The New Negro by Alain LeRoy Locke — Read

Alain Locke's return trip to England at the end of April 1910 contained a welcome surprise: the Pan-Africanist bishop Alexander Walters was also on board the Lusitania. The renowned bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, co-organizer of the Afro-American Council and, more recently, sympathizer with Du Bois's Niagara Movement was on the first leg of a maiden voyage to Africa to organize AME Zion conferences in Liberia and across West Africa. Locke and Walters conversed extensively as Locke judged him one of the most cosmopolitan "representative men of our race," committed to forging alliances between Africans and African Americans. It is likely Walters confirmed for Locke what Seme championed-that Africa was the crucial field of development for enlightened African Americans. Once Walters reached Liberia, he claimed, "a thrill of joy possessed me as I stepped from the boat on to the shores of my fatherland." Not only did this transatlantic meeting further encourage Locke to visit Africa but it also launched a lifelong friendship between the two men.

Back in London, Locke visited the Daily News and the Manchester Guardian trying to obtain additional commissions for his travel scheme before heading to Oxford. He probably would have been better off staying in London. Not long after reaching Oxford, Locke was notified he would have to appear again before the Vice Chancellor's Court because of more unpaid debts. This time his creditor was the Oxford Wine Company, whose bill he had run up hosting so many gatherings in his rooms for the Cosmopolitan Club, the Rationalist Society, and his friends. This time he owed £3, 9 s, and 1 d, and when he appeared before Judge Holland on May 27, he again could not pay his debt, even though he had asked his mother to borrow money on her salary to send to him. On June 3, he would have to appear in court yet again for an overdue debt to Admanson and O. of Oxford. The Chancellor Court Record reads: "defendant appeared. Adjourned for a week. Defendant to have the costs of today. Consent signed in meantime for payment of Debt and L1.18. costs as follows: L3 on 9 July and the balance on or before 1st Oct. 1910."1