Answer:
An explanation for why David Levering Lewis referred to the Harlem Renaissance "art as civil rights" is due to the fact that the artists of the Harlem Renaissance needed to attain civil rights by reflecting their humanity via their art.
The Harlem Renaissance was majorly known to be a black movement, during the period when black people experienced great prejudice and abuses. By establishing himself as a famous artists, black people did not only express their peculiar traits and culture, but they happen to show that their talents and intellect was equivalent to those of any other individuals.
Through this manner, they were desiring to express that prejudice and bias had no legitimate reasonable basis, and the need for the blacks to be given the same rights as those of the white people.
