Aaron Douglas: A Voice of the Harlem Renaissance Aaron Douglas, a name often spoken with reverence within the circles of American art history, stands as one of the most vital and enduring figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1899 – a place steeped in both the promise and the constraints of early 20th-century America – his life was inextricably linked to the burgeoning cultural movement that sought to define Bl…