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JBHE Foundation, Inc JBHE Foundation, Inc The Book That Launched the Harlem Renaissance Author(s): Arnold Rampersad Source: The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, No. 38 (Winter, 2002-2003), pp. 87-91 Published by: JBHE Foundation, Inc Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3134215 Accessed: 31-12-2015 07:44 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. JBHE Foundation, Inc is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Thu, 31 Dec 2015 07:44:09 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Book That Launched the Harlem Renaissance Alain Locke's1925 text The New Negro offeredthe world thefirst comprehensive look at literaryand culturalachievements of blacksas seen throughthe eyes of AfricanAmericans. by Arnold Rampersad O MANY SCHOLARSand criticsof the move- some aspects,it has also provedto have been decidedly ment known as the HarlemRenaissance - that misleadingin others. dramaticupsurge of creativityin literature,music, Subsequentgenerations have continuedto see Locke in andart within black America that reached its zenithin the this centralrole in the HarlemRenaissance. "Locke's edit- - second half of the 1920s The New Negro is He wasan energeticchampion ing of and contributionto this volume," the its definitivetext, its Bible. Most of the partic- of theintellectual achievements historian Nathan I. Huggins has written in his ipants in the movement probablyheld the book ofNegroes landmark volume The Harlem Renaissance in similar regard.Conceived and edited by (1971),"and his energeticchampioning of the Alain Locke, illustratedby WinoldReiss and - intellectualachievement of Negroes in the :-- Aaron Douglas, and publishedby the then f 1920smade him the fatherof the New Negro prominentfirm of Albertand Charles Boni, The andthe so-calledHarlem Renaissance." How- NewNegro alerted the world in 1925that some- / ever,a contemporaryobserver in a betterposi- thing approachinga culturalrevolution was tion to know, LangstonHughes, described taking place among blacks in New York, as Lockeonly as one of the three"midwives" of well as elsewherein the UnitedStates and per- 7 the movement,along with Charles S. Johnson hapsaround the world.The book also attempt- andthe literaryeditor of TheCrisis magazine, ed in a fairlyambitious, expansive way to offer JessieFauset. Other observers were less prais- a definitionof this culturalmovement. ' / ing of Locke's performancein this respect. The storyof the makingof TheNew Negrois Indeed,for variousreasons, Locke was an complicatedand, in certainaspects, paradoxi- \I1 7 improbablethough by no means illogical cal. The book, an anthology,represents the tri- choice as "dean"of the movement,or as edi- umphof its compiler'svision of a community torof a volumedesigned to defineits spirit. anda nationchanging before his eyes. And yet / Thirty-nineyears old in 1924, and an assis- this man,Alain Locke, never lived in Harlem P tant professorof philosophyat historically andwas not himselfeither an artistor an editor. AlainLeRoy Locke black Howard University in Washington, The book emphasizedachievements by blacksin the arts, D.C., Locke was a graduateof Harvardand Oxford,to but it had its origins in a magazinethat had no special whichhe hadgone in 1907on a Rhodesscholarship. There interestwhatsoever in writing,painting, or music.Virtual- andat the Universityof Berlinand the Collegede France ly fromthe momentit appearedin 1925, TheNew Negro in Paris,he hadstudied philosophy, Greek, and moder lit- was widely hailed as a definitiveanthology; yet it also erature.He was also devotedto the studyof Germancul- immediatelydrew fire fromcertain of its contributorsand tureand philosophy. Joining the faculty at Howard in 1912, was soon in effect, if not in words,repudiated in crucial he eventuallymoved from teachingEnglish to teaching waysby others.Prophetic of the futureof blackAmerica in philosophy,but was preventedfrom teaching a subjectof Arnold Rampersadis Sara Hart Kimball Professor in the Humanities at increasingimportance to him - race, and especiallythe StanfordUniversity. This article is adapted from his introductionto The interactionof racesaffected by whatis calledthe African New edited Alain Locke. ? 