Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Christopher Buck, Alain Locke, bahai-library.com.
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Alain Locke
1885–1954

A LAIN LEROY LOCKE—philosopher, race leader,
art critic, adult educator, essayist, and antholo-
benefits everyone and that democracy itself is at
stake. The essence of Locke’s philosophy of
gist—was the leading African American intel- democracy is captured in the title “Cultural
lectual of his day after W. E. B. Du Bois (1868– Pluralism: A New Americanism,” a public
1963). A social genius, Locke was the lecture he gave at Howard University on
mastermind behind the Harlem Renaissance, November 8, 1950. In raising democracy to a
that explosion in the 1920s and 1930s of “New new level of consciousness, Locke international-
Negro” literature, drama, music, and art that ized the race issue, making the crucial connec-
bolstered black pride and earned reciprocal tion between American race relations and
white respect on a national scale never before international relations. Racial justice, he pre-
achieved. The December 1925 publication of dicted, would serve as a social catalyst of world
Locke’s anthology, The New Negro, was a stel- peace. Thus there are two major streams of
lar event in American cultural history. A volume thought in Locke’s work—the African American
that spoke volumes, The New Negro: An Inter- historical, cultural, and intellectual tradition,
pretation was art as manifesto—a secular libera- and a cosmopolitan, global outlook intensified
tion theology. For this and other reasons by the Bahá’í principles he embraced. Locke is
Columbus Salley, in The Black 100 (1999), both a “race man” (cultural racialist) and a
ranks Locke as the thirty-sixth most influential philosopher (cultural pluralist). How Locke
African American in history. Alain LeRoy should be read depends on which of these two
Locke is the Martin Luther King Jr. of American roles predominates.
culture. “Race men” were black leaders who came of
age during the era of scientific racism. They
“RACE MAN” AND “FATHER OF MULTICUL- embraced nineteenth-century middle-class
TURALISM” values and held a deep faith in the meliorative
powers of liberalism. Cultural pluralists com-
Locke was a “prophet of democracy,” whose pensated for the deficiencies of liberalism by
grand (though not systematic) theory of democ- promoting social justice and community; they
racy sequenced local, moral, political, economic, accorded respect to culturally diverse groups
and cultural stages of democracy as they arced and valued their diversity. A Harlem Renais-
through history, with racial, social, spiritual, sance immortal, Locke is no less historic in his
and world democracy completing the trajectory. role as a cultural pluralist. Locke has been
Adjunct notions of natural, practical, progres- called “the father of multiculturalism”—as
sive, creative, intellectual, equalitarian democ- cultural pluralism is now known—although his
racy crystallized the paradigm. Seeing America Harvard colleague Horace Kallen was the one
as “a unique social experiment,” Locke’s larger who actually coined the term “cultural plural-
goal was to “Americanize Americans,” with the ism” in conversations with Locke that took
simple yet profound message that equality place at Oxford University in 1907 and 1908.

196 / AMERICAN WRITERS

How should Locke be thought of as a writer? solidarity and fostered the group consciousness
Beyond his historic roles as critic, editor, and among African Americans that proved a neces-
cultural ambassador, to what extent does he leap sary precondition of the civil rights movement.
from history onto the printed page and demand Haifa is the world center of the Bahá’í Faith,
to be read? The answers depend largely on how the religion to which Locke converted in 1918,
much of Locke can be read. While Locke did the same year he received his doctorate from
publish widely, a great deal of his work remains Harvard. Until recently Locke’s religion has
in manuscript form, including lectures, speeches, been the least understood aspect of his life. Dur-
and unfinished essays that are often the clearest ing the Jim Crow era, at a time when black
exposition of what he really thought. Two edi- people saw little possibility of interracial
tions of his writings relied heavily on archival harmony, this new religious movement offered
research and the subsequent editing of texts for hope through its “race amity” efforts, which
publication: Leonard Harris’ The Philosophy of
Locke was instrumental in organizing. These
Alain Locke: Harlem Renaissance and Beyond
three spheres of activity—the academy, the art
(1989) and Jeffrey C. Stewart’s edition of
world, and spiritual society—converge to create
Locke’s Race Contacts and Interracial Rela-
a composite picture of Locke as an integration-
tions: Lectures on the Theory and Practice of
ist whose model was not assimilation but rather
Race (1992). A third collection, The Critical
“unity through diversity.”
Temper of Alain Locke: A Selection of His Es-
says on Art and Culture (1983), also edited by For reasons that have eluded historians, Locke
Jeffrey Stewart, reprints a number of reviews always stated that he was born in 1886, but he
and essays. These posthumous publications and was really born a year earlier—on September
reprints have effectively brought Locke’s work 13, 1885, in Philadelphia. Although his birth
back to influential life. How Locke is now be- name was Arthur his parents may actually have
ing read is becoming as important as how Locke named him Alan. At the age of sixteen Locke
was read. adopted the French spelling (“Alain,” close to
the American pronunciation of “Allen”), and
added the middle name LeRoy (probably be-
LIFE AND CAREER cause he was called Roy as a child). He was the
only son of Pliny Locke and Mary (Hawkins)
Harvard, Harlem, Haifa—place names that Locke, who had been engaged for sixteen years
represent Locke’s special involvement in before they married. A child of Northern
philosophy, art, and religion—are keys to Reconstruction (which focused on the post-
understanding his life and thought. Harvard Civil War economic revolution, while Southern
prepared Locke for the distinction of becoming Reconstruction dealt more with laws pertaining
in 1907 the first black Rhodes Scholar, and in to blacks), the boy was given an enlightened
1918 it awarded him a Ph.D. in philosophy (for upbringing and a private education. As a child
his dissertation, Problems of Classification in of privilege Locke led a somewhat sheltered
the Theory of Value, submitted on September 1, life. He was raised as an Episcopalian, and dur-
1917), which eventually secured his position as ing his youth he became enamored with classi-
chair of the Department of Philosophy at cal Greek philosophy.
Howard University from 1927 until his retire- Locke was predisposed to music and reading
ment in 1953. Harlem was the mecca of the owing to his physical condition. In infancy he
Harlem Renaissance, whereby Locke, as a was stricken with rheumatic fever, which
spokesman for his race, revitalized racial permanently damaged his heart. Locke dealt
ALAIN LOCKE / 197

