Apollo Theatre
Jose 1
Janelle Jose
Professor Pappas
AAS 254
16 April 2008
“Our Theater: The Hey Dey of the Apollo Theatre” Apollo was the Greek God of music, Poetry and the arts. His temple was at Delphi and was known to be a place of purification. There is a temple of a different that bears the name of the Greek god and its at 253 West 125th Street Harlem in New York City. The Apollo Theater would become as famous as the temple at Delphi. The Apollo Theaters home was in Harlem. Harlem is known worldwide as a major African-American cultural and business neighborhood. It wasn’t always the Harlem we know today. Harlem didn’t become an African American neighborhood until the Great Migration.
During the first decade of the 20th century, Growing unemployment and increasing racial violence encouraged blacks to leave the South. The way they came up north was by working for northern manufacturers who had recruited the southern black workers to fill factory jobs. So from 1910 to 1930 between 1.5 million and 2 million African Americans left the South for the industrial cities of the North. By 1930 more than 200,000 blacks had moved to New York. As black communities in Northern cities grew, black working people became the patrons for an expanding black professional and business class, gaining in political and economic power. As more and more educated and socially conscious blacks settled in New York’s neighborhood of Harlem, it developed into the political and cultural center of black America. During the 1910s a
Jose 2 new political agenda advocating racial equality arose in the African American community, particularly in its growing middle class. A black middle class had developed by the turn of the century, fostered by increased education and employment opportunities. There was something emerging in the midst of social and intellectual up rise in the African American community in the early 20th century. Harlem Renaissance was the name of the African American
Janelle Jose
Professor Pappas
AAS 254
16 April 2008
“Our Theater: The Hey Dey of the Apollo Theatre” Apollo was the Greek God of music, Poetry and the arts. His temple was at Delphi and was known to be a place of purification. There is a temple of a different that bears the name of the Greek god and its at 253 West 125th Street Harlem in New York City. The Apollo Theater would become as famous as the temple at Delphi. The Apollo Theaters home was in Harlem. Harlem is known worldwide as a major African-American cultural and business neighborhood. It wasn’t always the Harlem we know today. Harlem didn’t become an African American neighborhood until the Great Migration.
During the first decade of the 20th century, Growing unemployment and increasing racial violence encouraged blacks to leave the South. The way they came up north was by working for northern manufacturers who had recruited the southern black workers to fill factory jobs. So from 1910 to 1930 between 1.5 million and 2 million African Americans left the South for the industrial cities of the North. By 1930 more than 200,000 blacks had moved to New York. As black communities in Northern cities grew, black working people became the patrons for an expanding black professional and business class, gaining in political and economic power. As more and more educated and socially conscious blacks settled in New York’s neighborhood of Harlem, it developed into the political and cultural center of black America. During the 1910s a
Jose 2 new political agenda advocating racial equality arose in the African American community, particularly in its growing middle class. A black middle class had developed by the turn of the century, fostered by increased education and employment opportunities. There was something emerging in the midst of social and intellectual up rise in the African American community in the early 20th century. Harlem Renaissance was the name of the African American