The New Negro by Alain LeRoy Locke — Read

Shortly after landing in Paris at 6:45 in the evening after the ambassador's fateful luncheon, Locke was taking in an opera, Maeterlinck's Momma Verna. Locke loved to hit the ground running whenever he began a trip, an approach to self-care that was becoming his preferred pattern of travel-plan ahead, attend as many of one's favorite cultural activities as possible, and chase away any feelings of loneliness. Indeed, this trip revived pleasant memories of the previous summer's trip with his mother. He stayed at the same hotel, where they had roomed, and visited old haunts they had enjoyed together. "I smiled as I passed places we had seen together-you do not know the pleasure of such memories," he wrote his mother, encouraging her to begin planning her return to Europe, and especially to Paris, the coming summer. A life of beauty had its rewards.

After lounging in his favorite cafe, the Mi Carena, where he and Downes had had such a rollicking good time the year before, Locke settled down to plan his trip south in his "Grand Tour" through France, Switzerland, and the great cities of Italy. He had maps, guidebooks, and a letter of introduction to a Mrs. Alexander of Florence from Sydney Franklin, who had promised to accompany Locke to Italy over the Christmas vacation, but who now was stuck in London with his law practice. The trip threatened to be lonely until Lionel de Fonseka showed up on March 18, just as Locke had all but "given him up" as unable to make the trip. Saddled comfortably with a traveling companion, Locke took the night train for Bale, Switzerland.