Answer: escape segregation.
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and artistic movement that took place in Harlem, New York during the 1920s. The name describes a period of "rebirth" of African American artists. At the time, the movement was known as the New Negro Movement. The Harlem Renaissance was a consequence of the African-American Great Migration, in which many African Americans moved north in order to escape the segregation they found in the South.
