The New Negro by Alain LeRoy Locke — Read

Locke began his trip into Africa by steamer, reaching Alexandria, Egypt, the second week of October. But after only a day or two of rest in Alexandria, he doubled back to the Middle East. Bonding with Africa would have to wait until he took advantage of an invitation to spend a week or so at the Baha'i shrine at Carmel in Haifa, Palestine. Locke was in no hurry to get to Haifa, either, for he took an indirect and leisurely sea route to Palestine that allowed him to visit several areas within Greece. His steamer landed on Piraeus, the Greek city near Athens, then on to the island Lesbos, before reaching Constantinople on October 14. Locke was not simply going to Africa: he was constructing a Grand Tour of the European Mediterranean and the Middle East, and he was taking his time.

Although reluctant to go directly to Africa, he was also intellectually alienated from the West. So, Locke split the difference and journeyed to Constantinople, the capital of a Byzantine tradition that was non-Black and non-Western. Of course, Constantinople had been Westernized and its dominant religion was Islam by the time of Locke's visit. But in 1923 Constantinople still preserved some of the rich religious, artistic, and literary traditions of the Eastern Christian Empire, especially in its wonderful churches that punctured this Turkish capital's skyline.