The New Negro (1925) is an anthology by Alain Locke. Expanded from a March issue of Survey Graphic magazine, The New Negro compiles writing from such figures as Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, and Locke himself. Recognized as a foundational text of the Harlem Renaissance, the collection is organized around Locke’s writing on the function of art in reorganizing the conception of African American life and culture. Through self-understanding, creation, and independence, Locke’s New Negro came to represent a break from an inhumane past, a means toward meaningful change for a people held down for far too long.
“[F]or generations in the mind of America, the Negro has been more of a formula than a human being—a something to be argued about, condemned or defended, to be ‘kept down, ’ or ‘in his place, ’ or ‘helped up, ’ to be worried with or worried over, harassed or patronized, a social bogey or a social burden.” Identifying the representation of black Americans in the national imaginary as oppressive in nature, Locke suggests a way forward through his theory of the New Negro, who “wishes to be known for what he is, even in his faults and shortcomings, and scorns a craven and precarious survival at the price of seeming to be what he is not.” Throughout The New Negro, leading artists and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance offer their unique visions of who and what they are; voicing their concerns, portraying injustice, and illuminating the black experience, they provide a holistic vision of self-expression in all of its colors and forms.
This edition of Alain Locke’s The New Negro is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.
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Alain Locke (1885-1954) was an African American philosopher, scholar, educator, and patron of the arts. Born in Philadelphia, Locke was raised the only child of Pliny Ishmael and Mary Locke. His father was the first black employee of the United States Postal Service, and his mother was a teacher. He excelled at Central High School before enrolling at Harvard University in 1907, where he was made a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, was awarded the Bowdoin prize, and became the first African American recipient of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. He attended Hertford College at Oxford, overcoming several rejections from other schools attached to the university to study literature, philosophy, Greek, and Latin. After four years as an assistant professor at Howard University, Locke returned to Harvard to complete his doctoral dissertation on the nature of social values. Back at Howard, he worked as the chair of the philosophy department and advocated for equal pay for black and white faculty, which ultimately led to his dismissal in 1925. That same year, he expanded an issue of Survey Graphic, a sociopolitical magazine, into The New Negro, a groundbreaking anthology of writing from Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, and himself. The New Negro would become a foundational text of the Harlem Renaissance, establishing Locke’s reputation as a leading voice on African American arts and culture and a figurehead of the movement. He regained his position at Howard University in 1928, teaching generations of philosophy students until his retirement in 1953. Due to his race and homosexuality, Locke has been long overlooked by scholars and the public at large.
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