Guests at a Party for Langston Hughes (1924)

Guests at a Party for Langston Hughes at the home of Regina Andrews and Ethel Ray Nance (580 St. Nicholas Avenue, New York), 1924. Courtesy of Regina Andrews.

Left to right: Poet Langston Hughes, sociologist Charles Spurgeon Johnson, historian E. Franklin Frazier, doctor and author Rudolph Fisher, and legislator Hubert Delaney.

Regina M. Andrews, born in Chicago, moved to New York and became assistant to Ernestine Rose at the Harlem Branch of the New York Public Library. She organized the Negro Experimental Theatre with Gwendolyn Bennett and gave encouragement to Charles S. Johnson in organizing the Civic Club dinner for young African-American writers in 1924. This dinner was the forerunner of the Harlem Renaissance because it brought together the young and elder African-American writers with a number of white editors and publishers. Paul Kellog of Survey Graphic, in fact, was sufficiently impressed and devoted an entire issue to the "New Negro."

Ms. Andrews shared an apartment in Harlem's Sugar Hill District with Louella Tucker and Ethel Nance, secretary to Charles S. Johnson and volunteer at the library. Their apartment was a gathering place for young artists and writers. Ms. Andrews wrote a play under the pen name Ursala Tilling called Climbing Jacob's Ladder, and promoted many of the young writers of the day. She was active in the Urban League. The photo shows a group on the roof of her apartment building.

Langston Hughes (1902-1967), the poet laureate of Harlem, wrote prolifically and influenced a generation of writers. His poetry was bittersweet, based on the rhythms of jazz and the blues. It was racially sensitive, earthy and honest. One of his early poems, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, was published in The Crisis Magazine in 1921.

Charles S. Johnson (1893-1956), an educator and, as Langston Hughes put it, "one of the midwives of the Harlem Renaissance." He was executive director for research and publicity for the National Urban League. In 1923, he founded Opportunity Magazine and in 1924 organized the famous Civic Club Dinner, a legendary gathering. He also organized literary contests in Opportunity and influenced many writers with his support and nurturing. He joined the faculty of Fisk University in 1928 and was department head of social sciences. Eventually he became its first African-American president.

E. Franklin Frazier (1894-1982), educator, sociologist was born in Baltimore, Maryland. After finishing high school in the city, Frazier entered Howard University and graduated with honors in 1916. He earned an MA in sociology at Clark University in 1921 and a Ph.D in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1931. His dissertation, The Negro Family in Chicago, was published in 1932. He taught at Atlanta University, then at Fisk, before beginning a long affiliation with Howard in 1932 as chairman of the sociology department. During his tenure at Atlanta University, his essays appeared in The Journal of Social Forces, The Nation, The Crisis, and Opportunity. His classic monograph, The Negro in the United States, appeared in 1939, and his controversial Black Bourgeoisie in 1957.

Rudolph Fisher (1897-1934) was a medical doctor and writer. He established a successful practice as an x-ray specialist and was a research fellow at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, specializing in roentgenology. As a writer, his career began with a short story entitled, "City of Refuge," published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1925. Many of his stories are about Harlem and its racial and social dynamics. He wrote "The Caucasian Storms Harlem" in response to discovery that certain clubs in Harlem banned African Americans so that they could cultivate a white clientele. He died of intestinal cancer caused by his work with radiation, leaving behind a substantial body of literary works.

Hubert T. Delaney (1901-1990), a lawyer and judge, was born in North Carolina. He graduated from New York University Law School in 1926 and became the 121^st District Republican candidate for Congress in 1929. He was tax commissioner and appointed by the mayor of New York, to investigate riots in the City in 1935. His wife was a poet, and he therefore was a part of the literary scene during the Harlem Renaissance.

Photo attributed to James Van Der Zee from the collection of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.