The New Negro

We have to-morrow
Bright before us
Like a flame

The New Negro: An Interpretation is a multidisciplinary anthology of poetry, fiction, essays, criticism, art, and philosophy woven together into a seamless statement of Black agency in the arts and humanities that became, upon its publication in 1925, an instant publishing success. Edited by Alain Locke, a man known as the father of the Harlem Renaissance, the text is a powerful, provocative, and affecting anthology of writers who shaped the Harlem Renaissance movement and who help us to consider the evolution of the African American in society. With works by Black voices such as Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, and W. E. B. DuBois, Locke constructed a vivid look at the changing African American, finding their place in the ever shifting sociocultural landscape that was 1920s America.

With an introduction from Jeffrey C. Stewart, leading biographer of Locke, this collection explores the literary strength as well as the historical context of a monumental and fascinating time in the history of America.

Alain LeRoy Locke (1885-1954) was a philosopher, writer, and educator. He graduated with honors from Harvard University in 1907 and became the first African American to be selected as a Rhodes Scholar. After receiving a PhD in philosophy at Harvard in 1918, Locke returned to Howard and formed one of the first philosophy departments at a historically black college. Locke is best known as the creator of the philosophical concept New Negro which would initiate the Harlem Renaissance (1925-1939), a period of significant contributions of African American artists, writers, poets, and musicians. In 1925, he edited The New Negro: An Interpretation--an anthology of fiction, poetry, and essays on African and African American art and literature.

Jeffrey C. Stewart is a professor of black studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His biography The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke was the winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, the 2019 Mark Lynton History Prize, the 2019 James A. Rawley Prize, and the 2018 National Book Award in Nonfiction. He has been a Fulbright Professor of American Studies at the University of Rome III; a W. E. B. Du Bois and a Charles Warren fellow at Harvard University; and a lecturer at the Terra Foundation for American Art in Giverny, France.

• Publisher: Oxford University Press (February 26, 2026)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 304 pages
• ISBN-13: 9780198911456
• Item Weight: 10.1 ounces
• Dimensions: 5.06 x 0.78 x 7.75 inches
  
• BISAC Categories: Popular Fiction