with his “rheumatic heart” by seeking, as philosophy—taught by George Santayana—in
Michael R. Winston says, “compensatory which Locke had enrolled. Thus began a
satisfactions” in books, piano, and violin. Only lifetime friendship. Kallen recorded some valu-
six years old when his father died, Locke was able personal observations about Locke as a
sent by his mother to one of the Ethical Culture young man. First, Locke was “very sensitive,
schools—a pioneer experimental program of very easily hurt.” As Kallen relates in “Alain
Froebelian pedagogy, a philosophy of childhood Locke and Cultural Pluralism,” Locke would
education named after Friedrich Froebel (1782– strenuously insist that we are all human beings,
1852), who opened the first kindergarten. By that “the Negro is … an American fact,” and
the time he enrolled in Central High School in that color should make no difference in the
1898, Locke was already an accomplished “inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit
pianist and violinist. In 1902 he began studies of happiness.” This sentiment is corroborated
at the Philadelphia School of Pedagogy, graduat- by a letter he wrote to his mother shortly after
ing second in his class in 1904. That year Locke receiving his Rhodes scholarship; in it he
entered Harvard College with honors, where he insists: “I am not a race problem. I am Alain
was among precious few African American LeRoy Locke.” Unfortunately color made all
undergraduates. the difference in that era. The prevailing social
During the “golden age of philosophy at Har- reality was that Locke’s self-image was really a
vard,” Locke studied at a time when Josiah wish-image.
Royce, William James, George Herbert Palmer, In 1907, on a Sheldon traveling fellowship,
Hugo Münsterberg, and Ralph Barton Perry Kallen ended up at Oxford at the same time as
were on the faculty. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Locke. In “Alain Locke and Cultural Pluralism”
in 1907 Locke won the Bowdoin Prize—Har- Kallen describes a racial incident over a Thanks-
vard’s most prestigious academic award—for giving Day dinner hosted at the American Club
an essay he wrote, “The Literary Heritage of at Oxford. Locke was not invited because of
Tennyson.” He also passed a qualifying exami- “gentlemen from Dixie who could not possibly
nation in Latin, Greek, and mathematics for the associate with Negroes.” Elsewhere Kallen is
Rhodes scholarship, which had just been estab- more blunt: “We had a race problem because
lished by the diamond magnate Cecil Rhodes in the Rhodes scholars from the South were
1902. Remarkably Locke completed his four- bastards. So they had a Thanksgiving dinner
year undergraduate program at Harvard in three which I refused to attend because they refused
years, graduating magna cum laude with his to have Locke.” In fact, even before they left
bachelor’s degree in philosophy. Then Locke for Oxford these southern Rhodes Scholars had
made history and headlines in May 1907 as “formally appealed to the Rhodes trustees to
America’s first—and only, until the 1960s— overturn Locke’s award”—but to no avail.
African American Rhodes scholar. While his “What got Kallen particularly upset, however,”
Rhodes scholarship provided for study abroad according to Louis Menand in The Metaphysi-
at Oxford, it was no guarantee of admission. cal Club (2001), “was the insult to Harvard.” In
Rejected by five Oxford colleges because of his support of this, Menand cites a letter to Harvard
race, Locke was finally admitted to Hertford English professor Barrett Wendell, in which
College, where he studied from 1907 to 1910. Kallen speaks of overcoming his aversion to
During his senior year at Harvard, Locke met blacks through his loyalty to Harvard and by
Horace Kallen, a German-born Jew who was a virtue of his personal respect for Locke. After
graduate teaching assistant in a course on Greek having invited Locke to tea in lieu of the
198 / AMERICAN WRITERS

Thanksgiving dinner, Kallen writes that, “tho’ it taking a degree and spent the 1910–1911
is personally repugnant to me to eat with him academic year studying Immanuel Kant at the
… Locke is a Harvard man and as such he has University of Berlin and touring Eastern Europe.
a definite claim on me.” The irony is that Kallen During his stay in Berlin, Locke became
harbored some of the very same prejudices as conversant with the Austrian school of anthro-
the southern Rhodes Scholars who shunned pology, known as philosophical anthropology,
Locke, but not to the same degree. “As you under the tutelage of Franz Brentano, Alexius
know, I have neither respect nor liking for his Meinong, Christian Freiherr von Ehrenfels, Paul
race,” Kallen writes, “—but individually they Natorp, and others. Locke much preferred
have to be taken, each on his own merits and Europe to America. Indeed there were moments
value, and if ever a Negro was worthy, this boy when Locke resolved never to return to the
is.” Locke was deeply wounded by the incident. United States. But reluctantly he did return in
1911.
And it wasn’t just the prejudice of his American
peers that disaffected him, for he was almost as In the spring of that year Locke would taste
critical of British condescension as he was of firsthand the bitterness and alacrity of the ra-
American racism. In 1909 Locke published a cialized Deep South. For the first eight days of
critique of Oxford, particularly of its aristocratic March Locke traveled with Booker T. Washing-
pretensions. ton through Florida, beginning in Pensacola.
Beyond this the extent of Locke’s travels is
At Oxford, resuming their conversation begun
unclear, but his trip probably lasted through the
at Harvard, Locke asked Kallen, “What differ-
summer. There were moments during that trip
ence does the difference [of race] make?” “In
when he feared for his life. As a direct result of
arguing out those questions,” Kallen recounts,
his experience with racism in the South, Locke
“the phrase ‘cultural pluralism’ was born.”
resolved to promote the interests of African
While the term itself was thus coined by Kallen
Americans—and thereby of all Americans—
in his historic conversation with Locke, it was
using culture as a strategy. This was another
Locke who developed the concept into a full-
turning point in his life. At Oxford, Locke knew
blown philosophical framework for the meliora-
that he had been prepared and destined to
tion of African Americans. Distancing himself
become a race leader. But he did not know in
from Kallen’s purist and separatist conception
what capacity he would lead. It was during this
of it, Locke was part of the cultural pluralist
trip in the South that Locke had his vision of
movement that flourished between the 1920s
promoting racial pride and equality through the
and the 1940s. Indeed it was at Oxford that a
influence of culture. Unlike politics, culture is a
crucial transformation took place: Locke saw
means of expressing and effectively com-
himself as a cultural cosmopolitan when he
municating the aspirations and genius of a
entered Oxford; by the time he left he had
people.
resolved to be a race leader, although he did not
know then how he would fulfill that role. While Later, in an unpublished autobiographical
at Oxford, Locke founded the African Union note, Locke reflected on the circumstances that
Society and served as its secretary, thereby led to this momentous decision in his life and
greatly broadening his international contacts in career:
Africa and the Caribbean, which proved valu-
Returning home in 1911, I spent six months travel-
able in later life.
ling in the South,—my first close-range view of
So acutely did the Thanksgiving Day incident the race problem, and there acquired my life-long
traumatize Locke that he left Oxford without avocational interest in encouraging and interpret-
ALAIN LOCKE / 199

ing the artistic and cultural expression of Negro Locke synthesized the Austrian school of value
life, for I became deeply convinced of its efficacy theory (Franz Brentano and Alexius Meinong)
as an internal instrument of group integration and with American pragmatism (George Santayana,
morale and as an external weapon of recognition
and prestige.
William James, and Josiah Royce), along with
the anthropology of Franz Boas and Kant’s
On September 3, 1912, with the help of theories of aesthetic judgment.
Booker T. Washington, Locke joined the faculty
The essence of Locke’s philosophy of value
of the Teachers College at Howard University.
There Locke taught literature, English, educa- is captured in the first sentence of his 1935 es-
tion, and ethics—and later, ethics and logic— say “Values and Imperatives,” which recapitu-
although he did not have an opportunity to teach lates his dissertation: “All philosophies, it seems
a course on philosophy until 1915. In the spring to me, are in ultimate derivation philosophies of
of 1915 Locke proposed a course on the scien- life and not of abstract, disembodied ‘objective’
tific study of race and race relations. His reality; products of time, place and situation,
rationale was that “a study of race contacts is and thus systems of timed history rather than
the only scientific basis for the comprehension timeless eternity.” In anchoring philosophy in
of race relations.” But the white ministers on social reality, Locke studied the determinative
Howard University’s Board of Trustees rejected role of values in the human experience, and
his petition. They opposed him because they developed a typology of values. In his disserta-
felt that “controversial” subjects such as race tion Locke expresses his “psychology of value-
had no place at a school whose mission was to types” in one cognitive breath: “We have
educate young, black professionals. However, therefore taken values classed, rather roughly
the Howard chapter of the National Association and tentatively, as Hedonic, Economic, Aes-
for the Advancement of Colored People thetic, Ethical and Moral, Religious, and Logi-
(NAACP) and the Social Science Club spon- cal, aiming to discover in terms of the generic
sored a two-year extension course of public distinctions of a value-psychology their type-
lectures (1915–1916), which Locke called “Race unity, character, and specific differentiae with
Contacts and Inter-Racial Relations: A Study in respect to other types.” Later, in “Values and
the Theory and Practice of Race.” (See below Imperatives,” Locke reduces his taxonomy to
for an account of these lectures.) four types of values: Religious; Ethical/Moral;
In the 1916–1917 academic year Locke took Aesthetic/Artistic; and Logical Truth/Scientific
a sabbatical from Howard University to become Truth.
Austin Teaching Fellow at Harvard. In that brief When awarded his Ph.D. in philosophy from
span of time, Locke wrote the two hundred Harvard in 1918, Locke emerged as perhaps the
sixty-three pages of his dissertation, The most exquisitely educated and erudite African
Problem of Classification in the Theory of Value, American of his generation. The year 1918
evidently an extension of an earlier essay he marked another milestone in Locke’s life when
had written at Oxford. It was the Harvard he found a “spiritual home” in the Bahá’í Faith,
professor of philosophy Josiah Royce who a new world religion whose gospel was the
originally inspired Locke’s interest in the unity of the human race. The recent discovery
philosophy of value. Of all the major American of Locke’s signed “Bahá’í Historical Record”
pragmatists to date, only Royce had published a card (1935), in which Locke fixes the date of
book dealing with racism: Race Questions, his conversion in 1918, restores a “missing
Provincialism, and Other American Problems dimension” of Locke’s life (as documented in
(1908). In formulating his own theory of value, Buck, “Alain Locke: Bahá’í Philosopher,” and
200 / AMERICAN WRITERS

