The New Negro by Alain LeRoy Locke — Read

An indelible scene defined Locke's life that fall of 1925. When Eric Walrond trudged up the three flights of stairs that led to the apartment on 144th Street in Harlem where Locke was living, finishing edits of materials for The New Negro: An Interpretation, he found a cheery Locke in a Victorian armchair, dozens of manuscripts sprawled on the low coffee table in front of him-reputedly with his feet in a tub of hot water beneath him. By October, unlike Washington, D.C., it was already cold in New York. Locke was huddled under a shawl but happy, as he was in Harlem to be closer to the writers whose contribution he sought for the anthology. While being fired might have made others forlorn, Locke appeared ebullient and full of energy. He waved Walrond over to the sideboard to pour the two of them small glasses of wine. Walrond was nervous because he was bringing his latest draft of "The Palm Porch," which Locke had requested for The New Negro but had forced him to revise repeatedly. Walrond hoped that Locke would accept this version and an additional short story by a gay friend of his. Walrond knew that Locke wanted to include writings from as many of the young Black gay community in Harlem; but he also knew that Locke demanded that that writing had to be the best. After about an hour filled with discussion about the writing, but also probably gossip about Jessie Fauset's demand that she be included in The New Negro, or rumors that Countee Cullen was considering marrying Yolanda Du Bois, Locke abruptly informed Walrond that he had another appointment.

Given that Walrond had written the most critical review of Fauset's There Is Confusion, he probably sided with Locke in the nastiest controversy of his editing of the anthology that had ensued that spring when Locke commissioned Arthur Fauset to contribute to the volume. Jessie informed Du Bois that she had not been asked to contribute to a book all of Black literary New York suspected would be a blockbuster. When Locke walked into the Crisis offices to pick up its editor's contribution to the book, Du Bois informed Locke that he would not participate in The New Negro unless Fauset was included. Unwilling to risk leaving out Du Bois, Locke agreed, but seethed at the imposition on his authority. That tense meeting reminded Locke of an earlier visit to Du Bois to get his article for the Harlem number. Locke recalled that on that occasion Du Bois tossed a group of essays at Locke to edit into a single essay for his contribution. Now that Locke's interpretation of the New Negro had become a success, Du Bois was using his clout to force Fauset's inclusion, yet another example from Locke's perspective of how Du Bois treated him condescendingly. Locke probably also believed that Du Bois's demand that Jessie be included was less a matter of critical judgment and more a need to placate his long-standing mistress. The most influential Black homosexual of the 1920s had to yield to the most influential Black heterosexist of the decade-and Locke did not like it. Tragically, Fauset's role in a movement she had helped start was by 1925 relegated to a conflict between two men.