While competing with Langston Hughes for the title of "Poet Laureate of Harlem", Countee Cullen (1903-1946) crafted poems that became touchstones for American readers, both black and white. Inspired by classic themes and working within traditional fo...

Alain L. Locke (1886-1954), in his famous 1925 anthology "The New Negro", declared that "the pulse of the Negro world has begun to beat in Harlem". Often called the father of the Harlem Renaissance, Locke had his finger directly on that pulse, promot...