The New Negro by Alain LeRoy Locke — Read

Coming back to the United States in the fall of 1911, Locke was welcomed by Black America despite his having been away so long. Since he had been gone, the NAACP had emerged and W. E. B. Du Bois's Crisis had captured the imagination of educated African Americans. Booker T. Washington was still the most powerful Negro in America, but his star had dimmed after Taft won the White House in 1908 and reduced Washington's influence over federal appointments in the South. In the shadow of contested Negro leadership, a new diversity of opinion had emerged among Black political voices that made the African American intellectual climate open to Locke's unique perspective on race. Perhaps closest to Locke's views were those of older, African American thinkers who were nationalist in philosophy, but conservative in personal style and political action, men like John Bruce of New York and John Cromwell of Washington who served as custodians of culture in the Black community. They used their influence to raise the quality of debate among the African American bourgeoisie in emergent literary and historical societies that featured lectures on politics and history, poetry readings, and music and art exhibitions. When he returned to Philadelphia, Locke found that men in these societies were eager to provide him an opportunity to announce himself as a new voice in African American discourse. Not long after he settled in at 579 Stevens Street in Camden with his mother, Locke was heading out on the speaking circuit.

The American Negro Historical Society in Philadelphia invited him to speak on October 24, and William C. Bolivar, a family friend and contributor to the Philadelphia Tribune, had probably alerted fellow society members that Locke was back in the Philadelphia area. Bolivar may have brought Locke to the attention of Levi Coppin of the Baltimore Bethel AME Church, where he spoke on November 2. Coppin was married to Fanny Jackson Coppin, formerly the head of the Institute of Colored Youth in Philadelphia that had educated both Pliny and Mary Locke. Alain's parental network came alive. Locke coupled the trip to Baltimore with a trip to Washington, where he spoke at Howard University and was introduced to Washington society by Roscoe Conkling Bruce, superintendent of Washington's Black schools. Locke seems to have made a great impression. Locke wrote his mother: