ALAIN LEROY LOCKE
was born in Philadelphia on September 13, 1886 to Pliny Ishmael Locke and Mary Hawkins
Locke. The young Alain attended the Central High School of Philadelphia and the School of
Pedagogy. Entering Harvard College in 1904, he studied under the celebrated faculty in
philosophy that included Josiah Royce, Hugo Munsterberg, George Santayana, and William
James. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and named a Rhodes Scholar in 1907. Locke pursued
studies at Hertford college, Oxford University, from 1907 to 1910, and at the University
of Berlin for the academic year, 1910-1911. He received the Ph.D. degree from Harvard in
1918 in philosophy after a successful defense of his dissertation on "Problems of
Classification in Theory of Value."
Locke's career as a teacher began at Howard
University in 1912 and extended over a period of forty-one years. In 1921, he became Head
of the Department of Philosophy and held this position until his retirement in 1953. In
that year, Locke was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by Howard
University.
His career as a teacher and writer covered a
wide range of interests in the humanities and the social sciences. His thinking on social
and ethnic problems was informed by a philosophical view which he set forth as cultural
pluralism. He was the author and editor of many books, including The New Negro, The
Negro in Art and When People Meet: A Study in Race and Cultural Contacts
(with Bernard J. Stern).
Locke had a significant part in the development
of the curriculum of the College of Liberal Arts at Howard University, particularly the
program in general education. He advanced the study of philosophy, both as an independent
discipline and as an ally with the social sciences in the analysis of social problems. He
was one of the founders of Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at Howard University.
Locke was the architect of the New Negro
Movement and the Harlem Renaissance, the focus of which was the promotion of black art and
culture. His philosophical interests were focused primarily on three issues: values and
valuation; cultural pluralism; and race relations. On cultural pluralism, Locke's view can
be summarized thus: each culture group has its own identity and it is entitled to protect
and promote it. In the particular context of America, the claim to cultural identity need
not conflict with the claim to American citizenship. On race relations, Locke felt that if
we can do away with prejudice and pride, we might be able to reconcile nationalism and
internationalism, racialism and universalism.
The National
Conference on Philosophy and Race is a celebration of Locke's life and
contributions to philosophy in general, and Africana philosophy in particular on the 80th
anniversary of his receipt of the Ph.D. degree in philosophy from Harvard.
Bibliography
AUTHOR
The Negro in America (bibliography). Chicago: American
Library Association, 1933.
The Negro and his music.
Washington, DC: The
Associates in Negro folk education, 1936; reprinted, Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press,
1968. Also reprinted with Negro art: Past and Present (New York: Arno Press, 1969).
Negro art: Past and present
[microform].
Washington, DC: Associates in Negro Folk Education, 1936.
Negro art: Past and present.
Washington, DC:
Associates in Negro folk education, 1936. Also published with The Negro and his music
(New York: Arno Press, 1969).
Le Role du Nègre dans la culture des Amériques
,
conférences. Port-au-Prince, Haïti: Impr. de l'Etat, 1943.
World view on race and democracy: A study guide in
human group relations.
Chicago, American library association, 1943.
Diversity within national unity.
Washington, DC:
The National Council for the Social Studies, the National Education Association, 1945.
Race contacts and interracial relations: Lectures on
the theory and practice of race
, edited and with an introduction by Jeffrey C.
Stewart; foreword by Michael R.Winston; preface by Thomas C. Battle. Washington,
DC: Howard University Press, 1992.
EDITOR/COMPILER
The new negro: An interpretation
(anthology),
illustrations by Winold Reiss. New York: A. and C. Boni, 1925; reprinted, New York: Arno
Press, 1968; reprinted with a new introd. by Allan H. Spear (New York, Johnson Reprints
Corp., 1968). Reprinted with new preface by Robert Hayden (New York, Atheneum, 1970), with
an introduction by Arnold Rampersad (New York: Atheneum; Toronto: Maxwell Macmillan
Canada; New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1992)
Plays of negro life: A source-book of native American
drama
. New York and London, Harper & brothers, 1927.
Four negro poets...
New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1927.
A decade of Negro self-expression
, comp. by Alain
Locke, with a foreword by Howard W. Odum. Charlottesville, VA: 1928.
When peoples meet: A study in race and culture
contacts,
edited with Bernard J. Stern. New York: Committee on Workshops, Progressive
Education Association [c1942; revised edition, New York: Hinds, Hayden & Eldredge,
1946.
