Born This Day -- Writer, Philosopher Alain Locke

Alain Locke was born on this day in 1885. Locke was an American writer, philosopher, educator, and patron of the arts. He was the first African-American Rhodes Scholar in 1907, and the acknowledged dean of the Harlem Renaissance.

Locke was gay, and may have encouraged and supported other gay African-Americans who were part of the Harlem Renaissance. However, he was not fully public in his orientation and referred to it as his point of "vulnerable/ invulnerability", taken to mean an area of risk and strength in his view.