Alain LeRoy Locke


Alain Leroy Locke was an American writer, philosopher, educator, and patron of the arts. Distinguished as the first African-American Rhodes Scholar in 1907, Locke was the philosophical architect —the acknowledged "Dean"— of the Harlem Renaissance. As a result, popular listings of influential African Americans have repeatedly included him. On March 19, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed: "We're going to let our children know that the only philosophers that lived were not Plato and Aristotle, but W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke came through the universe."

Early life and education

Alain Locke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 13, 1885 to Pliny Ishmael Locke and Mary Hawkins Locke, both descended from prominent families of free blacks. He was their only child. His father was the first black employee of the U.S. Postal Service, and his paternal grandfather taught at Philadelphia's Institute for Colored Youth. His mother's grandfather, Charles Shorter, was a hero in the War of 1812. His mother Mary was a teacher and incited her son's passion for education and literature. In 1902, Locke graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia, second in his class. He also attended Philadelphia School of Pedagogy.
In 1907, Locke graduated from Harvard University with degrees in English and philosophy, and was honored as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and recipient of the Bowdoin prize. After graduation, he was the first African-American selected as a Rhodes Scholar. At that time, Rhodes selectors did not meet candidates in person, but there is evidence that at least some selectors knew he was African-American. On arriving at Oxford, Locke was denied admission to several colleges, and several Rhodes Scholars from the American South refused to live in the same college or attend events with Locke. He was finally admitted to Hertford College, where he studied literature, philosophy, Greek, and Latin, from 1907–1910. In 1910, he attended the University of Berlin, where he studied philosophy.
Locke wrote from Oxford in 1910 that the "primary aim and obligation" of a Rhodes Scholar "is to acquire at Oxford and abroad generally a liberal education, and to continue subsequently the Rhodes mission throughout life and in his own country. If once more it should prove impossible for nations to understand one another as nations, then, as Goethe said, they must learn to tolerate each other as individuals".

Teaching and scholarship

Locke received an assistant professorship in English at Howard University in 1912. While at Howard, he became a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.
Locke returned to Harvard in 1916 to work on his doctoral dissertation, The Problem of Classification in the Theory of Value. In his thesis, he discusses the causes of opinions and social biases, and that these are not objectively true or false, and therefore not universal. Locke received his PhD in philosophy in 1918.
Locke returned to Howard University as the chair of the department of philosophy. During this period, he began teaching the first classes on race relations, leading to his dismissal in 1925. After being reinstated in 1928, Locke remained at Howard until his retirement in 1953. Locke Hall, on the Howard campus, is named after him.
Locke promoted African-American artists, writers, and musicians, encouraging them to look to Africa as an inspiration for their works. He encouraged them to depict African and African-American subjects, and to draw on their history for subject material. The library resources built up by Dorothy B. Porter to support these studies included materials acquired from his travels and contacts.

The Harlem Renaissance and the "New Negro"

Locke was the guest editor of the March 1925 issue of the periodical Survey Graphic titled "Harlem, Mecca of the New Negro", a special on Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance, which helped educate white readers about its flourishing culture. In December of that year, he expanded the issue into The New Negro, a collection of writings by African Americans, which would become one of his best known works. A landmark in black literature, it was an instant success. Locke contributed five essays: the "Foreword", "The New Negro", "Negro Youth Speaks", "The Negro Spirituals", and "The Legacy of Ancestral Arts".
Locke's philosophy of the New Negro was grounded in the concept of race-building. Its most important component is overall awareness of the potential black equality; no longer would blacks allow themselves to adjust themselves or comply with unreasonable white requests. This idea was based on self-confidence and political awareness. Although in the past the laws regarding equality had been ignored without consequence, Locke's philosophical idea of The New Negro allowed for fair treatment. Because this was an idea and not a law, its power was held in the people. If they wanted this idea to flourish, they were the ones who would need to "enforce" it through their actions and overall points of view.
While his own writing was sophisticated philosophy, and therefore not popularly accessible, he mentored others in the movement who would become more broadly known, like Zora Neale Hurston.

Religious beliefs

Locke sustained his religious relationship to Christianity in the public eye and rarely openly supported his affiliation to the Baháʼí movement. Locke was a member of the Baháʼí Faith and declared his belief in Baháʼu'lláh in 1918. Due to the lack of an official enrollment system for the Baháʼí movement, the date in which Locke converted to Baháʼí faith is unverified. However, the National Baháʼí Archives discovered a "Baháʼí Historical Record" card that Locke completed in 1935 at the inquiry of a Baháʼí census from the National Spiritual Assembly. He was one of seven African American individuals from the Washington D.C. Baháʼí movement to complete the card. On the card, Locke wrote the year 1918 as the year he was accepted into the Baháʼí religion, and wrote Washington D.C. as the place he was accepted. It was common to write to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to declare one's new faith, and Locke received a letter, or "tablet", from ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in return. When ʻAbdu'l-Bahá died in 1921, Locke enjoyed a close relationship with Shoghi Effendi, then head of the Baháʼí Faith. Shoghi Effendi is reported to have said to Locke, "People as you, Mr. Gregory, Dr. Esslemont and some other dear souls are as rare as diamond." He is thus among a list of some 40 known African Americans to join the religion during the ministry of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá which ended in later 1921.

