Alain Locke

Alain Locke is known as the “Dean” of the Harlem Renaissance for laying its philosophical foundation of the “New Negro.”

Locke curated and edited a 1925 anthology of the same name, including pieces from writers such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. The New Negro anthology captured the zeitgeist of fast-paced and changing times and demonstrated the significance and beauty of Black art and culture.

Locke was also a prominent intellectual who was the first African-American Rhodes scholar. As a gay Black man in America, Locke understood the importance of recognizing human beings in all of their complexity rather than as flat stereotypes.

His legacy shows us that every distinction and difference among Black people is a source of pride and cause for celebration.