# Alain Locke

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> 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
> 
> Selected Bibliography                                     Symposium. New York: Conference on Science,
> Philosophy and Religion, 1942. Pp. 196–212.
> Reprinted in The Philosophy of Alain Locke. Pp.
> 51–66.
> WORKS OF ALAIN LOCKE                                    “Cultural Relativism and Ideological Peace.” In Ap-
> proaches to World Peace. Edited by Lyman Bry-
> BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS                                       son, Louis Finfelstein, and R. M. MacIver. New
> “Race Contacts and Inter-Racial Relations: A Study        York: Harper & Brothers, 1944. Pp. 609–618.
> in the Theory and Practice of Race.” Syllabus of        Reprinted in The Philosophy of Alain Locke. Pp.
> an Extension Course of Lectures. Washington,            67–78.
> D. C.: Howard University, 1916. (Pamphlet.)           “Pluralism and Ideological Peace.” In Freedom and
> The Problem of Classification in the Theory of Value.     Experience: Essays Presented to Horace M.
> Ph.D. dissertation. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard,          Kallen. Edited by Milton R. Konvitz and Sidney
> 1918.                                                   Hook. Ithaca, N.Y.: New School for Research and
> The Negro in America. Chicago: American Library           Cornell University Press, 1947. Pp. 63–69.
> Association, 1933.
> ESSAYS ON THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE AND NEGRO
> The Negro and His Music. Washington, D.C.: As-          ART
> sociates in Negro Folk Education, 1936 (Bronze        “Art of the Ancestors.” Survey Graphic 53:673
> Booklet No. 2). Reprints: Port Washington, N.Y.:        (March 1925).
> Kennikat Press, 1968; New York: Arno Press,           “Enter the New Negro.” Survey Graphic 53:631–634
> 1969.                                                   (March 1925).
> Negro Art: Past and Present. Washington, D.C.: As-      “Harlem.” Survey Graphic 53:629–630 (March
> sociates in Negro Folk Education, 1936 (Bronze          1925).
> Booklet No. 3). Reprint: New York: Arno Press,        Foreword. In The New Negro: An Interpretation.
> 1969.                                                   New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1925.
> Le rôle du Nègre dans la culture des Amériques.         “The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts.” In The New
> Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Imprimerie de l’état, 1943.      Negro: An Interpretation. New York: Albert and
> World View on Race and Democracy: A Study Guide           Charles Boni, 1925. Pp. 254–267.
> in Human Group Relations. Chicago: American           “The New Negro.” In The New Negro: An Interpreta-
> Library Association, 1943.                              tion. New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1925.
> Diversity within National Unity. Washington, D.C.:        Pp. 3–16. Reprinted in Within the Circle: An
> National Council for Social Studies, 1945.              Anthology of African American Literary Criticism
> (Pamphlet.)                                             from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present.
> Edited by Angelyn Mitchell. Durham, N.C.: Duke
> ESSAYS ON PHILOSOPHY                                      University Press, 1994. Pp. 21–31.
> “Values and Imperatives.” In American Philosophy        “The Negro Spirituals.” In The New Negro: An
> Today and Tomorrow. Edited by Horace M. Kallen          Interpretation. New York: Albert and Charles
> and Sidney Hook. New York: Lee Furman, 1935.            Boni, 1925. Pp. 199–213.
> Pp. 312–333. Reprints: Freeport, N. Y.: Books for     “Negro Youth Speaks.” In The New Negro: An Inter-
> Libraries Press, 1968; in The Philosophy of Alain       pretation. New York: Albert and Charles Boni,
> Locke. Edited by Leonard Harris. Philadelphia:          1925. Pp. 47–53.
> Temple University Press, 1989. Pp. 31–50.             “The Negro and the American Stage.” Theatre Arts
> “Three Corollaries of Cultural Relativism.” In Pro-       Monthly 10:112–120 (February 1926).
> ceedings of the Second Conference on the Scientific   “American Literary Tradition and the Negro.” The
> Spirit and the Democratic Faith. New York:              Modern Quarterly 3:215–222 (May–July 1926).
> Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion,         Reprinted in Interracialism: Black-White Intermar-
> 1941.                                                   riage in American History, Literature, and Law.
