ABSTRACT
The extensive migrations from the South, quickened by the devastations of the boll-weevil, the growing resentment at injustice, and the demand of northern industries; the advance of the Negro in labor, wealth, and education; the World War with its new experiences in camp and battle; the Garvey movement with its exploitation of “race”, all of these contributed to the growth of the “New Negro.” In 1935, Alain Locke, editor of The New Negro wrote:
The intelligent Negro of today is resolved not to make discrimination an extenuation for his shortcomings in performance, individual or collective; he is trying to hold himself at par, neither inflated by sentimental allowances nor depreciated by current social discounts. For this he must know himself and be known for precisely what he is, and for that reason he welcomes the new scientific rather than the old sentimental interest …. Now we rejoice and pray to be delivered both from self pity and condescension.
