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Made for a pleasant surprise when I found out. Unfortunately, he died a few years afterward, so we never got much work from the new and improved Lovecraft.
I suspect that if Howard hadn't committed suicide, he would have also recanted his racism. There's bits in some of the Conan and Solomon Kane stories (and other works, but those some of his best-known stuff), which imply Howard had some progressive views, buried down deep and struggling to escape the cultural brainwashing of his era.
Kane had a LOT of it, actually, since half the Kane stories are set in Africa: Kane's ally N'Longa the voodoo man is cunning, clever, humane, and even saves the day a time or two when Solomon can't. (Hills of the Dead, Red Shadows) It's also worth noting that N'Longa only speaks pidgin English. When he's speaking his own language, he's extremely articulate. Goru's tribe in Wings of the Night are presented as basically decent people in a horrible situation. In Moon of Skulls, Howard comes right out and says that Nakari's blood-crazed subjects are not like any other black folk. ("These savages are not like the other natives of the region.") On a minor note, Kane steps up in The Footfalls Within to try and rescue a group of blacks from slavers.
For Conan, I'm not recalling nearly as much stuff as there was in Kane, but there are a few things: Conan's former pirate crew that he frees in Hour of the Dragon might count. Thoth-Amon from the Phoenix on the Sword is smarter than all the other conspirators put together, and manages to succeed in all of his goals. There's one really good line in The Scarlet Citadel (I think) that's stuck with me to this day: "To a black man, gold can never pay for blood!"
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