Archibald Motley, the 'New Negro' Renaissance, and the Politics of Representation

Dr. Phoebe Wolfskill will provide background on the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural south to the urban north and how the limits to advancement in the Jim Crow south fueled this movement. This Great Migration, which included Archibald Motley’s family, enabled a sense of optimism and agency among African Americans that resulted in what is called the Harlem or “New Negro” Renaissance. Wolfskill, Associate Professor in the departments of American Studies and African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University, will present photography to contextualize the period, along with an array of images of paintings by Motley and his contemporaries.