MECCA OF THE NEW NEGRO is a chronicle of an art

expression of the period beginning in the early 1900's, now distant enough in time to be considered in its time perspective of historical art. This period of early Negro history that is furnished through chronicled articles and pictorials, is a fruitful field of study of the early Negro.

Objectively and introspectively, this book is offered as the light to see the architecture of the art of the economic and social accomplishments of the early Negro during this period. Time has always lagged noticeably of the Negro behind this interest shown of others.

This non-traditional approach is designed to encourage the reader to turn each page which

captures the rich life, times and events of the new Negro that is contained in the articles and pictorials of the history of Black Commerce, Birth of Jazz and Negro Social Culture. Two distinct dominant threads of influence that permeates the culture of People of Color (1) the secular which includes commerce and social entertainment, (2) the sacred early religious life which evolved at the bottom of the Missouri River, is visible in this art expression.

The dominant emphasis on education of the early Negro appears in both the secular and the sacred which gave birth to the genesis of Negro education in Kansas City, in the early history of Lincoln and R.T. Coles Schools.

This ornamental expression through the design and arrangement of the actual facts is based on historical data that needs to be explored and interpreted by the present and preserved for the future of those who seek to understand the Negro's existence of the past. The aim of the author is to increase the awareness of the early Negro's creativity and imbue a new sense of identity in the present day appreciation of a broader understanding of the early Negro beginning and its stylistic expression here in Kansas City.

Mecca of the New Negro is a book that is chronicled by actual historical findings in the Negro community of Kansas City, through newspapers, posters, print advertisements, commentaries, social announcements, Church beginnings and Jazz billings that offered first hand accounts of current events. At one time, competition for the news was between the Negro Press, therefore information that was journaled was of the highest quality and spurred on by competitive necessity.

Mecca of the New Negro is a book that speaks in the language of the day the news was given, and it will give the reader more than just a feel for the era they are studying, but in many instances, first hand knowledge of the people, places and things that actually occurred during the Negro experience in Kansas City, the Paris Plains of the West.