by Jaime Reuter
On Wednesday, November 14th, Professor Laurie McMillan’s Intro to Literary Studies class took their education outside of the classroom in a walking tour of historic Harlem. The class left from Pace University’s Pleasantville campus in the early afternoon and set off for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
The biting cold of the 33º wind chill couldn’t stop the class from learning all about the Harlem Renaissance on this two-hour tour. The students were often prompted to relate real life sites to events in the historical fiction novel Passing by Nella Larsen, which they subsequently completed researched literary analyses on.
Historic Site Stops
The tour included a span of nearly ten Harlem blocks. Some of the stops on the tour included the Harlem Hospital Center and the NAACP headquarters. The murals on the Harlem Hospital Center depicted black people having important roles in society, which was (and even still is in some places) an unheard of concept.
Harlem Hospital Center mural
The students were able to see the many different parts of Harlem where black culture flourished in the 1920’s—fom Striver’s Row, where black socialites lived in beautiful brownstones, to small tenement buildings for impoverished and unemployed people. They also got to learn and witness the place of the near fatal stabbing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The class had the opportunity to see the sites that used to house some of Harlem’s most famous nightclubs, like the Cotton Club. They learned that while some clubs and bars were for black people, others actually catered towards white people who fetishized black culture.
Relating to the Readings
Students were taught about the Great Migration, which is highly prevalent in Passing.
Perhaps one of the most powerful parts of the trip was for the Pace students to see DJ Henry’s name written into a tribute to police brutality victims. This brought the racial issue into a different lens, and hit most closely to home for the students.
contemporary mural protesting police violence
The trip definitely helped all the students who participated gain a better understanding of the Harlem Renaissance through the immersive learning experience of a hands-on tour.
Special thanks to Big Onion tours and Professor McMillan!
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