Finding the New Negro: Alain Locke and Aaron Douglas

The Harlem Renaissance saw a new internal and external approach to the conceptual image of blackness. A New Negro was to evolve, who, as a new social character, would be able to successfully deal with external and internal factors influencing not only his social status but also his self-identity and individuality. That new type was to achieve both: raise race awareness for Blacks in the white population and emerge himself as a proud and self-determined being, who acknowledged his racial and historical background with pride.

Two of the many African Americans who tried to overcome centuries of prejudice, segregation, denial and forgetfullness were Alain Locke and Aaron Douglas, both of whom stressed the central position art and culture were to have in helping the black community with defining themselves as Americans who were contributing their rich historical and cultural background to society. Following the same dream did Locke try to promote his new social type through elevating African American artists and their work, while Douglass was one of those who were able to reach a wid

Even though his work clearly reflects his determination to create on an individual basis, it can be suspected that he considered it necessary to change one or the other African image in order to make it accesible and understandable to a wider audience. To reach white Americans, it was surely necessary to change black visuals that would not have appealed to their understanding of African art. Like any other artists was Douglas caught in the middle between creating as a black and and an artist. Being a black painter and illustrator it was certainly expected of him that he depicted African subjects in such a way that every African American could understand it and relate to it. As Kirschke points out, “had [Douglas] to confront the problem of trying to reach a public that was difficult to define and locate with limited patronage a geographically isolated audience.” (Kirschke, 133). Locke certainly encountered the same problems.

The idealistic image of the New Negro was developed by Alain Locke. He wanted to show that how Blacks were regarded in society and how they viewed themselves, was the product of suppossed white social and intellectual primacy, as well as the Black’s willingness to bow to the concept they were pushed into. To shed that image of the Old Negro, who was accepting, it was necessary to strive towards becoming the New Negro. (Locke, 962) That meant to be educated, intellectual, self-determined and individualistic. At the same time however, it was necessary to accept ones historical backgrounds, both the African and the American one, and understand that one could not separate one from the other. (Locke, 254)

Looking at Locke biographical background it becomes clear that he had been growing up in a more sheltered and secure environement than the black majority had. Even though he as well was subjected to racial prejudices, had he had the time and the education to engage in

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