Sputnik was the first satellite launched into orbit around the Earth. It was launched in 1957, twelve years before America would put a man on the moon, representing a major point of discomfort for many Americans who suddenly felt as if the US was falling behind the Soviet Union. Shortly after Sputnik was launched, the US space program was greatly expanded and significant resources were put into education for scientists and engineers. In 1961, John F. Kennedy initiated the Apollo Program with the intention of putting a man on the moon by 1971.

James Meredith was the student whose integration of the University of Mississippi inspired riots that eventually led President Kennedy to deploy federal forces to Oxford, Mississippi in an effort to keep the peace. Meredith enrolled in the University of Mississippi after being inspired by President Kennedy himself, as well as a desire and belief in his right to attend the most prestigious educational institution in his home state.

Simply put, the people who brought about the Renaissance, artists and writers, could not keep writing and creating art because no one could afford to pay them for their works anymore. The depression meant that these people had to move on to other way of making a living, thus taking the wind out of the sails of the movement.

Harlem would become overwhelmingly African-American during this time. This is because of the large numbers of African-Americans moving north from the southern states. This large influx of people, many of which concentrated themselves into this neighborhood of New York, led to a confluence of different thoughts and ideas. This meant that artists and thinkers of the time had an audience to play to and work with in forging a new identity.

While African-Americans faced many disadvantages while living in the southern states in this period, religious restrictions were not one of them. The south has many historic African-American churches that were and are well attended with little issue. While the Civil Rights Movement brought much ire to these institutions from radical elements of the segregationist population, at this point in history they were still largely sanctuaries from such issues.

The end of the First World War brought with it a change in American attitude. This major foreign entanglement made the American people desire to focus more on the issues at home. The American public no longer wanted to deal with the issues of foreign nations, but with building the communities of the United States and tackling pressing issues within those communities.

Like most of what was happening in American society at the time, the Great Depression brought the Harlem Renaissance to a halt. This down swing in fortune brought the hope and optimism that fueled the Harlem Renaissance to a stop. This new reality meant that the people of the Renaissance could no longer support themselves financially through the arts and this meant the movement would end with them.

Yellow Journalism is a term still used today to condemn reporting that is seen as unprofessional or unprincipled.

John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.  He is also known for his novella, Of Mice and Men.

The History of the Standard Oil Company was written by Ida Tarbell in 1904. The Standard Oil Company was owned by John D. Rockefeller (at the time the richest man in the United States). The book exposes much of the improper practices in the company and paved the way for a wave of other “muckraking” books that would contribute to the anti-trust movement in America in the early twentieth century. The term muckraking refers to a type of progressive journalist who performs investigative work for the sake of promoting change.