more fully in Alain Locke: Faith and Phi- studiously avoided references to the Bahá’í
losophy). In a letter dated June 28, 1922, writ- Faith in his professional life, Locke’s four
ten shortly after the death of his mother, Locke Bahá’í World essays served as his public
states: “Mother’s feeling toward the [Bahá’í] testimony of faith.
cause, and the friends who exemplify it, was As previously mentioned, Locke was actively
unusually receptive and cordial for one who involved in the early “race amity” initiatives
had reached conservative years,—it was her sponsored by the Bahá’ís. “Race amity” was the
wish that I identify myself more closely with Bahá’í term for ideal race relations (interracial
it.” Locke honored her wish. unity). The Bahá’í “race amity” era lasted from
The Bahá’í Faith (known then as the Bahá’í 1921–1936, followed by the “race unity” period
Cause) was attractive to some African Ameri- of 1939–1947, with other socially significant
cans wherever it had made significant inroads, experiments in interracial harmony (such as
as was the case in Washington, D.C. Its mes- “Race Unity Day”) down to the present. The
sage of world unity—particularly its gospel of Bahá’í statement, “The Vision of Race Unity,”
interracial unity (then called “race amity”)— together with the video “The Power of Race
was quite radical in its stark contrast to the Unity,” which was broadcast on the Black
“separate but equal” American apartheid of the Entertainment Network and across the country
Jim Crow era. One instance of this new reli- in 1997, has its roots in early Bahá’í race-
gion’s appeal is the fact that W. E. B. Du Bois’s relations endeavors, in which Alain Locke
first wife, Nina, was a member of the Bahá’í played an important role. The first four Race
community of New York City. The Bahá’í World Amity conventions were held in Washington,
Center is located on Mt. Carmel in Haifa, Israel, D.C. (May 19–21, 1921); Springfield, Mas-
and is a place of pilgrimage for Bahá’ís. As a sachusetts (December 5–6, 1921); New York
Bahá’í Locke undertook two pilgrimages to the
(March 28–30, 1924); and Philadelphia (October
Holy Land, in 1923 and again in 1934. His first
22–23, 1924). Locke participated in all but the
pilgrimage was immortalized in a travel narra-
second, and was involved in the planning and
tive published in 1924, reprinted three times in
execution of these events as well. Beginning
1926, 1928, and 1930, and endorsed by Bahá’í
with the task force that organized and success-
leader, Shoghi Effendi (1897–1957).
fully executed the first convention, Locke served
It is significant that Locke’s trips to Israel on race-amity committees from 1924 to 1932.
(then called Palestine) were for the primary
There are records of Locke’s having spoken
purpose of visiting the Bahá’í shrines rather
(albeit sporadically) at Bahá’í-sponsored events
than Jerusalem, the spiritual magnet that attracts
from 1921 to 1952. Locke’s last-known public
most pilgrims bound for the Holy Land. The
talk (“fireside”) on the Bahá’í Faith was given
fact that Haifa was his principal destination at-
on March 23, 1952, in Toronto, Ontario.
tests the primacy of Locke’s religious identity
as a Bahá’í rather than as an Episcopalian, as In 1924 Locke left for the Sudan and Egypt.
he was always designated in the brief biographi- He was granted sabbatical leave to collaborate
cal notices of him published during his lifetime. with the French Archaeological Society of
It was not until an article, “Bahá’í Faith: Only Cairo. The highlight of his research trip was the
Church in World That Does Not Discriminate,” reopening of the tomb of Tutankhamen. On his
appeared in the October 1952 issue of Ebony return from Egypt, however, he found his
magazine that Locke’s Bahá’í identity was ever campus in upheaval from a student strike. In
publicized in the popular media. Although he June 1925 Locke was fired from Howard
ALAIN LOCKE / 201

University by its white president, J. Stanley black culture and its enrichment of the American
Durkee, for Locke’s support of an equitable experience for all Americans. Not merely a great
faculty pay scale and for student demands to creative outburst during the Roaring Twenties,
end mandatory chapel and ROTC. Following the Harlem Renaissance was actually a highly
his dismissal, since he was no longer gainfully self-conscious modern artistic movement. In an
employed, Locke needed to find a patron for unpublished report on race relations, Locke
support of his intellectual work. He found his stated that the New Negro Movement “deliber-
benefactor in Charlotte Mason, a wealthy white ately aims at capitalizing race consciousness for
woman with whom Locke faithfully corre- group inspiration and cultural development. But
sponded until her death in 1940. Mason financed it has no political or separatist motives, and is,
Locke’s annual trips to Europe for thirteen years in this one respect, different from the national-
and enabled Locke to begin building his invalu- isms of other suppressed minorities.” In its
able collection of African art, which he later mythic and utopian sense, Harlem was the “race
bequeathed to Howard University. capital” and the largest “Negro American” com-
That very year (1925) the Harlem Renais- munity in the world. The Harlem Renaissance,
sance was born. It was conceived a year earlier consequently, presented itself to America and to
when Locke was asked by the editor of the the world as a microcosm or self-portraiture of
Survey Graphic to produce an issue on Harlem, black culture. With its epic scope and lyric
a community located in Manhattan in New depth, the movement was an effusion of art
York. That special issue, Harlem, Mecca of the borne of the everyday African American experi-
New Negro, Locke subsequently recast as an ence. The Harlem Renaissance would establish
anthology, The New Negro: An Interpretation, Locke as the elder statesman of African Ameri-
published in December 1925. A landmark in can art in later life, when his towering prestige
black literature, it was an instant success. Locke wielded enormous authority.
wrote the foreword plus four essays appearing In principle Locke was an avowed supporter
in the anthology: “The New Negro,” “Negro of W. E. B. Du Bois’s idea of a cultural elite
Youth Speaks,” “The Negro Spirituals,” and (the “Talented Tenth”) but differed from Du
“The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts.” The New Bois in the latter’s insistence that art should
Negro featured five white contributors as well, serve as propaganda. Even so, as Locke reveals
making this artistic tour de force a genuinely in The New Negro, he hoped the Harlem Renais-
interracial collaboration, with much support sance would provide “an emancipating vision to
from white patronage (not without some strings America” and would advance “a new democracy
attached, however). in American culture.” He spoke of a “race
The Harlem Renaissance—known also as the pride,” “race genius,” and the “race-gift.” This
New Negro Movement, of which Locke was “race pride” was to be cultivated through
both the prime organizer and spokesman— developing a distinctive culture, a hybrid of
sought to advance freedom and equality for African and African American elements. In
blacks through art. The term “New Negro” dates Locke’s opinion, art ought to contribute to the
back to Booker T. Washington, Norman Barton improvement of life—a pragmatist aesthetic
Wood, and Fannie Barrier Williams’s A New principle sometimes called “meliorism.” But the
Negro for a New Century (1900). From 1925 Harlem Renaissance was more an aristocratic
onward Locke engendered what was called than a democratic approach to culture. Criticized
“race pride” among African Americans by by some African American contemporaries,
fostering a new sense of the distinctiveness of Locke himself came to regret the Harlem
202 / AMERICAN WRITERS

