light enough for dark and doubt...". The marriage of Lady Liberty standing in the Harbour of New York with her lighted torch, bares the cries and hope of many a stranger or sojourner casting their gaze on a Dream that is just beyond their grasp.

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/ma ps/poets/a_f/cullen/life.htm>

Clifton H. Johnson

2000 American Council of Learned Societies

Lady liberties dream did not go unnoticed by writer , Alain LeRoy Locke, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Locke entered Harvard in 1904 and graduated in 1907 with a distinguished academic record (magna cum laude), and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Locke's connection with the Renaissance centered around a couple of areas during the roaring twenties. He was involved with the visual arts, literature, as well as theatre. His association with the Howard university Players and collaboration with Montgomery Gregory resulted in a drama anthology called "Plays of Negro Life". Locke was an encouragement to young black writers, scholars and artists of the New Negro Movement by mentoring many of them. Most importantly he was head of the Department of Philosophy at Howard University, a title of no easy feat for those familiar with Venn diagrams. Locke applied his learning to help bring about ethical ideas that enhanced a higher sense of group and social cohesiveness. Locke felt that his work could lead to liberation and a transformation of artist and attitudes of other human beings. Hence, an anthology was published called "The New Negro". It ideas are sometimes referred to as the manifesto of the New Negro. Most importantly Locke believed that the American Blackman could only change by freeing himself form the fictions of the past through rediscovery of himself.

< http://www.dclibrary.org/blkre n/bios/lockea.html>

Alain LeRoy Locke June 20, 2003 George-McKinley Martin

Langston Hughes did not believe change was in the best interest of the Blackman. James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. He was from a divorced family in which he lived with his grandmother till he was thirteen. He then went to Lincoln, Illinois and Cleveland, Ohio with his mother. He first began to write poetry in Lincoln, then following graduation, he spent a year in Mexico and a year at Columbia University. He held various jobs such as busboy, assistant cook, launderer, and seaman while traveling through Africa and Europe. He wrote novels, short stories and plays,

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