> “Pluralism and Intellectual Democracy.” In Confer-        Edited by Werner Sollors. Oxford: Oxford Univer-
> ence on Science, Philosophy, and Religion, Second       sity Press, 2000. Pp. 269–274.
> ALAIN LOCKE / 215
> 
> “Our Little Renaissance.” In Ebony and Topaz.          “Major Prophet of Democracy.” Review of Race and
> Edited by Charles S. Johnson. New York: National       Democratic Society by Franz Boas. Journal of
> Urban League, 1927. Pp. 117–118.                       Negro Education 15:191–192 (spring 1946).
> “The High Cost of Prejudice.” The Forum 78:500–        “Are Negroes Winning Their Fight for Civil Rights?”
> 510 (December 1927).                                   Harlem Quarterly 1, no. 1:23 (1949–1950).
> “Art or Propaganda?” Harlem 1:12–13 (November
> 1928).
> ESSAYS ON THE BAHÁ’Í
> “The Negro’s Contribution to American Art and          “Impressions of Haifa.” Star of the West 15:13–14
> Literature.” Annals of the American Academy of         (April 1924). Reprints: Bahá’í Year Book. Vol. I,
> Political and Social Science 140:234–247 (1928).       April 1925–April 1926. Compiled by the National
> “The Negro in American Culture.” In Anthology of         Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United
> American Negro Literature. Edited by V. F. Cal-        States and Canada. New York: Bahá’í Publishing
> verton. New York: Modern Library Series, 1929.         Committee, 1926. Pp. 81, 83; The Bahá’í World:
> Pp. 248–266.                                           A Biennial International Record. Vol. II, April
> “The Negro’s Contribution in Art to American             1926–April 1928. Compiled by the National
> Culture.” Proceedings of the National Conference       Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United
> of Social Work. New York, 1933. Pp. 315–322.           States and Canada. New York: Bahá’í Publishing
> “Propaganda—or Poetry?” Race 1:70–76, 87                 Committee, 1928. Pp. 125, 127; The Bahá’í
> (summer 1936).                                         World: A Biennial International Record. Vol. III,
> “Harlem: Dark Weather-vane.” Survey Graphic              April 1928–April 1930. Compiled by the National
> 24:457–462, 493–495 (August 1936).                     Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United
> States and Canada. New York: Bahá’í Publishing
> “The Negro’s Contribution to American Culture.”
> Committee, 1930. Pp. 280, 282.
> Journal of Negro Education 8:521–529 (July
> 1939).                                               “America’s Part in World Peace.” Quoted in Harlan
> “On Literary Stereotypes.” In Fighting Words. Edited     Ober’s “The Bahá’í Congress at Green Acre.” The
> by Donald Ogden Stewart. New York: Harcourt,           Bahá’í Magazine (Star of the West) 16:525
> Brace and Company, 1940. Pp. 75–78.                    (August 1925).
> “Spirituals.” In 75 Years of Freedom. Washington,      “A Bahá’í Inter-Racial Conference.” The Bahá’í
> D. C.: Library of Congress, 1940. Pp. 7–15.            Magazine (Star of the West) 18:315–316 (January
> 1928).
> “The Negro Minority in American Literature.” En-
> glish Journal 35:315–320 (1946).                     “The Orientation of Hope.” In The Bahá’í World: A
> “The Negro in American Literature.” New World            Biennial International Record, Vol. IV, 1930–
> Writing 1:18–33 (1952).                                1932. New York: Bahá’í Publishing Committee,
> 1933. Pp. 527–528. Reprinted in The Philosophy
> ESSAYS ON DEMOCRACY AND RACE                             of Alain Locke. Pp. 130–132.
> “Democracy Faces a World Order.” Harvard Educa-        “Unity through Diversity: A Bahá’í Principle.” In
> tional Review 12:121–128 (March 1942).                 The Bahá’í World: A Biennial International
> “Color: The Unfinished Business of Democracy.”           Record, Vol. V, 1932–1934. New York: Bahá’í
> Survey Graphic 31:455–459 (November 1942).             Publishing Committee, 1936. Pp. 372–374. Re-
> “Race, Culture et Democratie.” Cahiers d’Haiti           printed in The Philosophy of Alain Locke. Pp.
