Passing

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What do you know about the reasons for and effects of the Great Migration? How did the Great Migration lead to an explosion of Black American art and literature?

Teaching Suggestion: The Great Migration began in 1916, when millions of Black Americans escaped the dehumanizing and violent Jim Crow laws in Southern states and migrated north to cities like New York and Philadelphia. Though racism and segregation did exist in the Northern states, Black Americans were freer there to find employment and communities without punishing, harassing laws. The NAACP developed in response to attacks of domestic terrorism throughout the US at the time; lynching, for example, in which Black Americans were tortured and hanged in often public events after being accused of a crime without a formal hearing, was a common horror. In the 1920s and 1930s, the NAACP lobbied Congress to make lynching illegal. Diasporas of Black Americans to Northern cities led not only to autonomous political movements but also to an explosion of cultural and literary movements. The New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance established a new era of Black culture, the influence of which is still evident in American literature, history, and art today.

• “The Great Migration: Crash Course Black American History” is a video that breaks down the historical causes and influences of the Great Migration.
• “Arts and Letters of the Harlem Renaissance: Crash Course Black American History” is a video that explores the cultural importance of the Harlem Renaissance.
• From the Library of Congress, NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom (The New Negro Movement) provides background and history on the organization.

2. What do you know about the phenomenon of “passing”? If you are not sure what it is, hypothesize what someone who is “passing” may be doing.

Teaching Suggestion: Passing is the process by which a person adopts the looks or mannerisms of another group to pass as a member of that group. Passing can be gendered or racial and is usually done for survival and safety. A Black American passing as a white American was more common in the years before the end of segregation, when being perceived as a Black person could cause people to lose jobs, security, and housing. Today, passing has become a topic in discussing sex and gender; people might discuss for example, what signifies gender differences on the outside.

• “What Is Racial Passing?” is a video that explores the complex reasons for racial passing in the 19th and 20th centuries in the US.
• "Passing" is a YouTube documentary about a bi-racial family that searches for the secrets of their family’s past, a past that is founded on passing as white.
• “Passing” on TransHub, an Australian health network site, discusses the notion of passing to hide trans identity.

Short Activity

Nella Larsen was a figure of the movements known as the New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance. What themes and styles of literature identify the Harlem Renaissance? Research a poem from this literary movement; then write a paragraph in which you identify and analyze the significance of devices and themes. Using this analysis, write a statement that identifies the nature of the Harlem Renaissance.

Teaching Suggestion: The Harlem Renaissance spanned decades; it includes authors, poets, musicians, actors, dancers, rhetoricians, and others. The scope of the Harlem Renaissance is immense, so it may be helpful to use the links below to point students toward iconic members of the Harlem Renaissance. It’s important to posit this novel in the context of the Harlem Renaissance so that contemporary readers can better understand the time period and lifestyles of Black Americans who were creating culture in the 1920s and 1930s.

• “The Harlem Renaissance” on the History Channel is a breakdown of the people and topics that fueled the Harlem Renaissance.
• “An Introduction to the Harlem Renaissance” features links to poems by iconic Harlem Renaissance poets.