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This book is a critical edition of six lectures by Alain Leroy Locke, the intellectual progenitor of the Harlem Renaissance. In them, Locke offers an Inter-American philosophical account of important contributions made by Afrodescendant peoples to the art, literature, and culture of various American societies. Locke offers a prescient vision of the intersection of the three Americas: Latin (South) America, the Caribbean, and North America. The book has two main parts: First, are the lectures, which all relate to the themes of black cultural contributions throughout the Americas, minority representation and marginalization in democratic contexts, the ethics of racial representation, the notion of cultural transformation and transparency, and the ethical issues involved in cross-cultural exchanges. The second portion of the book is a critical interpretive essay that elucidates the Inter-American philosophical significance of the lectures and their relevance to current philosophical discussions.
List of contents
Introduction
PART I. The Negro's Contribution to the Culture of the Americas
Lecture 1. Race, Culture, and Democracy Lecture 2. The African Heritage and Its Cultural Significance Lecture 3. The Negro's Position in North American Culture Lecture 4.The Negro's Sociological Position in the United States Lecture 5. Negro Achievement in the United States Lecture 6. The Negro in the Three Americas
PART II. "Like Rum in the Punch": The Quest for Cultural Democracy
I. Critical Pragmatism II. Three Inter-American Frameworks: Slavery, Race, and Democracy A. An Inter-American Philosophy of Slavery B. An Inter-American Philosophy of Race C. An Inter-American Philosophy of Democracy D. The Future Prospects of Inter-American Philosophy III. African American Contributions in the Americas: Race, Culture, Art and Literature A. Locke's Conception of Race B. The Concept of Ethnic Race C. Imperialism and Political Conceptions of Race D. Locke's Conception of Culture E. Afrodescendant Peoples Cultural Contributions to Art and Literature F. Racial Cultural Contributions: Understanding the Place of Afrodescendant Peoples in the Americas' Cultures IV. Democracy's Unfinished Business V. Conclusion
About the author
Jacoby Adeshei Carter is Associate Professor of Philosophy at City University of New York, John Jay College, USA. His research interests include Africana philosophy, social and political philosophy, and philosophy of race and pragmatism, especially the philosophy of Alain Locke. He is Director of the Alain Leroy Locke Society and Co-editor of the
African American Philosophy and the African Diaspora series published by Palgrave Macmillan.
