Alain LeRoy Locke | |
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Born | Arthur Leroy Locke[1] September 13, 1885 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Died | June 9, 1954 New York City, New York, U.S. | (aged 68)
Resting place | Congressional Cemetery |
Occupation | Writer, philosopher, educator, and patron of the arts |
Language | English |
Education | Harvard University Hertford College, Oxford University of Berlin |
Official name | Alain Leroy Locke (1886–1954) |
Type | City |
Criteria | African American, Education, Professions & Vocations, Writers |
Designated | 1991 |
Location | 2221 S 5th St., Philadelphia 39°55′14″N 75°09′20″W / 39.92065°N 75.15545°W |
Alain LeRoy Locke (September 13, 1885 – June 9, 1954) was an American writer, philosopher, and educator. Distinguished in 1907 as the first African-American Rhodes Scholar, Locke became known as the philosophical architect—the acknowledged "Dean"—of the Harlem Renaissance.[2] He is frequently included in listings of influential African Americans. On March 19, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed: "We're going to let our children know that the only philosophers that lived were not Plato and Aristotle, but W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke came through the universe."[3]