미국 흑인들과 미국 사회의 관계에는 노예제라는 지배와 종속의 계층적 구조에 대한 경험이 깔려있다. 한 사회 안에 지배집단과 피지배집단이 양극으로 존재한다는 사실은 내부적으로 식민지가 형성되어 있음을 의미한다. 종교적 자유나 성취를 위해 자발적으로 이주해 온 미국 내의 다른 인종집단들과 달리, 미국의 흑인들은 백인들에 의해 강제로 이주 당한 노예로서 비참한 삶을 강요당했고, 민주주의와 노예제도가 모순적으로 양립하는 독특한 나라 미국에서의 식민주의를 경험했다. 흑인은 전통과 문화적 근원을 상실당했고, 가족과 혈연의 공동체적 소속감과 시민의 기본권을 거부당했다. 미국 사회에서 흑인은 노예해방 이후에도 ‘노예의 후손’이라는 씻을 수 없는 타자화된 인종주의적 사회계급을 물려받았다.
The history of post-colonialism started with a form of 'ethnic minority discourse', and the genealogical root of post-colonialism begins with the resistant discourse of 'Negro', the Other. Black diaspora occupies a prominent place in the historical context of post-colonialism. That's why Pan-Africanism, which African blacks as main agents of discourse attempted to overcome colonialism and racism and aimed to unify and uplift African descendants, could be a starting point of post-colonialism. This paper is, hence, based on an awareness of the problem that post-colonialism begun with the resistance of Negro and the theory of post-colonialism of the West-based scholars is rooted in Pan-Africanism by William Edward Burghardt Du Bois. Pan-Africanism, especially, served as a main impetus for Harlem Renaissance to popularize the culture of both Africa and American blacks to new world for the first time. With the advent of Harlem Renaissance, Negro rejected the past negative image of blacks represented by whites, recovered the pride of blacks as the subject, not the object, of representation, and encouraged new consciousness of race. Therefore, the quest for Pan-Africanism in the Harlem Renaissance is a work to restore the intrinsic self-reliance in post-colonialism as well. Black artists of Harlem Renaissance defined African art as their 'lost legacy' and tried to connect it with African-American culture. And they newly posited their identity as the progenitor of civilization, not the descendants of slaves, through Egyptian civilization. This is a deconstruction and resistance to the negative identity given by whites in the past and an attempt to establish the consciousness of race as the subject. Against this backdrop, this paper intends to reveal post-colonialist attributes shown in Harlem Renaissance art by focusing on how Pan-Africanism was embodied in the Harlem Renaissance art works, clarifying that Pan-Africanism by Du Bois is the foundation of the theory of post-co