THE NEW NEGRO
In 1925, Alain Locke wrote The New Negro, in which he strived to establish that there was a renaissance going on, that society was changing, that the black man was being reborn. The old negro was the one who had been stolen from his homeland, the one who worked on a farm, baking in the sun all day, the slave, the one tied to the feudal order of white supremacy, the one who lived in the south. The New Negro was a completely different specimen. To Locke, the New Negro had been forming since the migration, which changed the way blacks viewed themselves and their future as Americans. The New Negro was urban, industrial, free from his enslaved past, more aggressive and assertive, but, most of all, proud. The New Negro lived in the north and west, where he was freer.
IMAGE CAPTIONS (top to bottom):
Aaron Douglas, Song of the towers, 1966, Oil on canvas. This painting depicts the black man's past as a slave, his migration north, and his artistic future, represented by a man holding a saxophone.
Harlemites parading for civil rights.
Aaron Douglas, Song of the towers, 1966, Oil on canvas. This painting depicts the black man's past as a slave, his migration north, and his artistic future, represented by a man holding a saxophone.
Harlemites parading for civil rights.