Renaissance’s excesses of exhibitionism as well only four other major philosophical articles in a
as its elitism. Its dazzling success was short- philosophy journal or anthology: “Three Corol-
lived. laries of Cultural Relativism” (1941), “Plural-
A little-known fact is that at the very time ism and Intellectual Democracy” (1942), “Cul-
The New Negro was published Locke went on tural Relativism and Ideological Peace” (1944),
an extended teaching trip in the South, giving and “Pluralism and Ideological Peace” (1947).
public lectures on the Bahá’í vision of race In 1936, under the auspices of the Associates
unity. Between October 1925 and sometime in in Negro Folk Education (ANFE), Locke
the spring of 1926, Locke spoke in the Dunbar established the Bronze Booklets on the History,
Forum of Oberlin, at Wilberforce University, in Problems, and Cultural Contributions of the
Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and Negro series, written by such leading African
before what the Southern Regional Teaching American scholars as Sterling A. Brown and
Committee in 1926 called “the best Negro Ralph Bunche. Locke himself wrote two Bronze
institutions in the Middle South and Northern Booklets: The Negro and His Music (1936,
Florida,” including the Daytona Industrial Bronze Booklet No. 2) and Negro Art: Past and
Institute and the Hungerford School near Present (1936, Bronze Booklet No. 3). Pub-
Orlando. lished between 1936 and 1942, the nine Bronze
Locke returned to Howard under its new Booklets became a standard reference for teach-
black president, Mordecai Johnson, who rein- ing African American history. In 1940 the ANFE
stated him in June 1927, although Locke did issued Locke’s The Negro in Art: A Pictorial
not resume teaching there until June 1928. Record of the Negro Artist and of the Negro
(During the 1927–1928 academic year, Locke Theme in Art, which was Locke’s best-known
was an exchange professor at Fisk University.) work after The New Negro and the leading book
In a letter dated May 5, 1927, Du Bois had writ- in its field. In 1942 Locke coedited (with Bern-
ten to Howard administrator Jesse Moorland to hard J. Stern) When Peoples Meet: A Study of
lobby for Locke’s reinstatement. Du Bois states: Race and Culture. This anthology was interna-
“Mr. Locke is by long odds the best trained tional in scope, promoting interracial and ethnic
man among the younger American Negroes.” contacts through intercultural exchange. In
Locke was subsequently promoted to chair of November 1942 Locke served as guest editor
the philosophy department. He is credited with for a special edition of the Survey Graphic, an
having first introduced the study of anthropol- issue entitled “Color: The Unfinished Business
ogy, along with philosophy and aesthetics, into of Democracy.”
the curriculum at Howard. A pioneer in the In 1943 Locke was on leave as Inter-American
Negro theater movement, Locke coedited the Exchange Professor to Haiti under the joint
first African American drama anthology, Plays auspices of the American Committee for Inter-
of Negro Life: A Source-Book of Native Ameri- American Artistic and Intellectual Relations and
can Drama (1927), which consisted of twenty the Haitian Ministry of Education. Toward the
one-act plays and dramatic sketches—ten by end of his stay there, Haitian President Lescot
white playwrights (including Eugene O’Neill) personally decorated Locke with the National
and ten by black dramatists. Order of Honor and Merit, grade of Comman-
Strange to say, Locke did not publish a formal deur. There Locke wrote Le rôle du Nègre dans
philosophical essay until he was fifty, when la culture des Amériques (1943), the nucleus of
“Values and Imperatives” (1935) appeared. a grand project that he believed would be his
Apart from his dissertation Locke published magnum opus. That project, The Negro in
ALAIN LOCKE / 203

American Culture, was completed in 1956 by University. On June 5, 1953, Locke said in his
Margaret Just Butcher, daughter of Locke’s unpublished acceptance speech:
close friend and Howard colleague Ernest E.
Just. It is not, however, considered to be an In coming to Howard in 1912, I was fortunate, I
think, in bringing a philosophy of the market place
authentic work of Locke.
not of the cloister. For, however much a luxury
In 1944 Locke became a charter member of philosophy may be in our general American
the Conference on Science, Philosophy, and culture, for a minority situation and a trained
Religion, which published its annual proceed- minority leadership, it is a crucial necessity. This,
ings. When in 1945 Locke was elected president because free, independent and unimposed thinking
is the root source of all other emancipations. … A
of the American Association for Adult Educa-
minority is only safe and sound in terms of its
tion, he became the first black president of a social intelligence.
predominantly white institution. During the He moved to New York in July. For practi-
1945–1946 academic year Locke was a visiting cally his entire life, Locke had sought treatment
professor at the University of Wisconsin, and in for his rheumatic heart. On June 9, 1954, nearly
1947 he was a visiting professor at the New a year after moving to New York, Locke died of
School for Social Research. One of Locke’s heart failure in Mount Sinai Hospital. On June
former students at Wisconsin, Beth Singer, 11 at Benta’s Chapel, Brooklyn, Locke’s memo-
describes her professor as follows: “Locke was rial was presided over by Dr. Channing Tobias
a quiet, extremely scholarly, and well organized with cremation following at Fresh Pond Crema-
lecturer; I do not recall his speaking from tory in Little Village, Long Island. The brief
notes.” After mentioning the fact that Locke notice that appeared in the Baha’i News in 1954
was a member of the Bahá’í Faith, Singer states that “quotations from the Baha’i Writings
recalls that “Dr. Locke seemed somehow aloof, and Baha’i Prayers were read at Dr. Locke’s
and my friends and I were pretty much in awe funeral.”
of him.”
Among his many other accomplishments, LOCKE’S PHILOSOPHY OF DEMOCRACY
Locke served on the editorial board of the
American Scholar, was the philosophy editor
Before describing the three principle collections
for the Key Reporter of Phi Beta Kappa, and a
of Locke’s writings, it is important to explain
regular contributor to various national maga- how democracy provided the real basis of
zines and journals, most notably Opportunity Locke’s body of work. To this end, manuscript
(1929–1940) and Phylon (1947–1953). Locke sources must be drawn on as well as actual
also contributed articles on Negro culture and publications. Access to the full range of Locke’s
Harlem to the Encyclopedia Britannica from writings permits one to see the breadth of his
1940 to 1954. From 1948–1952 Locke taught vision of America and the world. A survey of
concurrently at the City College (now City Locke’s writings, both published and unpub-
University) of New York and Howard Univer- lished, reveals his overarching interest in
sity. Howard granted Locke a leave of absence democracy, and all of his writings on race are
for the 1951–1952 academic year to produce referenced to it. For Locke, race relations are at
The Negro in American Culture, conceived in the heart of what democracy is all about.
Haiti but left unfinished. Locke retired in June Locke’s grand theory of democracy provides a
1953 as a professor emeritus with an honorary necessary framework of analysis for compre-
doctorate of human letters conferred by Howard hending what his views on race relations actu-
204 / AMERICAN WRITERS

