such as Americans All, Immigrants All(1939), and
historical works such as Frederick Douglass: A Biog-
raphy of Anti-Slavery(1935).
Locke’s major contributions to the Harlem
Renaissance included the much-heralded collec-
tion of works by African Americans and about
African-American life and culture. The 1925 pub-
lication of THENEWNEGRO:ANINTERPRETATION
signaled a new and deliberate stage in African-
American studies and scholarship. This anthology
grew out of his efforts to edit a special volume of
SURVEYGRAPHICon African-American issues. The
opportunity to produce the volume came on the
night of the famed 1924 celebration that Opportu-
nityeditor CHARLESS. JOHNSON hosted at the
CIVICCLUBin New York City in honor of JESSIE
FAUSETand the publication of her first novel. On
that evening, which also included Johnson’s
provocative pronouncement that Locke was the
“virtual dean of the movement” (Rampersad, 96),
Locke had the opportunity to talk at length with
PAUL GREEN, founder of Survey Graphic. The
Harlem issue of Survey Graphic,entitled HARLEM:
MECCA OF THENEWNEGRO,quickly led to the
publication of Locke’s anthology. The book in-
cluded creative works by ANGELINA GRIMKÉ,
LANGSTON HUGHES,ZORA NEALE HURSTON,
Claude McKay, and ANNESPENCER, artwork by
WINOLDREISSand Richmond Barthé, and schol-
arly prose essays by Locke, MELVILLEHERSKOVITS,
JAMESWELDONJOHNSON,ALBERTBARNES,WIL-
FRED A. DOMINGO,KELLY MILLER,ARTHUR
SCHOMBURG, and others. Published by ALBERT
and CHARLESBONI, the volume was enthusiasti-
cally received. Promotion materials highlighted en-
dorsements by individuals such as H. L. MENCKEN,
who proclaimed that the book, priced at $5, was “a
phenomenon of immense significance.”
It was Locke who most notably advanced the
notion of the New Negro, a figure whose intellec-
tual, political, and social confidence heralded a
new era in race consciousness, activism, and lead-
ership. In his introduction to the 1925 anthology,
he outlined the bold agendas of the collection.
“This volume aims to document the New Negro
culturally and socially,” he wrote, “to register the
transformations of the inner and outer life of the
Negro in America that have so significantly taken
place in the last few years.” The work was meant
to counteract the “voluminous literature on the
Negro” that obscured the actual individual and re-
sulted in familiarity with “the Negro problem
rather than the Negro.” Locke assured readers that
movements such as the Harlem Renaissance sig-
naled “a fresh spiritual and cultural focusing” and
provided evidence of “a renewed race-spirit that
consciously and proudly sets itself apart.” His per-
spectives on African-American arts were in keep-
ing with the TALENTEDTENTHideals that W. E. B.
DUBOISarticulated and strove to realize during
the period. As Ernest Mason notes, Locke was
forthright about his desire to see African Ameri-
cans advance purposefully in all areas of public life.
“Both as an American and as a Negro,” he wrote
in the essay entitled “The High Cost of Prejudice”
that appeared in the December 1927 issue of
Forum,“I would much rather see the black masses
going gradually forward under the leadership of a
recognized and representative and responsible elite
than see a group of malcontents later hurl these
masses at society in doubtful but desperate strife”
(Mason, 315).
Locke was more tolerant than his fellow Har-
vard graduate DuBois when it came to evaluating
the moral responsibilities of Harlem Renaissance
writers. He maintained a high level of reserve,
though, and did not hesitate to comment on the
explicit and often daring publications of writers like
Wallace Thurman, Bruce Nugent, and others. Ac-
cording to Thomas Wirth, Locke “did not view art
as a means of moral instruction, and he strongly op-
posed the conflation of art with propaganda. He
valued, above all, authenticity of expression” and
“was interested in establishing artistic traditions in
which the sensibilities and life experiences that
African Americans shared could be fully and freely
expressed” (Wirth, 48). His evaluations reflected
the inherent tensions of his perspectives, however,
since he held writers of color to high and some-
times inflexible standards. He was particularly in-
censed by Claude McKay’s critique of him as a
self-important and unqualified evaluator of artistic
enterprise and in response lambasted the West In-
dian writer’s 1937 autobiography, A Long Way from
Home.In “Spiritual Truant,” his review published in
the fall 1937 issue of New Challenge,Locke de-
clared that McKay’s “lack of common loyalty” to
the race could not be disguised by “a fascinatingLocke, Alain 319