Lecture 3: The Negro’s Position in North American Culture

Abstract

Locke explores the current situation of Afrodescendant peoples in the national culture of the United States. This is the first part of Locke’s effort to give an accurate in-depth critical portrayal of African Americans in the United States. Locke goes to great lengths in discussing the various artistic achievements, innovations, and creations which African descendant people in the United States have contributed to that culture, and its reception by and within that larger national setting. Beyond artistic contributions in the areas of music, literature, dance, theater, and art, Locke is concerned to enumerate and contextualize the many developments in the realms of politics, economics, and civic organization which it has been the role of African Americans to contribute.