A History of American Literature

Making It New: 1900–1945 477

seen as promoters of the new movement in black cultural self-consciousness.

Notably, Jessie Fauset (1882–1961) encouraged and published many of the new

black writers while she edited Du Bois’s magazine Crisis and wrote four novels,

depicting the experience of black women, that all insisted on the need to accept the

African-American inheritance rather than escape it: There is Confusion (1924), Plum

Bun (1929), The Chinaberry Tree (1931), and Comedy: American Style (1936). But it

was Locke who, through his landmark anthology and his energetic championing of

the intellectual achievements of African-Americans in the 1920s, received most of

the credit. As a result, he became known as the father of the New Negro movement

and the dean of the Harlem Renaissance.

Liberal and cosmopolitan in his outlook, Locke made sure that The New Negro

included men and women, blacks and whites, the older and younger generations

among its contributors. “In the very process of being transplanted, the Negro is

becoming transformed,” Locke declared in his introductory essay. And, in order to

chart this transformation – “a spiritual coming of age,” as he called it – he felt free,

perhaps even obliged, to draw on a variety of perspectives. This variety has certain

limitations, however. Some of them seem entirely right. For instance, given that

Locke’s main purpose is to declare the growth of a “common consciousness” among

African-Americans and to show that, as he puts it, “the American mind must reckon

with a fundamentally changed Negro,” it seems natural that he should limit the

numbers of white contributors to three. Others, however, are more questionable.

There are only six black female contributors to The New Negro, among them Zora

Neale Hurston, and only two contribute essays – only one of which in turn, Jessie

Fauset writing on drama, is concerned with what Locke saw as his core project, “the

first fruits of the Negro Renaissance.” These limits aside, the list of contributors to

the collection is impressive. It includes Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes, Arna

Bontemps and Claude McKay, Jean Toomer and, from an older generation, James

Weldon Johnson and W. E. B. Du Bois. Divided into two sections, “The Negro

Renaissance” and “The New Negro in a New World,” the first and more important

section gathers together essays on African-American art and literature with generous

selections of African-American fiction, poetry, and drama. The second section

contains reflections on broader social issues and on the connection between the

Harlem Renaissance and similar movements in other parts of the United States. And

it concludes with an essay by Du Bois tracing the global implications of the New

Negro movement, and, in particular, its relationship to colonialism and the struggle

for freedom in Africa. All this is followed by an extensive bibliography, compiled by

Arthur A. Schomburg, documenting the significant books and other studies written

by and about African-Americans and, to a lesser extent, Africa. And it is supplemented

by a series of illustrations that emphasize racial pride by playing variations on the

theme that black is beautiful. These were considered bold at a time when even

politically conscious magazines often contained advertisements for creams to

facilitate the lightening of skin color. There are, inevitably, omissions and weaknesses

in the volume. The blues is mentioned only in passing. Jazz is accorded respectful

attention but is scorned because, as one essayist puts it, “at present it vulgarizes, with

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