> 8:6–14 (March 1944).                                   133–138.
> “Moral Imperatives for World Order.” Summary of        “Lessons in World Crisis.” In The Bahá’í World: A
> Proceedings. Institute of International Relations.     Biennial International Record, Vol. IX, 1940–
> Oakland, Calif.: Mills College, June 18–28, 1944.      1944. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust,
> Pp. 19–20.                                             1945. Pp. 745–747. Reprint: Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í
> “Whither Race Relations? A Critical Commentary.”         Publishing Trust, 1980.
> Journal of Negro Education 13:398–406 (summer        “The Gospel for the Twentieth Century.” Unpub-
> 1944).                                                 lished. Undated. Alain Locke Papers, Moorland-
> 216 / AMERICAN WRITERS
> 
> Spingarn Research Center, Manuscript Division,           “The American Temperament.” North American Re-
> Box 164–143, Folder 3 (Writings by Locke—                  view 194:262–270 (August 1911).
> Notes. Christianity spirituality, religion). Washing-    “The Role of the Talented Tenth.” Howard University
> ton, D. C.: Howard University.                             Record 12:15–18 (December 1918).
> “The Ethics of Culture.” Howard University Record
> WORKS EDITED BY ALAIN LOCKE
> 17:178–185 (January 1923).
> “Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro.” Special issue
> of the Survey Graphic 53 (March 1925). Reprint:          “The Problem of Race Classification.” Opportunity
> Baltimore, Md.: Black Classic Press, 1981.                 1:261–264 (September 1923).
> “Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro.” A Hypermedia             “The Concept of Race as Applied to Social Culture.”
> Edition of the Survey Graphic (March 1925).                Howard Review 1:290–299 (June 1924).
> Prepared by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum and                  “Minorities and the Social Mind.” Progressive Edu-
> Catherine Tousignant. University of Virginia’s             cation 12:141–150 (March 1935).
> Electronic Text Center. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/
> harlem/index.html.                                       “The Dilemma of Segregation.” Journal of Negro
> Education 4:406–411 (July 1935).
> The New Negro: An Interpretation. New York: Al-
> bert and Charles Boni, 1925.                             “Lessons of Negro Adult Education.” In Adult
> Four Negro Poets. New York: Simon & Schuster,                Education in Action. Edited by Mary L. Fly. New
> 1927.                                                      York: American Association for Adult Education,
> Plays of Negro Life: A Source-Book of Native                 1936. Pp. 126–131.
> American Drama. Coedited with Montgomery                 “Ballad for Democracy.” Opportunity 18:228–229
> Gregory. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1927.              (August 1940).
> Reprint: Westport, Conn.: Negro Universities             “Autobiographical Sketch.” In Twentieth Century
> Press, 1970.                                               Authors. Edited by Stanley Kunitz and Howard
> A Decade of Negro Self-Expression: Occasional                Haycroft. New York: Wilson, 1942. P. 837.
> Paper No. 26. With foreword by Howard W.
> Odum. Charlottesville, Va.: Trustees of the John         “The Negro in the Three Americas.” Journal of
> S. Slater Fund, 1928.                                      Negro Education 13:7–18 (winter 1944).
> Americans All: Immigrants All. Washington, D.C.:           “Reason and Race: A Review of the Literature of the
> Office of Education Bulletin, 1939.                        Negro for 1946.” Phylon 8:17–27 (first quarter
> The Negro in Art: A Pictorial Record of the Negro            1947). Reprinted in The Critical Temper of Alain
> Artist and of the Negro Theme in Art. Washington,          Locke. Edited by Jeffrey C. Stewart. New York:
> D.C.: Associates in Negro Folk Education, 1940.            Garland, 1983. Pp. 319–327.
> Reprint: New York: Hacker Art Books, 1971.               “The Need for a New Organon in Education.” In
> “Color: Unfinished Business of Democracy.” Special           Goals for American Education. New York: Confer-
> issue of the Survey Graphic 31 (November 1942).            ence on Science, Philosophy and Religion, 1950.
