Alain Locke Intro. “The New Negro”

Alain Locke, “The Father of the Harlem Renaissance” ( ) 1907) Graduates from Harvard with degrees in English and Philosophy ) Studies in Germany and France as a Rhodes Scholar 1911) Works with Carter Woodson at Howard University where he comes in close contact with other race leaders like Du Bois. 1918) Receives Ph.D. from Harvard for his doctoral thesis The Problem of Classification in the Theory of Value 1918) Becomes chair of the Howard Department of Philosophy ) Locke tirelessly promotes African American artists, writers, and musicians, encouraging them to look to Africa as an inspiration for their works 1925) Publishes his issue of Survey Graphic which becomes the template for the New Negro Selected Bibliography * “Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro.” Survey Graphic 6.6 (1 March 1925). [1]. * When Peoples Meet: A Study of Race and Culture Contacts. Alain Locke and Bernhard J. Stern, eds.New York: Committee on Workshops, Progressive Education Association, * The Philosophy of Alain Locke: Harlem Renaissance and Beyond. Edited by Leonard Harris. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, * Race Contacts and Interracial Relations: Lectures of the Theory and Practice of Race. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, Reprinted & edited by Jeffery C. Stewart. Washington: Howard University Press, * Negro Art Past and Present. Washington: Associates in Negro Folk Education, (Bronze Booklet No. 3). * The Negro and His Music. Washington: Associates in Negro Folk Education, (Bronze Booklet No. 2). * “The Negro in the Three Americas.” Journal of Negro Education 14 (Winter 1944): 7–18. * “Negro Spirituals.” Freedom: A Concert in Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the

Alain Locke, “The Father of the Harlem Renaissance” ( ) Bibliography Cont. Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (1940). Compact disc. New York: Bridge, Audio (1:14). * “Spirituals” (1940). The Critical Temper of Alain Locke: A Selection of His Essays on Art and Culture. Edited by Jeffrey C. Stewart. New York and London: Garland, Pp. 123–26. * The New Negro: An Interpretation. New York: Arno Press, * Four Negro Poets. New York: Simon and Schuster, * Plays of Negro Life: a Source-Book of Native American Drama. New York: Harper and Brothers, * A Decade of Negro Self-Expression. Charlottesville, Virginia, * The Negro in America. Chicago: American Library Association, * Negro Art - Past and Present. Washington, D.C.: Associates in Negro Folk Education, * The Negro and His Music. Washington, D.C.: Associates in Negro Folk Education, 1936; also New York: Kennikat Press, * The Negro in Art: A Pictorial Record of the Negro Artist and of the Negro Theme in Art. Washington, D.C.: Associates in Negro Folk Education, 1940; also New York: Hacker Art Books, * A Collection of Congo Art. Arts 2 (February 1927): 60–70. * Harlem: Dark Weather-vane. Survey Graphic 25 (August 1936): 457–462, * The Negro and the American Stage. Theatre Arts Monthly 10 (February 1926): 112–120. * The Negro in Art. Christian Education 13 (November 1931): 210–220. * Negro Speaks for Himself. The Survey 52 (April 15, 1924): 71–72. * The Negro's Contribution to American Art and Literature The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 140 (November 1928): 234–247. * The Negro's Contribution to American Culture. Journal of Negro Education 8 (July 1939): 521–529. * A Note on African Art. Opportunity 2 (May 1924): 134–138. * Our Little Renaissance. Ebony and Topaz, edited by Charles S. Johnson. New York: National Urban League, * Steps Towards the Negro Theatre. Crisis 25 (December 1922): 66–68. * The Problem of Classification in the Theory of Value: or an Outline of a Genetic System of Values. Ph.D. dissertation: Harvard, * “Locke, Alain.” [Autobiographical sketch.] Twentieth Century Authors. Ed. Stanley Kunitz and Howard Haycroft. New York: P * “The Negro Group.” Group Relations and Group Antagonisms. Edited by Robert M. MacIver. New York: Institute for Religious Studies, 1943 * World View on Race and Democracy: A Study Guide in Human Group Relations. Chicago: American Library Association, * Le rôle du Negro dans la culture des Amerique. Port-au-Prince: Haiti Imprimerie de l’état, * “Values and Imperatives.” American Philosophy, Today and Tomorrow. Ed. Sidney Hook and Horace M. Kallen. New York: Lee Furman, Pp. 312–33. Reprints: Freeport, NY: Books West) (January 1928): 315–16. * “Educator and Publicist,” Star of the West 22.8 (November 1931) 254–55. [Obituary of George William Cook [Baha'i], 1855–1931]. * “Minorities and the Social Mind.” Progressive Education 12 (March 1935): 141–50. * “The High Cost of Prejudice.” Forum 78 (Dec. 1927). * “The Negro Poets of the United States.” Anthology of Magazine Verse 1926 and Yearbook of American Poetry. Sesquicentennial edition. Ed. William S. Braithwaite. Boston: B.J. Brimmer, Pp. 143–151. The Critical Temper of Alain Locke: A Selection of His Essays on Art and Culture. Edited by Jeffrey C. Stewart. New York and London: Garland, Pp. 43–45. * Plays of Negro Life: A Source-Book of Native American Drama. Alain Locke and Montgomery Davis, eds. New York and Evanston: Harper and Row, “Decorations and Illustrations by Aaron Douglas.” * “Impressions of Luxor.” The Howard Alumnus 2.4 (May 1924): 74–78.

