Alain Locke, Whose Ashes Were Found In University Archives, Is Buried
GABRIELLE EMANUELAll Things Considered, NPR
Inside the cemetery, beneath the stained glass, the chapel is full. Mourners line the walls and spill out the door into the rainy day.
About 150 people are gathered for the funeral of a man who died 60 years ago.
Author and philosopher Alain Locke is widely known as the father of the Harlem Renaissance. He inspired Martin Luther King Jr., who praised him as an intellectual leader on par with Plato and Aristotle.
It wasn't until a researcher stumbled upon Locke's ashes in the Howard University Archives that a group of scholars decided it was time to bury him.
Standing before a simple silver urn in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., a group of college students sings spirituals. Locke was an early advocate of recognizing these African-American slave songs as a key part of America's musical history.
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