This institute, given in summer, 2010, began with events in 1919, immediately after the First World War, a watershed event in the life of African Americans that sharply defined the New Negro idea and gave rise to a coherent and self-conscious movement. The institute concluded with two events: the enlistment of Joe Louis in the Army in 1942 after the United States has entered World War II, bringing us full circle as the institute opened with the end of World War I. The second is the 1930s career of Billie Holiday, culminating with the 1938 protest song, “Strange Fruit.” Both events signal the two crowning achievements of the New Negro Renaissance’s complex history: male heroism and artistic protest, both as forms of racial crossover and racial triumph. In short, the institute defined the New Negro Movement as encompassing the interwar years of Black American life, with the Renaissance constituting a specific phase that ended when white patronage was no longer interested in supporting black artistic endeavor.