ally were. His multidimensional approach to “It is a sad irony,” Alain Locke wrote, “that
democracy has already been noted. The first the social institution most committed and
five dimensions are historical; they appear in potentially most capable of implementing social
Locke’s paradigm of social evolution. In his democracy should actually be the weakest and
1941 unpublished farewell address at Talladega most inconsistent, organized religion.” Indeed
College, Locke spoke of local, moral, political, Locke takes Christianity to task for what is now
economic, and cultural stages of democracy. called “self-segregation”: “Of all the segregated
Locke traces the origins of democracy back bodies, the racially separate church is the sad-
to Athens, where “democracy was a concept of dest and most obviously self-contradicting. The
local citizenship.” By analogy he compares this separate Negro church, organized in self-
“local democracy” to “college fraternities and defensive protest, is nonetheless just as anao-
sororities” in which the bonds are of “like- molous [sic], though perhaps, more pardonably
mindedness,” thereby excluding others: so.”
This is where secularism comes in, that is,
The rim of the Greek concept of democracy was “political democracy.” According to Locke:
the barbarian: it was then merely the principle of
fraternity within a narrow, limited circle. There The third great step in democracy came from
was a dignity accorded to each member on the protestant [sic] lands and people who evolved the
basis of membership in the group. It excluded ideal of political equality: (1) equality before the
foreigners, slaves and women. This concept car- law; (2) political citizenship. This political
ried over into the Roman empire. democracy pivoted on individualism, and the
freedom of the individual in terms of what we
Christianity would provide spiritual and social know as the fundamental rights of man. It found
resources for the next stage in the evolution of its best expression in the historic formula of
democracy. Christianity gave rise to what Locke “Liberty, equality and fraternity.”
calls “moral democracy”:
Here Locke acknowledges the influence of the
We owe to Christianity one of the great basic ide- French Revolution. “In terms of this ideology
als of democracy—the ideal of the moral equality our country’s government was founded,” Locke
of human beings. The Christian ideal of democracy
explains, and continues:
was in its initial stages more democratic than it
subsequently became. … But the Christian church
But for generations after[,] many of the fundamen-
was a political institution and in making compro-
tals of our democracy were pious objectives, not
mises often failed in bringing about real human
fully expressed in practice. In the perspective of
equality.
democracy’s long evolution, we must regard our
Democracy in America began with a quest country’s history as a progressive process of
democratization, not yet fully achieved, but
for “freedom of worship and the moral liberty
certainly progressing importantly in terms of the
of conscience.” Yet “it had not even matured to thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments
the adult principle of abstract freedom of [sic], and the amendment extending the right of
conscience as the religious intolerances of franchise to women. It is still imperfect.
colonial settlers proved; migrating non-
conformists themselves, they still could not What, then, is beyond political democracy?
stand the presence of non-conformity in their In Locke’s view, “If we are going to have effec-
midst.” Thus Christianity, while representing a tive democracy in America we must have the
necessary advance in the notion of democracy, democratic spirit as well as the democratic tradi-
was not a sufficient advance. tion, we must have more social democracy and
ALAIN LOCKE / 205

more economic democracy in order to have or Locke continues in his Talladega speech:
keep political democracy.” Economic reform,
then, was considered a necessary development A fifth phase of democracy, even if the preceding
of democracy: four are realized, still remains to be achieved in
order to have a fully balanced society. The present
The fourth crucial stage in the enlargement of crisis forces us to realize that without this also
democracy began, I think, with the income tax democracy may go into total eclipse. This fifth
amendment. … The income tax amendment was phase is the struggle for cultural democracy, and
an initial step in social [economic] democracy as rests on the concept of the right of difference,—
distinguished from the purely political,—a step that is, the guarantee of the rights of minorities.
toward economic equality through the partial ap- In his small book World View on Race and
propriation of surplus wealth for the benefit of the
Democracy: A Study Guide in Human Group
commonwealth.
Relations (1943), Locke sums up the problem
History is the measure of how far America has he is addressing as follows: “Less acute than
come. “In this country for many generations we race prejudice, but by no means unrelated to it,
thought we had economic equality,” Locke goes is the social bias and discrimination underlying
on to say. the problem of cultural minorities. … Cultural
bias, like that directed against the Mexican,
What we really had was a frontier expansion Orientals, the Jew, the American Indian, often
which developed such surpluses and offered such intensifies into racial prejudice.” At this stage in
practical equality of opportunity as to give us the the social evolution of democracy Locke begins
illusion of economic equality. We later learned to address the problem of racism:
that we did not have economic democracy, and
that in order to have this, we must have guaranteed These contemporary problems of democracy can
to all citizens certain minimal standards of living be vividly sensed if we realize that the race ques-
and the right to earn a living. tion is at the very heart of this struggle for cultural
democracy. Its solution lies beyond even the
Locke then shows how the New Deal and the realization of political and economic democracy,
creation of the social security system repre- although of course that solution can only be
sented further advances in economic democracy, reached when we no longer have extreme political
by which he means economic equality of rights inequality and extreme economic inequality.
and opportunities. In the conclusion of an The first four stages of democracy, developmen-
unpublished essay, “Peace Between Black and tal in nature, are still in process. These dimen-
White in the United States,” Locke stresses the sions are not merely historical. Rather, they are
importance of economic development: challenges that America continues to face.
Locke looked beyond political democracy,
We used to say that Christianity and democracy
were both at stake in the equitable solution of the
which is merely the structure and machinery of
race question. They were; but they were abstract the American experiment: “Constitutional
ideals that did not bleed when injured. Now we guarantees, legal and civil rights, political
think with more realistic logic, perhaps, that machinery of democratic action and control are,
economic justice cannot stand on one foot; and of course, the skeleton foundation of democ-
economic reconstruction is the dominant demand racy,” Locke concedes,
of the present-day American scene.
but you and I know that attitudes are the flesh and
This relatively timeless statement attests Locke’s blood of democracy, and that without their vital
contemporary relevance. reenforcement [sic] democracy is really moribund
206 / AMERICAN WRITERS

or dead. That is my reason for thinking that in any States from moral bankruptcy we must solve the
democracy, ours included, the crucial issue, the color problem.
test touchstone of democracy is minority status,
minority protection, minority rights. Locke’s rhetoric here is a direct echo of his
Bahá’í convictions.
Not only is the race question America’s “most The next dimension is social democracy. In
challenging issue,” as Locke’s fellow Bahá’ís “Reason and Race: A Review of the Literature
would say, it is also the single greatest chal- of the Negro for 1946” (1947) Locke under-
lenge facing the world. scores “the fact that the contemporary world
situation clearly indicates that social democracy
“The race question,” wrote Locke in 1949, is the only safe choice for the survival of
“has become the number one problem of the Western and Christian civilization.” In the
world.” The next statement follows from the Seventeenth Annual Convention and Bahá’í
first: “Race really is a dominant issue of our Congress (July 5, 1925), Locke is reported to
thinking about democracy.” In World View on have remarked on “the great part which America
Race and Democracy, Locke states this another can play in the establishment of world peace, if
way: “Of all the barriers limiting democracy, alive to its opportunity.” He went on to say that
color is the greatest, whether viewed from a “the working out of social democracy can be
standpoint of national or world democracy.” accomplished here. To this end we should not
And in an unpublished report on racism Locke think in little arcs of experience, but in the big,
writes: comprehensive way. … In final analysis, peace
cannot exist anywhere without existing every-
So, as between the white and the black peoples, where.” To get from national democracy to
the American situation is the acid test of the whole world democracy, the world will have to be
problem; and will be crucial in its outcome for the spiritualized.
rest of the world. This makes America, in the judg- Locke’s views on “spiritual democracy” have
ment of many, the world’s laboratory for the received scant attention. In “The Gospel for the
progressive solution of this great problem of social Twentieth Century,” an evidently unpublished
adjustment.
Bahá’í essay, Locke expresses his conviction
that spiritual democracy is our greatest resource
Thus Locke defines America’s world role. for realizing the full range of democracy: “The
Locke speaks of “religious liberals” who gospel for the Twentieth Century rises out of
represent “renewed hope for some early progress the heart of its greatest problems. … Much has
toward racial and social and cultural democ- been accomplished in the name of Democracy,
racy.” In a letter dated November 7, 1943, to but Spiritual Democracy, its largest and most
the editor of the Washington Star Locke cites, inner meaning, is so below our common hori-
with approval, a story that appeared in the zons.” Locke follows with this telling criticism
November 2nd Salt Lake Tribune, which quoted of American materialism: “The land that is near-
him as saying: est to material democracy is furthest away from
spiritual democracy.” Then, presumably for the
There must be complete consistency between what benefit of his Bahá’í audience, Locke cites
democracy professes and what democracy prac- Bahá’í scripture:
tices. … Public opinion in America has got to be
sold on racial democracy. Now is the time for the The word of God is still insistent, … and we have
people to face this question. Race equality alone … Bahá’u’lláh’s “one great trumpet-call to
can secure world peace. … To save the United humanity”: “That all nations shall become one in
ALAIN LOCKE / 207

