The Harlem Renaissance: Some Major Figures

Alain Locke

The first African American Rhodes Scholar, a graduate of Harvard University, and one of the major anthologists of the Harlem Renaissance, Alain Locke edited and published The New Negro in 1925. This anthology, which reflects the social and political contexts of the Harlem Renaissance, also distills the spirit and varied talents of Harlem Renaissance poets, dramatists, essayists, and short story writers. Considered one of the preeminent texts of its time, The New Negro conceived of black America as linked not only to other African-based cultural movements around the world but also to other movements, such as the Irish or Czech, that fused ethnic pride or nationalism with a desire for a fresh achievement and independence in art, culture, and politics" (Gates 957).

Charlotte Osgood Mason

Charlotte Osgood Mason was one of many white patrons who subsidized the careers of such artists as Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Alain Locke. Considered a "woman of volatile temperament and sometimes arresting ideas," Mason frequently insisted that her beneficiaries addressed her as "Godmother."

Carl Van Vechten

Carl Van Vechten was another principle--and highly visible--patron of the Harlem Renaissance. Initially a music critic and essayist, Van Vechten became closely associated with many of the African American writers who emerged from the Renaissance, including Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman, and later, Richard Wright. During and well after the Harlem Renaissance reached its peak, Van Vechten took up photography of many of the most notable figures of that time and later. His personal papers are held at the Beinecke Library at Yale, where a collection of over 1800 Kodachrome slides of his photographs is held and featured at this, Library of Congress site.

Jessie Fauset

Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Cornell University, Jessie Fauset published four novels--including her most acclaimed, There is Confusion before becoming the literary editor of the NAACP's The Crisis magazine from 1919-1926.

Arthur Schomburg

Of Puerto Rican and German descent, Arthur Schomberg was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico in 1874. While in primary school, a teacher claimed that African Americans had 'no history.' Schomburg set out to prove her wrong. He devoted most of his adult life to archiving, recording black history that included slave narratives, literature and art, that now comprises the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the Harlem branch of the New York Public Library (1).

W.E.B. Dubois

photo from this site.

Considered the "Father of the Harlem Renaissance," William Burqhardt Dubois was a scholar, philosopher, journalist, and educator whose groundbreaking publication, The Souls of Black Folk offered an unprecedented look at the particularized struggles of African Americans in the 20th century. Co-founder of the NAACP and editor of its literary arm, The Crisis, Dubois helped to spearhead the careers of such writers and poets as Countee Cullen and Sterling A. Brown, while he examined the nature of "Double Consciousness," "The Veil," and encouraged African Americans to think of themselves as belonging to a global community.