Alain Locke

"Our poets no longer have the hard choice between an over-assertive and an appealing attitude. By the same effort they have shaken themselves free from the minstrel tradition and the fowling-nets of dialect, and through acquiring ease and simplicity in serious expression, have carried the folk-gift to the altitudes of art. There they seek and find art's intrinsic values and satisfactions—and if America were deaf, they would still sing.

But America listens—perhaps in curiosity at first; later, we may be sure, in understanding. But—a moment of patience. The generation now in the artistic vanguard inherits the fine and dearly bought achievement of another generation of creative workmen who have been pioneers and path-breakers in the cultural development and recognition of the Negro in the arts. Though still in their prime, as veterans of a hard struggle, they must have the praise and gratitude that is due them."

published in the book The New Negro, ed. Henry Louis Gates, Gene Andrew Jarrett. doi

partially translated in 동광 - 미국 니그로 시인 연구 by 한흑구, which appeared in 동광 vol. 30 (1932/01) accessed 2022/10/31, from db.history.go.kr