Alain Locke (1885–1954) was a professor of philosophy at Howard University in the first half of the twentieth century and an expert on African American culture and art. A convert to the Baha’i faith, which teaches that all races and religions are interconnected, Locke became well known in African American intellectual circles as a believer in the inherent equality of all people. He was one of the leading figures in the Harlem Renaissance, the term given to the flourishing of African American culture in the 1920s and 1930s, much of it centered in the Harlem district of Manhattan in New York City—and, in fact, he is often referred to as the Father of the Harlem Renaissance. His passion and profound intellect contributed significantly to the vitality of the movement, and he was accorded status as the Harlem Renaissance’s philosophical analyst.