Plays of Negro life: A source-book of native American
drama.
Selected and edited by Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory. Decorations and
illus. by Aaron Douglas. New York & London: Harper & Brothers, 1927.
"Bibliography of Negro drama", 424-430. Reprinted, Westport, CT: Negro
Universities Press, 1970.
The Negro in art: A pictorial record of the Negro
artist and of the Negro theme in art, e
dited and annotated by Alain Locke.
Washington, DC: Associates in Negro folk education, 1940; New York: Hacker Art Books,
1971.
The Problem of classification in the theory of value,
1918
The Negro in American Literature, 1929
Frederick Douglas: A biography of anti-slavery, 1935
EDITED WORK
Butcher, Margaret Just. The Negro in American culture,
based on materials left by Alain Locke. New York: Knopf, 1957, c1956.
Harris, Leonard, ed. The Philosophy of Alain Locke:
Harlem renaissance and beyond. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989.
Linnemann, Russell J., ed. Alain Locke: Reflections on
a modern Renaissance man. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, c1982.
Stewart, Jeffrey C., ed. The Critical temper of Alain
Locke: A selection of his essays on art and culture. [edited by] New York :
Garland Pub., 1983.
ABOUT LOCKE'S WORK
Braithwaite, William Stanley. Alain
Locke's Relationship to the Negro in American Literature. Wintz-Cary-D. (ed.). Remembering
the Harlem Renaissance, 420-27. New York, NY : Garland, 1996.
---------. The Negro in American Literature.
Mitchell-Angelyn (ed.), Within the Circle: An Anthology of African American Literary
Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present, 32-44. Durham, NC : Duke
University Press, 1994.
Burgett, Paul Joseph. Aesthetics of the music of
Afro-Americans : A critical analysis of the writings of selected black scholars with
implications for black music studies and for music education. Presented by Paul
Joseph Burgett. Published: 1976. Bibliography, 316-320.
Crane, Clare Bloodgood. Alain Locke and the Negro
Renaissance. 1971. Bibliography, 232-247.
Days, Everett Alston. Alain LeRoy Locke (1886-1954)
[microform]: Pioneer in adult education and catalyst in the adult education movement for
black Americans. Thesis (Ed. D.)--North Carolina State University at Raleigh, 1978.
Bibliography, 143-151.
Fauset,-Jessie. The Gift of Laughter. Mitchell-Angelyn
(ed.). Within the Circle: An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the
Harlem Renaissance to the Present, 45-50. Durham, NC : Duke University Press, 1994.
Harris, Leonard, ed. The Philosophy of Alain Locke:
Harlem Renaissance and beyond. Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 1989.
Bibliography, 301-325.
Irek, Malgorzata. From Berlin to Harlem: Felix von Luschan,
Alain Locke, and the New Negro. Sollors-Werner (ed.); Diedrich-Maria (ed.). The Black
Columbiad: Defining moments in African American literature and culture, 174-84.
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 1994.
Johnson, Charles S. The Negro Renaissance and Its
Significance. Wintz-Cary-D. (ed.). Remembering the Harlem Renaissance, 226-34.
New York, NY : Garland, 1996.
Kraft, Eugene, rev. The Philosophy of Alain Locke
(book review). CLA Journal 34, September 1990: 108-11.
Linnemann, Russell J., ed. Alain Locke: Reflections on
a modern Renaissance man. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, c1982.
Notes: "Selected bibliography of the works of Alain Locke", 133-136.
Alain Locke's philosophy of
value / Ernest D. Mason --The philosophical anthropology of Alain Locke / William B.
Harvey -- Relativism and pluralism in the social thought of Alain Locke / Rutledge M.
Dennis-- The politics of Alain Locke / A. Gilbert Belles -- Alain Locke, W.E.B. Du Bois,
and the crisis of Black education during the Great Depression / Manning Marable --Toward
an aesthetic of Black folk expression / Rebecca T. Cureau -- Alain Locke and the honest
propaganda of truth and beauty / George Hall -- Alain Locke and the sense of the African
legacy / James B. Barnes -- Alain Locke's theory of the origins and nature of jazz /
Russell J. Linnemann -- Alain Locke on Black folk music / Patricia L. Hill.
