Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Alain Locke was an author and educator. He began his higher education at the Philadelphia School of Pedagogy in 1902. He attended Harvard from 1904 to 1907 and then traveled to Oxford as the first African-American Rhodes scholar. He received his M.A. in 1917 and a year later was awarded a Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard. Locke served as a professor of philosophy and education at Howard University from 1916 to 1925. He edited the Survey Graphic in Harlem from 1925 to 1939 and was at the forefront of the Harlem Renaissance. He believed race was a socially formed identity, and his effort to redefine the “new negro” was controversial.

Source:
Harris, Leonard. “Locke, Alain LeRoy.” American National Biography Online. February 2000. http://www.anb.org/articles/20/20-00599.html. 28 March, 2005.

 Who’s Who in Colored America . Ed. Thomas Yenser. 5 th ed. Thomas Yenser: New York, 1940. pg. 334.