ABSTRACT
I am grateful for the chance to participate in this symposium, dedicated to the memory of Alain LeRoy Locke. My acquaintance with Alain Locke dates back to his appearance at this university when, together with the other “Young Howards,” a gang of boys that infested the campus, I stood in awe of the dapper man with a cane who had been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. Young barbarians on the brink of an unknown world, we thrilled at those magic words and wondered how so much learning could be stored in so slight a frame. When years later I joined the faculty here, I was struck by his incisive and wide ranging mind and by his devotedness to the university; I soon learned how firm a respect he enjoyed from such peers as Kelly Miller, Ernest Just, Charles Burch, Abram Harris, and Ralph Bunche, all stalwarts who have now left us. I have collaborated with him on articles, I was one of his associates in the Bronze Booklet Series, and although our critical views did not always coincide, I have profited from his wise counsel. I should like here to salute him as benefactor, colleague, and friend.