Logan, Rayford W. et al., eds. The new Negro
thirty years afterward; papers contributed to the sixteenth annual spring conference...
April 20, 21, and 22, 1955. Howard University. Graduate School. Division of the
Social Sciences. Edited by Rayford W. Logan, chairman, Eugene C. Holmes [and] G. Franklin
Edwards. Published: Washington, Howard University Press, 1955 [i. e. 1956] Notes:
"Dedicated to the memory of Professor Alain Locke." Includes bibliographies.
"Bibliography of the writings of Alain Leroy Locke ... by Robert E. Martin",
89-96.
Lott, Tommy Lee. Nationalism and pluralism in Alain Locke's
Social Philosophy. Foster-Lawrence (ed.); Herzog-Patricia (ed.). Contemporary
philosophical perspectives on pluralism and multiculturalism: Defending diversity,
103-19. Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, 1994.
Mason, Ernest Douglas. Alain Locke's philosophy of
value: An introduction. Atlanta : [s.n.], 1975.
Michaels, Walter Benn; Rhodes, Chip, rev. Our America
(book review). Modern Fiction-Studies 43, Summer 1997: 432-49.
McGary, Howard, rev. The Philosophy of Alain Locke (book
review). Ethics 101, October 1990: 195-6.
Napier, Winston. Affirming critical conceptualism: Harlem
Renaissance aesthetics and the formation of Alain Locke's social philosophy. The
Massachusetts Review 39, no.1 Spring 1998: 93-112.
Ochillo, Yvonne. The Race-consciousness of Alain Locke. Phylon
47, September 1986: 173-81.
Shirley, Wayne D. William Grant Still's choral ballad and
they lynched him on a tree. American Music 12, Winter 1994: 425-61.
Spillers, Hortense J. Race and identity. Jeffrey
Stewart and Hortense Spillers. Historical companions. Laurel Ulrich, John A. Garraty
[sound disc]. Research Triangle Park, NC: National Humanities Center, 1992.
Stewart, Jeffrey C. A Black aesthete at Oxford. The
Massachusetts Review 34, Autumn 1993: 411-28.
---------, ed. The Critical temper of Alain Locke: A
selection of his essays on art and culture. New York: Garland Pub., 1983.
Story, Ralph D. Patronage and the Harlem Renaissance: You
get what you pay for. CLA-Journal 32, March 1989: 284-95.
Thomas, Lorenzo. The Bop aesthetic and black intellectual
tradition. Library Chronicle of the University of Texas 24, no. 1-2, 1994:
104-17.
Verharen, Charles C. The New World and the dreams to which
it may give rise: An African and American response to Hegel's challenge. Journal of
Black Studies 27 March 1997: 456-93.
Walker, Clarence E., rev. The philosophy of Alain Locke
(book review). African-American-Review 26, Winter 1992: 675-82. .
Washington, Johnny. Alain Locke and philosophy: A quest
for cultural pluralism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, c1986. Notes: Bibliography: p.
[227]-237.
---------. A Journey into the philosophy of Alain Locke
/ Johnny Washington. Published: Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. Series: Contributions
in Afro-American and African studies. Notes: Includes bibliographical references, 199-213.
Part I: Ethnic Identity
and Conflicts. 1. Destiny: The Views of Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, and
Alain Locke. 2. The African American Elite, Destiny, and the Transformation of History. 3.
African Americans' Cultural Contributions to the Three Americas. 4. "Black" or
"African American": What's in a Name? 5. The Life and Times of Frederick
Douglass and Booker T. Washington. 6. Criteria of Race: An Anthropological Perspective. 7.
Race, Ethnicity, and Culture. 8. Racial Dilemmas and Paradoxes. 9. Racial Integration or
Segregation: Which Is Desirable? 10. Social Insanity.
Part II: Value Relativism. 11. Moral Virtues in Elementary Schools. 12.
Norms and the Social Realm: Alain Locke, John Dewey, and Henri Bergson. 13. A General
Theory of Value Relativism. 14. The Nature and Dynamics of Values.
---------; Thompson, S. L., rev. A journey into the
philosophy of Alain Locke (book review). Journal of the History of Philosophy
33, October 1995: 703-5.
---------; Lott, Tommy Lee, rev. A Journey into the
philosophy of Alain Locke (book review). American Studies 36, Fall 1995:
205-6.
Related sites
American Philosophical Association. Blacks in Philosophy