faith, and all men as brothers; that the bonds of Note that Locke has not only redefined the idea
affection and unity between the sons of men of manifest destiny—he has revolutionized it.
should be strengthened; that diversity of religion
In “Moral Imperatives for World Order”
should cease, and differences of race be annulled.
… These strifes and this bloodshed and discord (1944), Locke incorporates nation, race, and
must cease, and all men be as one kindred and religion as the three “basic corporate ideas” that
family.” are integral to America’s world role. Locke
explored the relationship between America and
Locke’s direct citation of Bahá’u’lláh (1817– world democracy. In “Color: The Unfinished
Business of Democracy” (1942) he states:
1892), prophet-founder of the Bahá’í Faith,
“World leadership … must be moral leadership
makes his point abundantly clear: spiritual
in democratic concert with humanity at large.”
democracy is democracy taken to heart, internal-
In so doing, America must perforce “abandon
ized and universalized. This alone can ensure
racial and cultural prejudice.” “A world democ-
world democracy.
racy,” he adds, “cannot possibly tolerate what a
“World democracy,” writes Locke, “presup- national democracy has countenanced too long.”
poses the recognition of the essential equality Beyond these nine dimensions of democ-
of all peoples and the potential parity of all racy—or collateral with them—is the contribu-
cultures.” On a radio program, “Woman’s Page tion of youth. On May 28, 1946, in his com-
of the Air” with Adelaide Hawley, broadcast mencement address at the University of
August 6, 1944, while World War II was in full Wisconsin High School, Locke spoke of “the
furor, Locke said: “Just as the foundation of gallant natural democracy of youth,” stating as
democracy as a national principle made neces- its cause the simple reason that “youth, gener-
sary the declaration of the basic equality of ally speaking, are typically the most free of
persons, so the founding of international deeply engrained prejudice.” Another variation
democracy must guarantee the basic equality of on the theme of democracy is Locke’s use of
human groups.” This is where Locke registers the term “practical democracy” in a variety of
his support for the United Nations: contexts. For instance, in reporting on a Bahá’í-
sponsored race amity convention, Locke wrote:
Significantly enough, the Phalanx of the United “Washington, which the penetrating vision of
Nations unites an unprecedented assemblage of
Abdul Baha [Bahá’í leader, 1844–1921] in 1912
the races, cultures and peoples of the world. Could
this war-born assemblage be welded by a construc- saw as the crux of the race problem and
tive peace into an effective world order—one therefore of practical democracy in America,
based on the essential parity of peoples and a truly was for that reason selected as the place for the
democratic reciprocity of cultures—world democ- first convention under Bahá’í auspices for amity
racy would be within reach of attainment. in inter-racial relations.”
Democracy has always been a creative hu-
He then draws a moral analogy: man project, according to Locke. We should
“keep constantly in mind how indisputably
Moreover, the United States, with its composite democracy has historically changed and en-
population sampling all the human races and
larged its meaning, acquiring from generation to
peoples, is by way of being almost a United Na-
tions by herself. We could so easily and naturally, generation new scope, added objectives, fresh
with the right dynamic, become the focus of sanctions.” Democracy, of course, has not
thoroughgoing internationalism—thereby real- always been democratic. Locke shows the dis-
izing, one might say, our manifest destiny. sonance between the ideal and the real in the
208 / AMERICAN WRITERS

inherent contradictions of democracy as prac- exhaust his expansive use of the concept.
ticed by the founding fathers: Perhaps the summary lies in Locke’s felicitous
expression “equalitarian democracy.” At the
We can scarcely make a fetish of our own or even heart of this view of democracy is interracial
our generation’s version of democracy if we recall unity, Locke’s paramount Bahá’í ideal. In The
that once in the minds of all but a few radical
Negro in America (1933), Locke explains:
democrats like Jefferson, democracy was compat-
ible with such obvious contradictions as slavery
If they will but see it, because of their complemen-
and has even much later seemed adequate in spite
tary qualities, the two racial groups [blacks and
of such limitations equally obvious to us now as
whites] have great spiritual need, one of the other.
the disenfranchisement of women, complete
It would be truly significant in the history of hu-
disregard of public responsibility for education, no
man culture, if two races so diverse should so
provision for social security and the like.
happily collaborate, and the one return for the gift
of a great civilization the reciprocal gift of the
Democracy is ongoing in its development. In an spiritual cross-fertilization of a great and distinc-
unpublished essay, “Creative Democracy,” tive national culture.
Locke rhetorically asks:
In his speech “America’s Part in World
If democracy hasn’t always meant the same thing, Peace” (1925) Locke reportedly said:
how can we be so sure that its present compass of
meaning is so permanent or so fully adequate? It America’s democracy must begin at home with a
seems absolutely essential, then, to treat democ- spiritual fusion of all her constituent peoples in
racy as a dynamic, changing and developing brotherhood, and in an actual mutuality of life.
concept, to consider it always in terms of an Until democracy is worked out in the vital small
expanding context, and to realize that like any scale of practical human relations, it can never,
embodiment of human values, it must grow in except as an empty formula, prevail on the
order to keep alive. Except as progressive and national or international basis. Until it establishes
creative, democracy both institutionally and itself in human hearts, it can never institutionally
ideologically stagnates. flourish. Moreover, America’s reputation and
moral influence in the world depends on the suc-
In one of his formal philosophical essays, cessful achievement of this vital spiritual democ-
“Pluralism and Intellectual Democracy,” Locke racy within the lifetime of the present generation.
declares: “The intellectual core of the problems (Material civilization alone does not safeguard the
progress of a nation.) Bahá’í Principles and the
of the peace … will be the discovery of the
leavening of our national life with their power, is
necessary common denominators and the basic to be regarded as the salvation of democracy. In
equivalences involved in a democratic world this way only can the fine professions of American
order or democracy on a world scale.” To this ideals be realized.
end Locke advocated a “democracy of values”—
that is, value pluralism. In this essay Locke This rare religious sentiment by Locke should
argues for the “re-vamping of democracy” and not be misconstrued. In his own lifetime the
advocates the adoption of “‘cultural pluralism’ Bahá’ís were the only predominantly white
as a proposed liberal rationale for our national group, with the possible exception of the Quak-
democracy.” Conceived differently, Locke sees ers, who collectively reached out to African
pluralism as an extension of eighteenth-century Americans for the purpose of fostering inter-
democratic values. racial unity—a sacred Bahá’í value. Far from
This inventory of the dimensions of democ- asserting any parochial ownership of this ideal,
racy in the philosophy of Alain Locke does not Locke wanted to promote the principle of inter-
ALAIN LOCKE / 209

