Claude McKay

Claude McKay (1889-1948) was a writer and poet, originally from Jamaica. In his early life, McKay was a communist, but decided being a communist was too confining after visiting the Soviet Union. McKay published his first book of poems called Songs of Jamaica in 1912, with the help of Walter Jekyll. Shortly after the publication of the second volume, Constab Ballads, McKay left for the United States and was shocked by the racism he faced in Charleston, South Carolina. Disgusted by the "semi-military, machine like existence there", he transferred to Kansas State University and sparked his interest in political involvement. McKay came to be involved in the Harlem Renaissance and wrote three books entitled Home to Harlem, which won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature, Banjo, and Banana Bottom. Harlem Shadows, a book of poetry, was one of the first books published during the Harlem Renaissance.

If we must die, let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursed lot.

If we must die, O let us nobly die,

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

O kinsmen we must meet the common foe!

Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!

What though before us lies the open grave?

Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,

Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

This poem by McKay called If We Must Die was a response to the white assaults on black neighborhoods in 1919. McKay encourages those on the receiving end of the assaults to fight back and to not immediately give in.

If We Must Die embodies the Harlem Renaissance by writing of the racial violence that was prevalent in that time. McKay urges for a strong sense of pride in the face of that violence.