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The Making of African American Identity: Vol. III, 1917-1968
Alain Locke
ART OR
PROPAGANDA?
*
Harlem
, Vol. I, No. 1
November 1928
Artistically it is the one fundamental question for us
today, ⎯ Art or Propaganda. Which? Is this more the
generation of the prophet or that of the poet; shall our
intellectual and cultural leadership preach and exhort or
sing? I believe we are at that interesting moment when
the prophet becomes the poet and when prophecy
becomes the expressive song, the chant of fulfillment.
We have had too many Jeremiahs, major and minor; ⎯
and too much of the drab wilderness. 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. For it leaves and speaks under the shadow of a dominant majority whom it harangues, cajoles,
threatens or supplicates. It is too extroverted for balance or poise or inner dignity and self-respect. Art in
the best sense is rooted in self-expression and whether naive or sophisticated is self-contained. In our
spiritual growth genius and talent must more and more choose the role of group expression, or even at
times the role of free individualistic expression, ⎯ in a word must choose art and put aside propaganda.
Schomburg Center / New York Public Library
Alain Locke, portrait by Winold Reiss, 1925
The literature and art of the younger generation already reflects this shift of psychology, this
regeneration of spirit. David should be its patron saint: it should confront the Phillistines with its five
smooth pebbles fearlessly.1 There is more strength in a confident camp than in a threatened enemy. The
sense of inferiority must be innerly compensated, self-conviction must supplant self-justification and in
the dignity of this attitude a convinced minority must confront a condescending majority. Art cannot
completely accomplish this, but I believe it can lead the way.
Our espousal of art thus becomes no mere idle acceptance of “art for art’s sake,” or cultivation of the
last decadences of the over-civilized, but rather a deep realization of the fundamental purpose of art and
of its function as a tap root of vigorous, flourishing living. Not all of our younger writers are deep enough
in the sub-soil of their native materials ⎯ too many are pot-plants seeking a forced growth according to
the exotic tastes of a pampered and decadent public. It is the art of the people that needs to be cultivated,
not the art of the coteries. Propaganda itself is preferable to shallow, truckling imitation. Negro things
* National Humanities Center, 2007: nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/. Originally published in the first volume of the literary journal Harlem, November
1928. Reprinted in Nathan Irvin Huggins, ed., Voices of the Harlem Renaissance (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976/1994). Footnotes and
image added by NHC. Portrait of Locke by Winold Reiss in Alain Locke, ed., The New Negro: An Interpretation, 1925. Complete image credits at
nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/imagecredits.htm.
1 1 Samuel 17: Biblical account of King David’s victory over the Philistine warrior Goliath.
