Divide students into three groups, and give each group one of the readings below:

• “The New Negro” by Alain Locke
• “Gift of the Black Tropics” by W.A. Domingo
• “When the Negro Was in Vogue” by Langston Hughes

Instruct each group to read their assigned text together, defining any new vocabulary terms as they read. These texts are long and challenging, so give enough time for students to read and analyze together, using the OPCVL protocol if helpful for student understanding. Groups should prepare a poster to present to the class their takeaways from the assigned document. Each poster should contain the following elements:

• A short biography of the essay’s author
• A summary of the essay’s main ideas
• At least two quotations from the essay, and an explanation as to why the group selected those two passages
• An explanation of the historical context of the essay. How does this connect to other historical events?
• Three critical thinking questions for the class to consider related to the essay’s main ideas

Have students present their posters to the class. Students should take notes on the posters. Conclude with a full class discussion using the following questions:

• What do these essays have in common? Where are they different?
• What did Harlem Renaissance leaders mean by the term the “new Negro”? How does this idea appear in the three essays?
• To what extent was the Harlem Renaissance a political–and not just a cultural–movement?