The New Negro

Readings on Race, Representation, and African American Culture, 1892-1938

Henry Louis Gates, Gene Andrew Jarrett, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Gene Andrew Jarrett

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780691126524, 9780691126517
• eBook ISBN: 9781400827879
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

When African American intellectuals announced the birth of the "New Negro" around the turn of the twentieth century, they were attempting through a bold act of renaming to change the way blacks were depicted and perceived in America. By challenging stereotypes of the Old Negro, and declaring that the New Negro was capable of high achievement, black writers tried to revolutionize how whites viewed blacks--and how blacks viewed themselves. Nothing less than a strategy to re-create the public face of "the race," the New Negro became a dominant figure of racial uplift between Reconstruction and World War II, as well as a central idea of the Harlem, or New Negro, Renaissance. Edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Gene Andrew Jarrett, The New Negro collects more than one hundred canonical and lesser-known essays published between 1892 and 1938 that examine the issues of race and representation in African American culture.

These readings--by writers including W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Alain Locke, Carl Van Vechten, Zora Neale Hurston, and Richard Wright--discuss the trope of the New Negro, and the milieu in which this figure existed, from almost every conceivable angle. Political essays are joined by essays on African American fiction, poetry, drama, music, painting, and sculpture. More than fascinating historical documents, these essays remain essential to the way African American identity and history are still understood today.

INDEX

Abderraham es Sadi: Tarik e Soudan, 316

abolitionism: black achievements in, 11; Chesnutt on, 174; DeArmond on, 332; and Du Bois, 74; and Fairbank, 41; and Garrison, 47–49; and Harper, 239; Locke on, 423; and Lovejoy, 51–52; Matthews on, 294; Schomburg on, 328. See also slavery

Abyssinia (musical show), 513

actors, 347, 350, 512, 524, 525. See also drama

Adams, Charles Francis, 105

Adams, E.C.L., 389; Congaree Sketches, 353; Nigger to Nigger, 353

Adams, John Henry, Jr., 12; “Rough Sketches: A Study of the Features of the New Negro Woman,” 66–67; “Rough Sketches: The New Negro Man,” 13, 67

Adams, John Quincy, 47

Adams, Wayman, 543

Aeschylus, 376, 452

Aesop, 121, 222, 304

Africa: Barnes on, 334, 335, 336; Botkin on, 467; Brawley on, 233; Bruce on, 410; Buermeyer on, 464; Davis on, 248; Du Bois on, 86, 300; Dunbar on, 447; Gaines on, 315–16; Garvey on, 93, 94; Gruening on, 241; Harrison on, 108, 109, 110; Johnson on, 347, 442; Krehbiel on, 461; Locke on, 114, 117, 118, 223, 524, 541; Matthews on, 297; McKay on, 144, 392–93; Moryck on, 324; and New Negro, 5; Park on, 312; Robinson on, 100; Rogers on, 492–93; Schomburg on, 329; Schuyler on, 149–51, 152, 153, 377; and spirituals, 16; Stewart on, 127; Work on, 456

African art, 17, 333, 334, 335, 368, 369, 537–41, 542, 545, 546–49, 551–54, 555

African Communities League of the World, 100

African Methodism, 328

African Methodist Episcopal Church, 35

African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 35

African music, 463

African Society of Boston, 300

Afro-American, 17

The Age of New York, 76, 77

Ahmen Baba, 315; El Ibitihadj, 316; Miraz, 316

aid societies, 280–81, 285

Alabama, 24, ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Gates and Jarrett: Introduction
• I. The New Negro
• II. How Should Art Portray the Negro?
• III. The Renaissance
• IV. Art or Propaganda?
• V. Literature: History and Theory
• VI. Literature: The Literary Profession and the Marketplace
• VII. Literature: Poetry
• VIII. Music: Spirituals
• IX. Music: Jazz
• X. Theater
• XI. The Fine Arts
• Bibliography of Primary Sources
• Suggested Futher Reading
• Index