The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement, was inspired by the philosophies of Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois and others, according to "Bound No'th Blues," edited by Patricia Liggins Hill. They issued a challenge to artists to address the issues of "racial consciousness and wholeness in art."
The Harlem Renaissance was from 1918 through 1935.
The folklore writings of Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay and Langston Hughes would later influence the early writings of Richard Wright. The satire found in the writings of authors George Schuyler, Wallace Thurman and Hughes would be revived 30 years later by writers William Demby, Charles R. Johnson and Ishmael Reed; and Hurston's "use of folklore and her focus on women's issues" would inspire present-day author Alice Walker.
The music of the Harlem Renaissance is the music that is still being played today---blues, Gospel and jazz. Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was "essential to development of the big band sound," along with Fletcher Henderson, according to an essay titled "Jazz" in "Bound No'th Blues." Decades later Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald would continue the sound.
The legacy of the Harlem Renaissance was that it "opened the door" for today's African-American writers, as well as publishing houses and theaters. It also became the force behind the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.