Their Eyes Were Watching God was rejected in its day due to its use of broken English as exhibited by slaves. It was rejected by blacks because that was our secret; the very past that participants in the Harlem Renaissance trying to transcend. They were attempting to establish blacks as intellectuals, and Hurston then shows is first is perceived to be ignorant and lowly.

However what the Black Arts Movement did was established all things black as beauty. The Black Arts Movement forced black people to create their own standards. It forces us to create our own parameters of what art is and to satisfy our primary need to speak to the spiritual and cultural needs of black people. The Black Arts Movement outlined the souls of black folks from Africa, through transgression, to America, as beauty; in which case one could appreciate the broken English evident in her writings.

. Booker T Washington was hailed as great because he was the first of his kind. The first black man to stand up in front of a white America and make the case that black men are more than animals. Washington wanted to build a nation of black workers, who could sustain their lifestyles. Washington urged the black man to endure racism; he wanted black people to work hard to garner respect. His vision relied heavily on the goodwill of white folks.
W.E.B. du Bois felt that Washington’s vision of black America would only perpetuate racism. Instead he proposed that respect for the black man would be gained