Download Art vs. Propaganda: The 1920s Debate between Alain Locke and

Art vs. Propaganda:
The 1920s Debate between Alain Locke and W.E.B DuBois
Monnel Cremin
ED 608
Final Essay
October 21, 2010
Throughout the history of mankind, there have been people who have been oppressed,
abused and enslaved. My suggestion is that you start with the United States with the second part
of your second sentence. The enslavement of the African people was never solely the crime of
the United States; however, America was responsible for continuing the degradation and
oppression of African Americans long after slavery was abolished. (citation). By the early
1900’s, African Americans began making a more coordinated effort to break through the walls of
racism. By 1920, the Great Migration was well under way; African Americans were leaving the
South to head to the cities in the North and West. They were looking for work, a better life and
social acceptance. This migration became the catalyst for a cultural movement that would later
be called the Harlem Renaissance. It was characterized by a “dramatic upsurge of creativity in
literature, music, and art within black America that reached its zenith in the second half of the
1920s.” (Rampersad, 1992, p. ix) The Harlem Renaissance was also a time of social change
because racial stereotypes were challenged by the artistic accomplishments of the latest
generation of African Americans. There were many writers and artists who were well known for
their contributions at this time, but two stood out due to their debate over how to promote the
“New Negro” that became the focal point of the Harlem Renaissance(Locke, 1925, p.3). Alain
Locke and W.E.B. DuBois both agreed that art was pivotal in defining a new image of African
Americans, but they disagreed on how this message should be delivered to the public. Locke
was an idealist who believed that art should be produced freely while DuBois felt that the art
should be used as propaganda. There was a very fine, almost invisible line separating their
argument.
context.
Clear argument informed by the primary sources and grounded in the historical
Reversing the negative images of African Americans was no simple, straight-forward
task. Throughout the last third of the 19th century, Currier and Ives’ Darktown series and
Harpers Weekly Blackville series portrayed African Americans as comical figures who were
dimwitted and physically distorted. (citation)By the 1920s, and particularly after World War I,
thousands of African Americans were migrating to cities in the north and west looking for work.
With the rapid increase of the African American population in these cities, the need had arisen
for a new physical, mental and social image of African Americans. Both Locke and DuBois
agreed that this could be accomplished through the arts: music, literature, painting, sculpting,
drawing, theater, film and photography. This attempt to use the arts to change public opinion
about African Americans could roughly have been defined as propaganda. Locke refused to
consider using art in this way while DuBois embraced it.
DuBois had been trying to use art to sway public opinion even before the Harlem
Renaissance movement. His work for the Exhibit of American Negros at the Paris Exposition in
1900 was an opportunity to display positive sympathetic? photographs of African Americans,
DuBois argued that the exhibit featured, “several volumes of photographs of typical Negro faces,
which hardly square with conventional American ideas” (DuBois, 1900, p. 577). The exhibit
was an important endeavor because it demonstrated that some African Americans rose above
hard times and lead productive lives. The reality of lynchings and other racial injustices were
purposefully left out. DuBois wanted to replace negative images with pictures that depicted
scenes that Europeans would be able to assimilate with their own lives. According to DuBois,
the exhibit would “set the great white world straight about black people” (Lewis, 2003, p. 33).
Alain Locke emerged as a pivotal figure of the Harlem Renaisssance when he edited the
March 1925 edition of The Survey Graphic. (one sentence description of the journal and its
audience here) Locke was very particular about what artwork would accompany the articles in
The Survey Graphic. He used several illustrations by Winold Reiss, a German-born artist,
because he admired the honest and realistic portraits that Reiss produced. Reiss didn’t shy away
from depicting African Americans with non-European facial features and darker skin tones
which many artists and photographers had avoided before. Locke wasn’t choosing art in order to
make connections to the white population. Instead, he wanted to jar the white and black
population into acknowledging and appreciating the differences. This was a new and radical
approach and as a result Locke drew criticism for his choices. His critics felt that his selections
were controversial and could be viewed as a form of propaganda. (citation) They saw the
artwork Locke used in the journal as a promotion of African American culture which, by their?
definition, was considered to be propaganda.
Locke reacted almost immediately. In the May 1925 issue of Opportunity, (describe the
sponsor of this journal) Locke wrote an essay entitled “To Certain of Our Philistines.” He wrote
this essay as a direct response to his critics and addressed his position regarding art and
propaganda, “Art must discover and reveal the beauty which prejudice and caricature have
obscured and overlaid. Finally it must reinforce our art with the dignity of race pride and the
truly cultural judgment of art in terms of technical and not sentimental values.” (Locke, 1925, p.
162) When it came to art, Locke was a purist. He believed in the power and beauty of art to
overcome racial stereotypes by merely existing. “Too many of us still look to art to compensate
the attitudes of prejudice, rather than merely, as is proper, to ignore them.” (Locke, 1925, p.
