Alain+Locke

Alain Locke by Morris, grade 6

Alain Locke was a big influence on why the Harlem Renaissance started. Along with W.E.B. Du Bois and others he helped make it all happen. They brought the people together to show the world what beautiful art we have.

Alain Locke was born on September 13, 1886. In 1904 he went to Harvard to study philosophy. He graduated in 1907. Then he was the first and last Black person for the next sixty years to attend England's elite Oxford University. From 1907 to 1910 he studied at Oxford, where he was racially discriminated against and looked down upon until he made friends with some people of his kind.

When he left Oxford, Alain Locke went to Germany to study philosophy, and then to Paris. For the rest of his life he was frequently making trips to Europe to maintain understanding of how they act and their culture. In 1912 Alain Locke became an assistant professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Then he went back to Harvard in 1918 to get his PhD.

During the 1920's Alain started to realize how African Americans feel about themselves, what their place was in this society, and how talented they were. So he contacted people to do something about this. He wanted to show the world how loving and peaceful Black people really are. So he started off with what was called the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote a book called "The New Negro" and it was edited by Charles S. Johnson.

Alain Locke died on June 10, 1954. The reason we still talk about him is because he has a very important piece of the puzzle of the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote books and made sure that what people of the Harlem Renaissance started, they finished.