Alain Locke

Alain Locke (1885–1954) was an American philosopher, critic and the leading theorist of the Harlem Renaissance. His anthology The New Negro and writings collected under The New Negro Aesthetic: Selected Writings reframed African American art and identity as a modern, world-historical achievement.

The first Black Rhodes Scholar, Locke took a doctorate in philosophy at Harvard and taught at Howard University for four decades. His ideas about cultural pluralism rooted in honesty about the beauty and value of Black life remain foundational to African American and aesthetics philosophy.