161) He wanted African Americans to be revaluated through the arts, but he didn’t see this as
propaganda. However, his distinction between what and what? was minimal. In what way?
The emergence and recognition of these up and coming artists was seen by DuBois as an
opportunity to combat racial stereotypes. In the October 1926 issue of The Crisis,( a publication
of the ….) DuBois wrote an essay entitled “Criteria of Negro Art” which blatantly disagreed
with Locke’s interpretation of propaganda. DuBois stated, “Thus all art is propaganda and ever
must be, despite the wailing of the purists. I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever
art I have for writing has been used always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to
love and enjoy. I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda. But I do care
when propaganda is confined to one side while the other is stripped and silent.” (DuBois, 1926,
p. 42) DuBois couldn’t understand the reasoning behind not using art in this way. To him,
Locke’s approach was too subtle; DuBois refused to take the risk of the message being ignored
or misunderstood. DuBois did not want to wait and see if the populace would someday
understand the meaning of these works of art, he wanted to use it openly as propaganda in order
to make sure that it replaced the racial stereotypes that had endured for so long.
The idea of art being linked to propaganda was an ongoing battle for Locke. He wrote
another essay entitled “Art or Propaganda?” that appeared in the November 1928 issue of
Harlem, a journal sponsored by?. Early in the article, Locke openly stated why he was so
opposed to propaganda, “My chief objection to propaganda, apart from its besetting sin of
monotony and disproportion, is that it perpetuates the position of group inferiority even in crying
out against it.” (Locke, 1928, p.49) Locke believed that the appreciation of art should exist on a
higher plane. He understood that this wasn’t always possible; that this was an ideal that was
difficult to aspire to. Even though Locke disapproved of art being used this way, he did concede
that propaganda helped the social cause of African Americans. In the same essay, he wrote,
“Propaganda at least nurtured some form of serious social discussion, and social discussion was
necessary, is still necessary.” (Locke, 1928, p. 50) For him to have made this statement in the
same essay, where he had so vehemently criticized the use of propaganda, demonstrated how
blurry the line between art and propaganda had become, even for Locke. Clear support for the
argument you made in the beginning.
W.E.B. DuBois and Alain Locke, despite their many arguments and debates, had a
common goal. Both men wanted to replace the racial stereotypes of the African American that
existed in the early 1900’s. They seemed to agree that African Americans should be recognized
through works of art and literature; however, they disagreed on how this should be
accomplished. What followed was a heated discussion through essays. Their public
disagreement brought about a revaluation of how African Americans should be portrayed just as
much as the art itself. Was there a winner in the debate? (I’m not sure you could answer this
question without looking at how readers of these journals responded to the articles. Perhaps you
should just reiterate what you have already argued. DuBois was for propaganda and that was
always clearly stated. Locke was against propaganda, but at the same time pushed for the
recognition of a new image of African Americans through art which could have been, according
to his critics’ definition, a form of propaganda.
You have a very strong essay here. You used the primary sources (and even tracked down
additional ones) to build your argument about the subtle differences in the debate about art as
propaganda. You also used the secondary sources to ground your argument in the historical
context. If you don’t mind doing one more revision, based on the minor changes I suggested
here, I would appreciate it because I would like to use this as an example for future students. I
plan to give everyone a holistic grade for the essay and the question and argument process
leading up to it. I will get that out to you soon. For now see my attached assessment of the
essay based on the rubric we used in class.
Bibliography
Primary Sources:
DuBois, W.E.B. “The American Negro at Paris.” The American Monthly Review of Reviews,
vol. XXII, no. 5 (November, 1900): 575-577.
Ervin, Hazel Arnett. African American Literary Criticism 1773 to 2000. Twayne Publishers,
1999.
(a) DuBois, W.E.B. “Criteria of Negro Art.” The Crisis (October 1926): 39-43.
(b) Locke, Alain. “Art or Propaganda?” Harlem (November 1928): 49-50.
Locke, Alain. The New Negro Voices of the Harlem Renaissance. Albert & Charles Boni, Inc,
1925.
Stewart, Jeffrey C. The Critical Temper of Alain Locke: A Selection of His Essays on Art and
Culture. Garland Publishing Inc, 1984.
(a) Locke, Alain. “To Certain of Our Philistines.” Opportunity (May 1925): 161-162.
Secondary Sources:
Lewis, David L. and Deborah Willis. A Small Nation of People: W.E.B DuBois and African
American Portraits of Progress. Harper Paperbacks, 2005.
Nadell, Martha Jane. Enter the New Negroes: Images of Race in American Culture. Harvard
University Press, 2004.
Rampersad, Arnold. The New Negro Voices of the Harlem Renaissance. Macmillan Publishing
Company, 1992. (Introduction)