1992 MacmillanPublish- Negro by Copyright Locke'sefforts here were not the ing Company.Reprinted with permissionof Scribner,an imprintof Simon diaspora.Blocking only & SchusterAdult Publishing Group. reactionaryuniversity trustees but also the fact thathe had WINTER 2002/2003 87 This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Thu, 31 Dec 2015 07:44:09 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THEJOURNALOF BLACKSIN HIGHEREDUCATION publishedlittle on the subject.In fact, by the time of the he was as persistentin seekingfriendships and profession- Civic Clubdinner in 1924, Lockehad publishedlittle on al contactsas he was in pursuingknowledge. Eventually, any subject.In a way, in spite of his fine educationand severalof the contributorsto TheNew Negrobroke with intellectualgifts, he was driftinguntil he foundthe Harlem Locke.Before doing so, however,they surrenderedto his Renaissance- or until the HarlemRenaissance found charmand rareintelligence, and helpedto makethe vol- him. umethat followed a landmarkin African-Americancultur- al history. Locke vs. Du Bois A comparisonwith an olderfigure, W.E.B. Du Bois, who "Thebook, an anthology,represents the triumphof had also studiedat Harvardand Berlin, is instructive. its compiler'svision of a communityand a nation AdmiringGerman culture, both men saw a similarity changingbefore his eyes." betweenblack America and Germany in theirstruggles to achieveunity and power.They deeplyrespected the Ger- Liberaland cosmopolitan in his views, Lockemade sure man intellectualtradition, notably the workof Herderon thathis listof contributorsincluded men and women, blacks the transcendentpower of folk cultureand Fichtein his andwhites, young and old. Outnumberedby male writers, nationalisticAddresses to the GermanNation. But Locke six women are representedin The New Negro;however, did not haveDu Bois' backgroundin rigorouslyempirical only two offeredessays - Jessie Fauseton drama,and sociology, and had never lived or taughtin the South, EliseJohnson McDougald on 'The Taskof NegroWoman- where the overwhelmingmajority of black Americans hood."The whites were Albert C. Bames,the eccentric mil- lived at the turnof the century;his sense of the folk was lionaireart collector from Pennsylvania, who wouldeven- mainlytheoretical. He hadnothing approaching Du Bois' tuallyleave his extraordinarycollection in the controlof almostobsessive determination to be a forcein the shaping predominantlyblack Lincoln University; Paul Kelloggof of theirpeople's future. By Locke'sage in 1924, Du Bois Surveymagazine; and Melville J. Herskovits,one of the hadalready published three major books and edited over a leadingstudents and associates of the renownedanthropol- dozenstudies. He hadalso quitthe universityin 1910 for ogistFranz Boas of ColumbiaUniversity and future author the job of crusadingeditor of The Crisis magazine,the of TheMyth of theNegro Past (1941).Several of thepoets, organof the aggressivenew civil rightsorganization, the includingLangston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Bruce NationalAssociation for the Advancement of ColoredPeo- Nugent,were under 25 yearsof age;men like Du Bois and ple. Locke,on the otherhand, although unhappy with the Kelly Millerwere close to or just past 60. Lockebrought Howard administration,had done almost nothing to themall together. fomentchange except to readand reflect on thequestion of the meaningof racein the twentiethcentury. NotableAbsentee His contributorsamounted almost to a Who'sWho among "TheNew Negro alerted the world in 1925 that blackAmerican artists, intellectuals, and scholars. Perhaps somethingapproaching a culturalrevolution was the only notableabsentee was the independenthistorian takingplace among blacks in New York." CarterG. Woodson,founder of the Associationfor the Study of Negro Life and Culturein Washington,D.C. A frequentvisitor to New York,he knewvirtually all the Amongthe youngerwriters Locke missed virtually no one olderblack writers and intellectuals, such as Du Bois and who hadpublished with any distinctionthus far, and virtu- JamesWeldon Johnson. And Locke let neitherdifference ally all of those selectedwent on to achievea measureof in age nor social or professionalstanding keep him from fame.He was too earlyfor Ama Bontemps,Wallace Thur- makingfriends with artistssuch as CounteeCullen and man, and Nella Larsen,but just in time for the fledgling LangstonHughes, who werealmost 20 yearshis junior. He ZoraNeale Hurston.Among the olderwriters he included would go virtuallyanywhere to meet anyonewho might virtuallyeveryone of the old guard,from William Stanley haveanything to contribute.Learned on a varietyof topics, Braithwaite,the poet, critic,and anthologist;James Wel- 88 WINTER 2002/2003 This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Thu, 31 Dec 2015 07:44:09 UTC
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