The Harlem Renaissance Reader, edited by David Levering Lewis, is very close to as good as that kind of reader could be. It doesn’t overcome the major obstacle posed by the subject matter: the authors it displays didn’t all write the type of literature that’s easily anthologized, and many excerpts form longer works don’t stand well on their own.
I doubt I’d ever read it again, but I would definitely re-read parts of it. And I’m thankful for the way it introduced me to Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Helene Johnson, and George Douglas Johnson.
