Alain Leroy Locke: The Manful Mortal Rear Of The Harlem Renaissance

Photo of Alain Leroy Locke (b. 9/13/1885 - d. 6/9/1954)

Alain Leroy Locke was born on September 13, 1885 inward Philadelphia, the only tyke of Pliny Ishmael Locke too Mary Hawkins Locke. His father was a schoolteacher too graduate of Howard University Law School. In his youth, Locke struggled amongst rheumatic fever, which left him amongst permanent pump damage. This status physically restricted him too led him to pursue to a greater extent than greatly the quieter intellectual activities of reading too studying.

Locke attended Central High School inward Philadelphia from 1898 to 1902. He graduated commencement inward his score from Philadelphia School of Pedagogy, a teacher's college, where he earned a Bachelor's degree. He completed Harvard College's four-year course of education inward iii years. By 1907, Locke received his Bachelor of Arts score magna cum laude, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa too earned the prestigious Bowdoin Prize for an English linguistic communication essay. Additionally, he was selected every bit the commencement somebody of African descent to have the distinction of Rhodes Scholar from Oxford University -- after rigorous  examinations inward Greek, Latin too mathematics.

From 1910 to 1911, Locke began studying at the University of Berlin every bit a graduate student. He started writing most racism, African colonialism too the arts piece studying inward Europe. In 1912, Locke returned to the USA and joined the faculty of Howard University where he would afterwards survive chairman of its philosophy department. He would work at Howard University for xl years. During his early on teaching career at Howard University, Locke pursued a doctorate which he earned inward 1918 from Harvard University.



The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance, edited yesteryear Alain Locke, available at Amazon.com

The New Negro was published inward 1925 too had a meaning behaviour on on the dialogue of Black cultural achievements, which brought him national recognition. In The New Negro, Locke examined the famous Harlem Renaissance for the full general reading public. It besides became a platform where he attacked the legacy of European supremacy by pointing out the nifty achievements of Africans. The publication of the mass too its acclaim would house Locke at the forefront of "The New Negro Movement."

Alain Leroy Locke, yesteryear Winold Reiss, 1925.

Locke received many honors too was inward nifty postulate every bit a author too lecturer roughly the country.  H5N1 passionate collector of African fine art too champion of Black theatre (Plays of Negro Life, published inward 1927), Locke became i of the world's foremost scholars inward African studies. In 1954, Howard University started its African Studies Program. It was non a novel concept. Thirty years before Locke suggested the plan to the Howard University administration.

In 1953, Locke moved to New York City after his retirement from Howard University. The adjacent year, on June 9, 1954, he suffered a fatal pump laid upwards on derived from his life-long pump problems. As a patron of the arts, Locke's legacy on African American history too civilization would behaviour on many generations to come upwards too he would survive known every bit the Father of the Harlem Renaissance.