racial unity within the broader context of In the first lecture, “The Theoretical and
democracy. Evidence suggests that he first Scientific Conceptions of Race,” Locke leads
encountered Bahá’ís in 1915, which, if true, with the question, “What is race?” He then
coincides with his remarkable series of five traces the origins of race theory to Joseph Arthur
lectures, first delivered in 1915 and again in Comte de Gobineau (1816–1882), the founder
March and April of 1916, “Race Contacts and of scientific racism. “We should expect natu-
Inter-Racial Relations.” rally,” said Locke, stating the obvious, “that
race theory should be a philosophy of the
dominant groups.” Apart from the serious social
“RACE CONTACTS AND INTERRACIAL
RELATIONS” issues involved, the integrity of the scientific
method itself was at stake. Scientific racism
could no longer maintain its scientific pretense.
Jeffrey Stewart edited Race Contacts and Inter-
Addressing the connection between bias and
racial Relations: Lectures on the Theory and
theory, Locke stresses Boas’ distinction between
Practice of Race (1992) from transcripts of
racial difference and racial inequality. Racial
Locke’s 1916 lectures preserved in the Alain
difference is biological; racial inequality is
Locke Papers, held in the archives of the
social. Race, therefore, is socially—not biologi-
Manuscript Division of the Moorland-Spingarn
cally—determined. There may indeed be a
Research Center at Howard University. Locke
cause-and-effect relationship between the two.
drew heavily on the work of Franz Boas (1858–
“Consequently, any true history of race,” Locke
1942), whose paper “The Instability of Race
goes on to say, “must be a sociological theory
Types” Locke may have heard at the Universal
of race.” The paradox is that race “amounts
Race Congress (July 26–29, 1911). In the fourth
practically to social inheritance[,] and yet it
lecture Locke directly cites Boas’ pioneer work,
parades itself as biological or anthropological
The Mind of Primitive Man (1911), which, as
inheritance.” Races are socially constructed,
Stewart observes in the introduction to his book,
and their cultures expressive of core values,
“revolutionized theories of race and culture.”
even though those values themselves are in flux.
Stewart goes on to acknowledged that Boas, the
“father of American anthropology,” exploded This is a theoretical reversal of the old-school
the myth that race had any real basis in scientific anthropological approach to race. Locke de-
fact, and sought to establish “culture” as a bunks Social Darwinism, the belief that distinct
“central social science paradigm.” In so doing races exist and are genetically determined to
Boas was widely regarded by intellectual express certain traits. Science must be brought
historians as one who did more to combat the to bear on the race question, to dispel “false
ideological rationalization of race prejudice than conceptions of race.” And he predicts that “sci-
any other person in history. Yet in 1916 only a ence will ultimately arrive” at the conclusion
handful of Americans knew of Boas’ work. that “there are no static factors of race.” Locke
Stewart notes that Locke “was the intellectual successfully removed race from its biological
who most fully comprehended the implications basis, arguing that race is culture. Accordingly
of Boas’ theories for African Americans.” Boas, Locke supported the move from “biological”
who had significant contacts with Bahá’ís, was anthropology to cultural anthropology.
a touchstone of truth for Locke. His lectures In the second lecture, “The Political and
thus represent a further development of ideas of Practical Conceptions of Race,” Locke states
Boas, whom Locke eulogized as a “major that dominant groups are “imperialistic.” He
prophet of democracy.” gives the Roman Empire as a perfect example.
210 / AMERICAN WRITERS

Then there are “the exploitations of modern in, and assimilated to American culture. Segre-
imperialism.” On a personal note, Locke says, gation is one of the barriers that prevents their
“I lived for three years in close association with full participation in American life.
imperial folk at the ‘Imperial Training School’ Paradoxically, race pride is a loyalty that can
at the University of Oxford. Oxford and Cam- coexist within a larger loyalty to the “common
bridge rule the English Empire.” Imperialism civilization type.” The reader is left to presume
generates its own race myths. Anglo-Saxon that America is its own “civilization type.” As
superiority is a rationalization and justification his own theory of social conservation, Locke
of its own imperialism. Another form of imperi- goes so far as to propose the reinvention of the
alism is “commercial imperialism,” exercised “race type,” advocating the development of a
“to further trade dominance.” In the modern “secondary race consciousness.” This eventu-
age, “empire is the political problem.” As a ally leads to “culture-citizenship,” or group
corollary to this problem, Locke discusses race contribution to a joint civilization, where “race
and class in the third lecture, “The Phenomena type blends into the ‘civilization type.’” Racial
and Laws of Race Contacts.” pride is analogous to an individual’s sense of
In the fourth lecture, “Modern Race Creeds self-respect. Here Locke differs from Boas in
and Their Fallacies,” Locke compares “racial his theory of race in that Locke saw value in
antipathy” with Francis Bacon’s concept of maintaining race consciousness. In “The Ne-
“social idols.” Examples range from the Rhine gro’s Contribution to American Culture” (1939)
District (French and German), the Alsace- Locke projected that race would matter less and
Lorraine question, the Brown Provinces of less in the future, when the “ultimate biological
Austria, to anti-Semitism in Prussia. Locke then destiny, perhaps, of the human stock” would be
enumerates a series of social fallacies: the mulatto, or mixed, “like rum in the punch.”
“biological fallacy,” the “fallacy of the masses,” Sadly Locke’s lectures had no influence on his
the “fallacy of the permanency of race types” philosophical contemporaries.
(which Locke takes to be a “race creed”), the
“fallacy of race ascendancy,” and the fallacy of
“automatic adjustment.” In the end prejudice “is THE CRITICAL TEMPER OF ALAIN LOCKE
simply an abnormal social sense, a [perversion]
of a normal social instinct.” Stewart has again made Locke far more avail-
In the fifth and final lecture, “Racial Progress able than ever before, with the publication of
and Race Adjustment,” Locke concludes the his anthology of Locke’s essays on art and
series with a discourse on “social race,” citing culture. The book is organized in sections:
the Hindu caste system as the oldest instance of “Renaissance Apologetics”; “Poetry”; “Drama”;
it. Then he baldly states: “Every civilization “African Art”; “Contemporary Negro Art”;
produces its type.” He goes on to say that “Retrospective Reviews”; “Race and Culture.”
“conformity to civilization type is something The majority of these reprinted articles origi-
which society exacts of all its members.” What nally appeared in the journals Phylon and Op-
does Locke mean by this? America’s social portunity. In these, as in other works by Locke,
metaphor of the melting pot instantly comes to the reader must hunt for the occasional “gold
mind. The pressure to conform is the pressure nugget”—when Locke is at his timeless best.
to assimilate. Historically, because they were Otherwise the reviews can be somewhat tedious.
forcibly cut off from their African traditions, Locke’s prefatory remarks in each article often
African Americans were exposed to, immersed repay the effort, however.
ALAIN LOCKE / 211

In the opening paragraph of “Dawn Patrol: A and eccentric exhibitionism.” This was followed
Review of the Literature of the Negro for 1948” by a period of folk realism (which the depres-
(1949), Locke states that “the race question has sion intensified), giving rise to a school of
become [the] number one problem of the “iconoclast” social protest literature. (In his own
world.” This is this crisis of Western civiliza- iconoclastic vein, Locke refers to Gone With the
tion. Art, literature, and drama counteract rac- Wind as a “contrary to fact romance.”) Ideally
ism through creating “new sensitivities of social “Negro art” should fulfill its primary purpose as
conscience, of radically enlarged outlooks of “an instrument for social enlightenment and
human understanding.” “Race and Culture,” the constructive social reform.” This is what Locke
last section in Stewart’s collection, is the most means by “culture politics.” But this is not a
interesting from the standpoint of understanding “racially exclusive” task, since it is “the ultimate
Locke’s thought. “The American Temperament” goal of cultural democracy, the capstone of the
(1911) is a critique of American popular culture, historic process of American acculturation.”
which failed to live up to Locke’s belief that In “The Negro in the Three Americas” (1944),
the function of art is to enlighten, to engender the English version of a May 1943 lecture given
social change. “Race Contacts and Inter-Racial in French while in Haiti, Locke points to the
Relations” was a privately printed syllabus of shared historical legacy of slavery in North
Locke’s 1915–1916 lectures. “The Ethics of America, the Caribbean, and South America.
Culture” (1923) is an address by Locke to fresh- The effects of slavery still need to be eradicated.
men at Howard University. This is one of Poverty, illiteracy, and all related social ills are
Locke’s most straightforward talks, in which he the direct consequence of persisting “undemo-
tells his students that “a brilliant Englishman cratic social attitudes” and “anti-democratic
once characterized America as a place where social policies.” Locke sees the effort to remedy
everything had a price, but nothing a value. … this situation as a crusade to save democracy by
There is a special need for a correction of this expanding it. “For historical and inescapable
on your part.” America is largely a cultural reasons,” Locke explains, “the Negro has thus
wasteland, with “Saharas of culture” across the become … a conspicuous symbol … of democ-
country. Locke exhorts his students to strive for racy.” Locke is optimistic about the “radiant”
excellence, to be “well-bred.” “In fact,” Locke prospects for “inter-American cultural democ-
concludes, “one suspects that eventually the racy,” but achieving a “larger social democracy”
most civilized way of being superior will be to is a broader issue. Speaking “as a philosopher,”
excel in culture.” Locke concedes that the emergence and influ-
In “The Negro’s Contribution to American ence of the elite remains “a necessary though
Culture” Locke reflects on the Harlem Renais- painful condition for mass progress.” The reader
sance. He refers to it as “cultural racialism” can see that Locke placed a great deal of faith
which was “the keynote of the Negro renais- in the power of the elite to amplify social
sance.” Between 1925 and 1939 “three schools democracy through the instrumentality of
of Negro cultural expression” appeared in suc- cultural democracy.
cession. The first was the “enthusiastic cult of
idealistic racialism” that characterized the
“Negro renaissance” (Locke’s preferred term of THE PHILOSOPHY OF ALAIN LOCKE
reference to the Harlem Renaissance in his later
writings). The movement was marred by a Leonard Harris has done an invaluable service
certain degree of “irresponsible individualism in assembling The Philosophy of Alain Locke:
212 / AMERICAN WRITERS