Sexual orientation

Locke was homosexual, and may have encouraged and supported other gay African-Americans who were part of the Harlem Renaissance. However, he was not fully public in his orientation and referred to it as his point of "vulnerable/invulnerability", taken to mean an area of risk and strength in his view.

Death, influence and legacy

After his retirement from Howard University in 1953, Locke moved to New York City. He suffered from heart disease, and after a six-week illness, he died at Mount Sinai Hospital on June 9, 1954. During his illness, he was cared for by his friend and mentee, Margaret Just Butcher. Butcher used notes from Locke's unfinished work to write The Negro in American Culture.

Journey of ashes

Locke was cremated, and his remains turned over to Dr. Arthur Fauset, an anthropologist who was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance, as well as Locke's close friend and executor of his estate. Fauset died in 1983, and the remains were given to his friend, Reverend Sadie Mitchell, who ministered at African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia. Mitchell retained the ashes until the mid-1990s, when she asked Dr. J. Weldon Norris, a professor of music at Howard University, to take the ashes to Washington, D.C. The ashes then resided at Howard University's Moorland–Spingarn Research Center until 2007. Concerned that the human remains were not properly cared for, the ashes were given to Howard University's W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory, which had extensive experience handling human remains. Locke's ashes, which were stored in a plain paper bag in a simple round metal container, were transferred to a more appropriate small funerary urn and locked in a safe.
Howard University officials initially considered having Locke's ashes buried in a niche at Locke Hall on the Howard campus, similar to the way that Langston Hughes' ashes were interred at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City in 1991. But Kurt Schmoke, the university's legal counsel, was concerned about setting a precedent that might lead to other burials at the university. After an investigation revealed no legal problems to the plan, university officials decided to bury the remains off-site. At first, thought was given to burying Locke beside his mother, Mary Hawkins Locke. But Howard officials quickly discovered a problem: She had been interred at Columbian Harmony Cemetery in Washington, D.C., but that cemetery closed in 1959 and her remains transferred to National Harmony Memorial Park—which failed to keep track of them.
Howard University eventually decided to bury Alain Locke's remains at historic Congressional Cemetery, and African American Rhodes Scholars raised $8,000 to purchase a burial plot there. Locke was interred at Congressional Cemetery on September 13, 2014. His tombstone reads:
1885–1954
Herald of the Harlem Renaissance
Exponent of Cultural Pluralism

On the back of the headstone is a nine-pointed Baháʼí star ; a Zimbabwe Bird, emblem of the nation Locke adopted as a Rhodes Scholar; a lambda, symbol of the gay rights movement; and the logo of Phi Beta Sigma, the fraternity Locke joined. In the center of these four symbols is an Art Deco representation of an African woman's face set against the rays of the sun. This image is a simplified version of the bookplate that Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas designed for Locke. Below the bookplate image are the words "Teneo te, Africa".

Influence and legacy

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Locke on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans. Similarly, Columbus Salley's book The Black 100 named Locke as the 36th most influential African-American.
Ossie Davis, one of Locke's philosophy students, said Locke launched his career. Locke told Davis to go to Harlem if he really wanted to work in a theatre, and Davis followed all Locke's advice.
Locke's ideology and leadership even had impacts in Europe. In France, people considered him a figure that brought the black population together in the racist era that America was facing at the time. They compared that movement to how the Jewish population in Europe stayed close together, especially after World War II.
At Howard University, the main building for the College of Arts and Sciences is dedicated to his legacy, "Alain Locke Hall." His personal and literary papers are held within the manuscript department in the university's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. Locke's former residence on R Street NW in Washington's Logan Circle neighborhood is marked with a historical plaque.
Schools named after Locke include:
In 2019, Jeffrey Stewart won a Pulitzer Prize in Biography for The New Negro: the Life of Alain Locke.

Major works

In addition to the books listed below, Locke edited the "Bronze Booklet" series, a set of eight volumes published by Associates in Negro Folk Education in the 1930s. He also reviewed literature by African Americans in journals such as and Phylon. His works include:
Alain Locke's previously unpublished, posthumous works include:
Locke, Alain. "The Moon Maiden" and "Alain Locke in His Own Words: Three Essays". World Order 36.3 : 37–48.
Four previously unpublished works by Alain Locke:
Locke, Alain. "Alain Locke: Four Talks Redefining Democracy, Education, and World Citizenship".
Four previously unpublished speeches/essays by Alain Locke: