in African-American letters and research. ALAIN
LOCKEedited and published the volume shortly
after the acclaimed Harlem issue of SURVEY
GRAPHICappeared. The New Negro,published by
the New York firm A. Boni, included “book deco-
ration and portraits” by WINOLDREISS.
In his introduction to the volume, Locke de-
scribed the goals of the powerful anthology. The
book aimed “to document the New Negro cultur-
ally and socially—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 book allowed “the Negro [to]
speak for himself,” an important move that had
been called for by authors such as Pauline Hop-
kins, W. E. B. DUBOIS,ARTHURHUFFFAUSET,
and others. Locke characterized the diverse con-
tents of the anthology as evidence of “an unusual
outburst of creative expression” and the inspiring
“renewed race spirit that consciously and proudly
sets itself apart.” Critics praised the collection and
emphasized the intriguing appeal that it would
have to a vast number of readers. Reviewer
Dorothy Scarborough insisted that the volume was
“a book of surprises” and “an extraordinarily inter-
esting page of history, an impressive record of
achievement.” “Here,” she wrote, “Harlem, home
of the new negro speaks” and “[n]o matter how
well-informed the reader, he will find here facts
that he has not known about the progress of the
negro in America” (Scarborough, BR 19).
Locke used the anthology to advance further
his beliefs that powerful sociocultural forces con-
tinued to impact African-American life and were
responsible for the creation of the New Negro. Mi-
gration was one of the key factors in the evolution
of this figure for it was responsible for creating new
diverse communities of color, ones that were quick
to learn from each other and to develop new and
intriguing histories. “Here in Manhattan is not
merely the largest Negro community in the world,”
he wrote, “but the first concentration in history of
so many diverse elements of Negro life.... Each
group has come with its own separate motives and
for its own special ends, but their greatest experi-
ence has been the finding of one another...
Within this area, race sympathy and unit have de-
termined a further fusing of sentiment and experi-
ence. So what began in terms of segregation
becomes more and more, as its elements mix and
react, the laboratory of a great race-welding.”
Locke’s essay on the “New Negro,” a figure who
came to embody the diverse and progressive goals
of the Renaissance, has been of lasting significance
in American literary history. His overview of the
cultural and social evolutions, the impact of migra-
tion, and the literary trends make the essay a rich
guide to the major transformations that defined
the Harlem Renaissance. Locke delighted in the
“New Negro,” a figure whom he described as one
that often defied easy characterization.
The volume included authors published in the
Survey Graphicissue, and it presented the work in a
format similar to that found in the periodical. In
“The Negro Renaissance,” the first of the book’s
two sections, Locke included creative works by
writers such as COUNTEECULLEN,JESSIEFAUSET,
LANGSTON HUGHES,GEORGIADOUGLAS JOHN-
SON,JAMESWELDONJOHNSON,WILLISRICHARD-
SON,ANNE SPENCER,JEAN TOOMER,and ZORA
NEALEHURSTON. The section also included writ-
ers’ essays on literary politics such as Hughes’s
thoughtful meditation “THENEGROARTIST AND
THE RACIAL MOUNTAIN.” The second section,
“The New Negro in a New World,” contained non-
fiction and scholarly prose articles by sociologists
CHARLES JOHNSON and anthropologists such as
MELVILLEHERSKOVITSalongside articles by W. A.
DOMINGO,ELISEJOHNSONMCDOUGALD,KELLY
MILLER, Robert Moton, and WALTERWHITE.
The preparations leading up to the publication
of The New Negrowere not without controversy.
The writer Jean Toomer, who came to resist invita-
tions to submit his work for inclusion in African-
American anthologies, also rejected Locke’s call for
an entry. Yet, as Toomer recalled with some horror,
“when Locke’s book came out... there was a story
from CANE,and there in the introduction, were
words about me which have caused me... misun-
derstanding.” As far as Toomer was concerned,
“Locke tricked and misused” him, and he was quite
forthright about the fact that “[f]or a short time
after the appearance of Locke’s book I was furious.”
Toomer’s primary objection to Locke was rooted in
his preference to keep Caneintact and not “dis-
membered” (Byrd, 216). CARLVANVECHTENwas
alarmed when Locke showed him the draft of the
volume because of the contribution that he saw at-382 New Negro, The: An Interpretation