The New Negro: How to account for a new psychology Talking Points 1)The Sociologist, Philanthropist, Race Leader, and the New Negro 2)The theme of a younger generation awakening the masses 3)The role of literature in this project of awakening.

The “Old Negro” in American Letters Talking Points 1)The portrayal of African Americas in letters before the New Negro movement 2)The polemical necessity of the Old Negro and his status as antiquated in the field of letters 3)Righting historical fiction 4)The Enlightenment vs. the Modernist missions of African American letters

The shadow of Self Awareness: The Sense of Self as a Social Problem Talking Points 1)Echoes of Du Bois: racial uplift and its ties to self-understanding 2)The necessity to confront social problems and the necessity to understand self- awareness as a social problem 3)The metaphor of the veil and the shadow

Self Understanding and Art: Shedding Folk Shame Talking Points 1)The point towards “Negro” art as “folk art” and its political implications 2)The necessity for self understanding in “Negro emancipation” 3)Imitation, Inferiority, Pride, Emancipation

Current Artistic Production: Yielding a New Self Knowledge Talking Points 1)The relationship between race leadership and artistic production 2)The buoyancy of psychic life and the precariousness of “conditions without” 3)Mental and physical migrations.

The Great Migration’s Consequences Part I Talking Points 1)Fact and the art of the New Negro vs. the “bogeys” of melodramas past 2)The Migration and the Negro problem as a a national problem 3)The pitfalls of sectionalism 4)The advent of the black middle class

Part II Cosmopolitanism, Heterogeneity and Melding a Race Talking Points 1)The conflagration of sociological shifts in the Negro community and the advent of the New Negro 2)The heterogeneity and unifying principle of race sympathy 3)Harlem as a Racial Metropole

Race radicals: The Vanguard and a New Era Talking Points 1)Harlem as Prophetic: The New City on Sugar Hill 2)Echoes of the “Talented Tenth” and the responsibility of the “Race man” v.s. the onset of a truly mass-led movement 3)The dual edge of patronage: Garrison v.s. Mason

Cultural Nationalism in an Interracial Republic Talking Points 1)The Negro as an Object of Study: the importance of the international academy 2)The Negro as an Object of Art: realism and caricature 3)The Study of the Negro and Negro Art as Interracial contact 4)The question of labor organization and racist union practices 5)Philanthropy and “Long distance philanthropy”: the question of patronage

Negro “Self Expression”: Achieving National Expression and Understanding Talking Points 1)The desire to be understood v.s. the desire for understanding 2)The New Negro, Democracy, and the fruition pf American Culture 3)Arts and letters as means to bypass the “spite wall” by allowing for “fuller, truer self- expression….”

Racialism and Americanism: Non-Exclusive Terms Talking Points 1)Separatism, Nationalism, and Racial Uplift 2)The Negro Problem as a test of American Democracy

Repositioning the Negro in Letters and Society Self-Respect and Self-Reliance Talking Points 1)The decline of sentimental appeal in favor of the “inner objective” of a mentality centered on self-respect and self reliance. 2)Reconstruction and the Sentimental Romance 3)Race pride as a social contribution 4)The Recognition of and Incorporation of the Negro as he stands”

Art: Tension Ideals and Reality Talking Points 1)The Negro Artist as member of both racial and national vanguards and as a vehicle for social change. 2) The relationship between the republic’s professed ideals and the Negro artist 3) Locke’s own method: searching for evidence of mass movement in artistic production

Negro Art: Social Creeds and Social Practices Talking Points 1)The “moral advantage” of the Negro Artist and his avoidance of cynicism 2)The inadequacy of passive resistance and the project of letters as social activism 3)The absence of an alternative

The Practices of Diaspora? Talking Points 1)The New Negro and Internationalism: the race problem as a world problem 2)Pan-Africanism and the Negro’s Zionism 3)Heterogeneity and Collectivity 4)Colonialism and the the “common interests” of darker peoples.

Re-evaluating Art Past and Present: Where the Negro Already Is… Talking Points 1)The theme of American art as Negro folk art and music 2)Negro artistic contributions as extant national expression 3)The call for a re- evaluation of Negro contribution to mainstream contemporary life.

Internationalism: Garvey, the American Negro, and pan-Africanisms Talking Points 1)Cooperative development between Africa and the New Negro 2)Marcus Garvey and the UNIA 3)“Black is Beautiful” 4)The American Negro’s “New Internationalism”

The Renaissance: The Promise of the 2 nd Crop Talking Points 1)The dual and daunting charge: the betterment of the race and the development of self- expression 2)The Promise of the Second Crop, Democracy, and a New Spiritual Coming of Age

Selections from The New Negro Zora Neale Hurston: Spunk Poetry: Cullen, McKay, Toomer, Johnson, Hughes, Bontemps, Johnson, Spencer, Grimke, Alexander Countee Cullen “Heritage ” Alain Locke “The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts” and “American Negro Folk Literature” W.E.B. Du Bois “The Negro Mind Reaches Out ”