Biography of a Rhodes Scholar and the father of the Harlem Renaissance by Oxford University Press
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart is a formidable biography on the life and influence of this leading professor, art critic and aesthete.
The book is a solid but illuminating read at 944 pages and was first published by Oxford University Press USA in 2018.
Stewart is a Professor of the Department of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
And is well equipped to lead us on the journey of Locke’s life during the 1800-1900s in segregate America.
Indeed, the biography has won huge acclaim, most notably as winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and winner of the 2018 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
So let’s take a look at what this model life-story on the father of the Harlem Renaissance is about and what we can takeaway to improve our own writing …
What is The New Negro about?
In The New Negro we discover Alain LeRoy Locke was born in 1885 to educated and progressive parents in Philadelphia.
Firstly he grows up with strong Victorian values, most notably the pursuit of education.
Then Locke sets off on an academic path that includes years of study in philosophy at Harvard University and as the first African-American Rhodes Scholar to the University of Oxford.
We also learn Locke was very close to his mother, teacher Mary Hawkins Locke, and that after her death he fostered similar relationships with older women.
And that during his life he struggled to live with fulfillment in segregated America as a professional, black, gay man.
However, above all we understand the evolution and leading role Locke played in the New Negro Movement of the 1920s.
Certainly, Locke’s mission was to foster young artists to create beautiful, high-quality art that would transcend racism and foster equality.
Such artists included Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman, Bruce Nugent, Nella Larsen, Jean Toomer and Zora Neale Hurston.
Finally, in the third section of the biography, we trace Locke’s metamorphosis after the end of the New Negro Movement.
This included teaching, editing, writing, speaking, curating art exhibitions and other entrepreneurial pursuits until his death in 1954.
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Highlights of The New Negro
Man of the world
The reader will find much of interest in The New Negro.
Firstly is the highly cosmopolitan life Locke led.
Certainly he craved going to Europe almost every summer and fostered friendships with black intellectuals from many parts of the world.
Indeed this saw him present for a number of world events.
For example, the uncovering of Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt, the start of World War I in Germany, and the beginning of World War II in Austria.
An Oxford pariah
A second interesting point was Locke’s time at Oxford, England.
We learn he faced racism on many fronts, including being accepted to a college.
However, the most vicious racism was from fellow Americans studying at the university.
“(Locke) had crossed over educationally, intellectually, and socially into an elite English world, but remained categorized as Black by the (Oxford) Americans. The reaction of Americans crystallized Locke’s feelings of alienation from his homeland.”
Letters to another world
Thirdly, and on a more positive note, was the priceless trove of letters available and used by Stewart for the The New Negro.
This included letters between Locke and his mother, lovers, fellow academics, artists, white patron Charlotte ‘Godmother’ Mason, editors, and many others.
Earlier letters written in full Victorian-era prose are of particular note.
Indeed they show how essential letters were during such times.
And certainly these beautiful and articulate letters put our modern text messages and social media comments to shame!
Lessons from The New Negro
Make a super start
The New Negro offers many lessons for life-story writers.
The first being how Stewart begins the book.
He draws the reader in from the opening page by telling the dramatic and character-revealing story of Locke’s response to his mother’s death.
This involved Locke teaching the next morning and later holding a small reception for close friends in their apartment.
Most importantly, this gathering included his finely dressed mother as the star guest.
“The Millers and other friends of the Lockes climbed the stairs to the second-story apartment on R Street to find the deceased Mary Locke propped up on the parlor couch, as though she might lean and pour tea at any moment.”
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Embrace interviews
The second element of the book I found helpful was confirmation writers need to talk to others.
Surely a key element of The New Negro’s success is Stewart’s use of 19 oral interviews with those who knew Locke.
Indeed such interviews helped shed light on Locke’s character and motives.
However, they must have been essential for gathering points of view, information and details for the book.
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Offer an opinion
The third teaching point that stood out was the masterful way Stewart interprets the mountains of information published by and about Locke.
Stewart uses facts and knowledge of cultural climates to argue and suggest why Locke made key life decisions.
For example, this includes Locke remaining in America rather than living overseas, covering up his Oxford degree, and needing women to be at his most successful.
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Final say
The New Negro is for anyone looking to read a model text of detailed life-story writing.
It is also brimming with topical themes that are relevant today such as: nationalism, aesthetics, racism, gay rights, deep work and legacy.
Indeed the book is one of the more longer and complex I have read.
However, this is perhaps expected given Locke’s prolific creative output, endeavours, projects and relationships.
In conclusion, I think the world is better for positive and progressive people like Locke and Stewart who focus immense energy and effort into valuable works like The New Negro.
So read it to be awed, inspired and see the world slightly differently.
“A New Negro is in all of us – not just African Americans, but every American who embraces this capacity for reinvention through African forms, because those forms are in them too, waiting, like the rest of us, to be released to soar.”
Happy writing and reading!
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This article first appeared on the website Forever Young Autobiographies.com.
