Transforming from a seemingly ignorant slave to an enlightened free Black man or woman required the process of self-actualization. From 1900 to 1940, Black writers emphasized the importance of African Americans realizing their innate potential, talents, and emotions. The late Nathan Huggins, a professor of African American Studies at Harvard University, revived the a**ociated term "New Negro" with, "modern...disa**ociating oneself from the symbols and legacy of slavery". This concept was circulated by authors of the Harlem Renaissance, such as Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Boise, to illustrate the new mindset amongst African Americans. The idea of self-actualization would commence with self-taught knowledge and cease with infinite possibilities.
1901 – The Ability of Knowledge
"I induced my mother to get hold of a book for me...she produced an old copy of Webster's 'blue black' spelling-book…for I could find no one to teach me...and I was too timid to approach the white people. In some way, within a few weeks, I mastered the greater portion of the alphabet."
-, 1901
1907 - The Ability of Pride
“I am the Smoke King, I am Black!
I am darkening with song, I am hearkening to wrong!
I will be black as blackness can-
The blacker the mantle, the mightier the man!
For blackness was ancient ere whitness began.
I am daubing God in night,
I am swabbing Hell in white”
-, 1907
1919 - The Ability of Vengeance
"Think you I am not fiend and savage too?
Think you I could not arm me with a gun
And shoot down ten of you for every one
Of my black brothers murdered, burnt by you?
Be not deceived, for every deed you do
I could match-out match"
-, 1919
1923 - The Ability of Identity
"The new Negro shall not be deceived. The new Negro refuses to take advice from anyone who has not felt with him, and suffered with him. We have suffered for three hundred years, therefore we feel that the time has come when only those who have suffered with us can interpret our feelings and our spirit."
-, 1923
1925 - The Ability of Dignity
"Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
say to me,
'Eat in the kitchen'
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed-
I, too, am America
-, 1925 ( confidence, identity)
1926 - The Ability of h*mos**uality
"To argue and read Wilde...Frued...Boccacio and Schnitzler...to attend Gurdjieff meetings and know things...Why did they scoff at him for knowing such people as Carl...Mencken...Toomer...Hughes...Cullen...was it because it seemed incongruous..."
-, 1926
1927 - The Ability of Exertion
“We shall not always plant while others reap
The golden increment of bursting fruit,
Not always countenance, abject and mute,
That lesser men should hold their brothers cheap;
Not everlasting while others sleep…
We were not made eternally to weep”
-, 1927
1934 - The Ability of Style
"The Negro is a very original being. While he lives and moves in the midst of a white civilization, everything that he touches is re-interpreted for his own use. He has modified the language, mode of food preparation, practice of medicine, and most certainly the religion of his new country..."
-, 1934