In 1925, while heading the Department of Philosophy at Howard University, Locke edited a compendium of African American art, poetry, social essays, and historical commentary, titled The New Negro. Contributed by many notable African Americans including writers Jean Toomer and Zora Neal Hurston; poets Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, and Langston Hughes; and civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson. Locke sought to create new racial pride, self-expression, and literary discourse.