France was more accepting of African Americans and their culture than the U.S.
... in most part of the United States during the 1920s and 1930s, African Americans were the butt of jokes, ridiculed, and discriminated against while, in France, they were usually treated as fellow citizens of the world, deserving humane and sympathetic treatment like all other human beings. In addition, the fact that many African Americans were part of a burgeoning entertainment industry in France gave many of them the aura of celebrity which, in turn, came with many added social perks.... Yet France (and Paris in particular), because of its cosmopolitan and international character, was still a far more racially tolerant place than the United States was during this period, and African Americans, both at home and abroad, were aware of this. - Professor Richard Powell (PBS NewsHour)
|