Harlem Renaissance and Beyond (1989), a truly based “on an enlarged pattern of our own.”
representative selection of Locke’s work. Harris Rather, “the intellectual core of the problems of
even includes two of Locke’s Bahá’í essays, the peace, should it lie in our control and leader-
“The Orientation of Hope” (1933) and “Unity ship, will be the discovery of the necessary
through Diversity” (1936). This volume is common denominators and the basic equiva-
divided into four parts: “Epistemological lences involved in a democratic world order or
Foundations”; “Valuation: Commentaries and democracy on a world scale.” Some of the
Reviews”; “Identity and Plurality”; “Identity dogmatisms to be overcome are “culture bias,
and Education.” Each section is ordered histori- nation worship, and racism.” The duty of intel-
cally, with three of the essays in the first section lectuals is to reconstruct democracy to make it
published for the first time. truly pluralistic.
Locke did not publish a formal philosophical In “Cultural Relativism and Ideological
essay until he was fifty. Accordingly Harris has Peace,” Locke is concerned with the implemen-
chosen “Values and Imperatives” as the first es- tation of cultural pluralism. It is a “new age,”
say. In many ways the essay is a condensation and a “new scholarship” is needed. Cultural
of Locke’s doctoral dissertation. His classifica- relativity is, in effect, the new methodology. It
tion of “value types” and their associated “value is based on three basic corollaries: “the principle
predicates” and “value polarity” are reduced to of cultural equivalence” (a search for “culture-
a schematic chart. Locke’s theory of values pro- correlates”), “the principle of cultural reciproc-
vides the epistemological foundation for his ity,” and “the principle of limited cultural con-
subsequent philosophical formulations. In vertibility.” The scholarly “task of the hour” is
“Pluralism and Intellectual Democracy,” Locke to discover an underlying “unity in diversity.”
posits a “vital connection between pluralism These unities, however, have a functional rather
and democracy” that can give rise to “a flex- than content character, and are pragmatic rather
ible, more democratic nexus, a unity in diver- than ideological.
sity.” Crediting William James with rejecting In “Pluralism and Ideological Peace,” Locke
“intellectual absolutism,” Locke outlines his vi- argues that cultural parity, tolerance, and
sion of “intellectual democracy.” Radical reciprocity are “an extension of democracy
empiricism leads to “anarchic pluralism.” beyond individuals and individual rights” to
Midway between these two extremes, Locke group rights. In this essay Locke repeats
proposes a “systematic relativism.” Through verbatim a statement he made in “Cultural
objective comparison of different value systems, Relativism” that the “Utopian dream of the
one may discover “functional constants” that idealist” is “that somehow a single faith, a com-
can “scientifically” supplant arbitrary universals, mon culture, an all-embracing institutional life
such as “sole ways of salvation” and “perfect and its confraternity should some day unite man
forms of the state or society.” In so doing, not by merging all his loyalties and culture values.”
only will traditional value systems “make peace But that day seems distant, which is why
with one another” but will also make “an honor- cultural pluralism is far more attainable.
able peace with science”—an echo of the Bahá’í The second section of this anthology opens
ideal of the harmony of science and religion, with “The Orientation of Hope.” As a professed
which Locke professed. Bahá’í, Locke gives an oblique testimony of
The practical corollaries of value pluralism faith in saying that “the true principles and
are tolerance and reciprocity. World democ- hopes of a new and universal human order” may
racy—a “democratic world order”—cannot be be realized through “an inspired extension of
ALAIN LOCKE / 213

the potent realism of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá by which he In “Frontiers of Culture” (1950), Locke
crowned and fulfilled the basic idealism of reflects on how “culture” was “once a favorite
Bahá’u’lláh.” In “Unity through Diversity: A theme-song word with me. Now I wince at its
Bahá’í Principle,” Locke urges Bahá’ís to apply mention.” In retrospect Locke claims the New
“the precious legacy of the inspired teachings Negro Movement as his “brain child.” “Having
of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Bahá’u’lláh” by translat- signed that ‘New Negro’s’ birth certificate, I as-
ing the Bahá’í principles into action and carry- sume some right to participate in the post-
ing them into “the social and cultural fields” mortem findings.” The movement died because
where “the support and adherence of the most of “exhibitionism and racial chauvinism.” Late
vigorous and intellectual elements in most in life Locke believed that “there is no room for
societies can be enlisted.” This will result in the any consciously maintained racialism in matters
“application and final vindication of the Bahá’í cultural.” Locke then questions the utility of
principles” and “a positive multiplication of self-segregation: “Let us ask boldly and bravely,
spiritual power.” In “Moral Imperatives for what then are the justifications of separate
World Order,” Locke abandons his role as an Negro churches, of separate Negro fraternities,
advocate of the rights of African Americans to schools, colleges?” Thus the new “frontier of
address the current world crisis. He identifies culture” is integration. The enemies remain the
nation, race, and religion as the three basic same—class bias and group bias.
group loyalties. “The moral imperatives of a
new world order,” Locke concludes, “are an
internationally limited idea of national sover- CONCLUSION
eignty, a non-monopolistic and culturally toler-
ant concept of race and religious loyalties freed History has both immortalized and obscured
of sectarian bigotry.” Locke. Given his cynicism toward it in later
Skipping over several essays, three of which life, it is ironic, although not surprising, that
also appear in The Critical Temper of Alain Locke should forever be associated with the
Locke (“The Ethics of Culture,” “The Concept Harlem Renaissance, much to the exclusion of
of Race as Applied to Social Culture,” and his broader role as a cultural pluralist. With
“Who and What is ‘Negro’?”), one can see how new information that has come to light regard-
Locke for his entire professional life advocated ing his Bahá’í identity, it is now possible to
a “pragmatically functional type of philosophy, understand how Locke could function simulta-
to serve as a guide to life and living rather than neously as a cultural racialist and cultural plural-
what Dewey calls ‘busy work for a few profes- ist. Together the two combine to produce “unity
sionals’ refining the techniques and polishing through diversity”—the Bahá’í principle that
the tools of rational analysis.” Locke wanted to Locke held sacred. Locke’s philosophy of
“extend the scientific method and temper democracy, which previous literature never
beyond the domain of science … to all other holistically described, is the key to integrating
intellectual domains.” He attempted to provide the various facets of his thought. As a philoso-
a model for this in coediting When Peoples pher Locke had no appreciable impact in his
Meet: A Study of Race and Culture (1942), own lifetime. In the end, however, he may enjoy
which was “an integrated analysis” of “basic a delayed influence. That will depend largely on
problems of human group relations” and a whether the new information that recent scholar-
“wide-scale comparative study of universal ship has provided can bring Locke back to
forces in group interaction.” influential life as a prophet of democracy.
214 / AMERICAN WRITERS

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