> When Peoples Meet: A Study of Race and Culture.              Pp. 201–212. Reprinted in The Philosophy of Alain
> Coedited with Bernhard J. Stern. New York: Com-            Locke. Pp. 263–276.
> mittee on Workshops, Progressive Education As-           “Self-Criticism: The Third Dimension in Culture.”
> sociation, 1942. Revised edition: New York:                Phylon 11:391–394 (1950). Reprinted in Remem-
> Hinds, Hayden & Eldredge, 1946.
> bering the Harlem Renaissance. Edited by Cary
> The Negro Artist Comes of Age: A National Survey             D. Wintz. New York: Garland, 1996. Pp. 164–168.
> of Contemporary American Artists. With John
> Davis Hatch. Albany, N.Y.: Albany Institute of           “The Social Responsibility of the Scholar.” Proceed-
> History and Art, 1945.                                     ings of the Conference of the Division of Social
> Sciences. Washington, D.C.: Howard University
> OTHER WORKS                                                  Press, 1953. Pp. 143–146.
> “Oxford Contrasts.” Independent 67:139–142 (July           “Minority Side of Intercultural Relations.” In Educa-
> 15, 1909).                                                 tion for Cultural Unity: Seventeenth Yearbook.
> ALAIN LOCKE / 217
> 
> California Elementary School Principals Associa-    Tidwell, John Edgar and John Wright. “Alain Locke:
> tion, n.d. Pp. 60–64.                                 A Comprehensive Bibliography of Published Writ-
> ings.” Callaloo 4:175–192 (February–October
> CORRESPONDENCE AND MANUSCRIPTS
> 1981).
> Alain Locke Collection. Papers, 1841–1954 (bulk
> 1898–1954). 220 Boxes. Washington, D.C.:
> Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard           CRITICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES
> University.                                         Akam, Everett H. “Community and Cultural Crisis:
> Alain Locke Papers. Collection 164–1 to 164–233.        The ‘Transfiguring Imagination’ of Alain Locke.”
> Prepared by Helen Rutt. Assisted by Joellen El-       American Literary History 3, no. 2:255–276
> Bashir. Washington, D.C.: Manuscript Division,        (1991).
> Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard           Braithwaite, William. “Alain Locke’s Relationship
> University, December 1993.                            to the Negro in American Literature.” Phylon 18,
> no. 2:166–173 (1957). Reprinted in Remembering
> the Harlem Renaissance. Edited by Cary D. Wintz.
> COLLECTED WORKS
> New York: Garland, 1996. Pp. 420–427.
> The Critical Temper of Alain Locke: A Selection of
> His Essays on Art and Culture. Edited by Jeffrey    Braithwaite, William Stanley, Ralph J. Bunche, C.
> C. Stewart. New York: Garland, 1983.                  Glenn Carrington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Benjamin
> Karpman, Yervant H. Krikorian, and William Stu-
> The Philosophy of Alain Locke: Harlem Renaissance
> art Nelson. Alain LeRoy Locke Funeral Orations
> and Beyond. Edited by Leonard Harris. Philadel-
> Brochure, 1954. In Rare Books and Manuscripts,
> phia: Temple University Press, 1989.
> University Libraries, Pennsylvania State Univer-
> Race Contacts and Interracial Relations: Lectures       sity, University Park, Penn. 1954.
> on the Theory and Practice of Race. Edited by
> Buck, Christopher. “Alain Locke: Bahá’í Philoso-
> Jeffery C. Stewart. Washington, D. C.: Howard
> pher.” Bahá’í Studies Review 10:7–49 (2001–
> University Press, 1992.
> 2002).
> Bunche, Ralph J., et al. “The Passing of Alain Leroy
> BIBLIOGRAPHIES                                          Locke.” Phylon 15, no. 3:243–252 (1954).
> Harris, Leonard. “Chronological Bibliography.” In     Burgett, Paul Joseph. “Vindication as a Thematic
> The Philosophy of Alain Locke: Harlem Renais-         Principle in Alain Locke’s Writings on the Music
> sance and Beyond. Edited by Leonard Harris.           of Black Americans.” The Harlem Renaissance:
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> 1994.                                                                  — CHRISTOPHER BUCK
>
> — *Alain Locke (Used by permission of the curator)*