Louis Armstrong

1901 – 1971

During the 1920s, the Harlem neighborhood in New York City became the center of an explosion of Black art, music, poetry, and literature. Writers like Langst…

• 1920 CE

  Harlem Renaissance Flourishes

  During the 1920s, the Harlem neighborhood in New York City became the center of an explosion of Black art, music, poetry, and literature. Writers like Langston Hughes and musicians like Louis Armstrong created art that changed American culture forever.

• 1920s CE

  Jazz spreads from New Orleans

  African American musicians blend blues, ragtime, and brass-band traditions into jazz in New Orleans. As the Great Migration carries the sound north, Harlem clubs and radio broadcasts make jazz a defining voice of the Jazz Age.