“This Volume Is Dedicated To The Younger Generation”
So reads the dedication of Alain Locke’s seminal anthology The New Negro: An Interpretation first published in December 1925. We hope that Locke would therefore have been pleased to discover that, 100 years later, as the Rhodes Trust and the Black Association of Rhodes Scholars celebrate the book's centenary, so many of the younger generation of Rhodes Scholars have contributed to the project. 17 Scholars have come together to record a series of readings from the book encompassing the essays, poetry, fiction, drama and music it contains.
Most people associated with the Rhodes Scholarship know the name and story of Alain LeRoy Locke (Pennsylvania & Hertford 1907): as the first Black Rhodes Scholar, he faced prejudice throughout his time at Oxford, not least from his fellow Rhodes Scholars. While other Black Scholars were selected as early as 1910, entrenched racism within and beyond the Rhodes community meant that no other African American Scholars were selected until 1963. Locke went on to become recognised as father of the Harlem Renaissance, with The New Negro providing the catalyst that inspired the movement. Howard University, where Locke was a professor, published its own tribute to Locke and The New Negro in September which provides an excellent introduction to cultural context in which the book was published.
