New Negro: An Interpretation

"So the choice is not between one way for the Negro and another way for the rest, but between American institutions frustrated on the one hand and American ideals progressively fulfilled and realized on the other."

-Alain Locke, The New Negro (1925)

The New Negro (1925) edited by Alain Locke is an anthology of fiction, poetry, and essays by artists who shaped the Harlem Renaissance such as W.E.B. du Bois, Walter Francis White, and Zora Neale Hurston, to name a few. With illustrations by Winold Reiss and Aaron Douglas, Locke defines the new negro as one who does not accept society's circumstances as of the old but seeks further rights and position in society. This in-depth look at the America of the early twentieth century juxtaposed to the America of today is for all who wish to deepen their understanding of the African American experience.