Realism refers to an attempt to depict the subject matter in an accurate and direct manner. It was often used in the United States to depict ordinary men or women going about daily life in a realistic manner. It is considered one of the most important artistic movements in European and American history.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was authored by Harriet Beecher Stowe and published in 1852. The author was a devout abolitionist and the novel centers on the character Uncle Tom—a long suffering black slave. The book was a seminal influence in growing the abolitionist movement. It became the best-selling novel of the nineteenth century and was a significant literary influence on the nature of black identity in the United States. 

Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement in the early nineteenth century. It explicitly opposed the teachings of the Harvard Divinity School. Transcendentalists argued that there is an inherent unity between man and nature, and both man and nature are inherently good. Central to transcendentalist beliefs is the notion that organized religion and political parties corrupt the nature of the individual and are therefore deplorable. Influential transcendentalists include Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

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.