An inspiration to Langston Hughes, Claude McKay was at the forefront of the Harlem Renaissance with poetry and novels that gave an honest depiction of the Black experience in America.
Claude McKay Biography
Claude McKay was born Festus Claudius McKay in 1889 in Sunnyville, Jamaica. His parents, Thomas Francis and Hannah Ann Elizabeth, were peasant farmers but rather well off. They instilled in McKay a sense of pride in his African heritage. During McKay's childhood, he developed an interest in poetry under the tutelage of his brother and schoolteacher, Urian Theophilus, and his English neighbor, Walter Jekyll.
Fig. 1 - Claude McKay
Claude McKay was particularly interested in the British greats such as John Milton and Alexander Pope, but Jekyll encouraged him to find his own voice and to use a Jamaican dialect. In 1906, McKay left Sunnyville for work. He apprenticed as a woodworker in Brown’s Town before traveling to the capital, Kingston, to become a constable. Throughout it all, he was writing poetry inspired by his experiences.
Once again finding encouragement from Jekyll, Claude McKay published his first two poetry collections in 1912. Songs of Jamaica painted an idyllic picture of peasant life. Constab Ballads, on the other hand, looked at the oppression of black Jamaicans. Together, they explored the duality of the black experience in Jamaica. For Songs of Jamaica, McKay won an award and grant from the Jamaican Institute of Arts and Sciences.
Show you de place where I was born,
Of which I am so proud,
'Mongst de banana-field an' corn
On a lone mountain-road.”
- Claude McKay, “My Mountain Home,” 19121
Claude McKay Biography: Time in America
Claude McKay used the money he received to finance a one-way journey to the United States. Stopping in South Carolina for a short time, he made his way to Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Finding he did not like it there, he attended Kansas State college for a bit before leaving school altogether for New York City in 1914.
The same year he moved to New York City, Claude McKay married his childhood sweetheart, Eulalie Imelda Lewars. They had one daughter together, but the marriage didn’t last long, and he had no interest in being a part of his daughter’s life. Instead, he worked menial jobs to support himself while doubling down on his writing career.
In 1917, Claude McKay had two poems published in a periodical and began writing poems for Pearson’s Magazine. During this time, he wrote “To the White Fiends,” a popular poem that addressed and challenged white oppressors. He drew the attention of Max Eastman; an editor of Liberator magazine and they formed a friendship. It was in Liberator magazine that McKay published his arguably most popular poem, “If We Must Die.”
Fig. 2 - Max Eastman
Claude McKay Biography: The 20s and the Harlem Renaissance
In 1919, Claude McKay left the United States for a two-year stint in Europe, where he lived in London for a period of time. In 1920, he published his third poetry collection, Spring in New Hampshire. Once back in the United States in 1921, he settled in Harlem where he began work on Harlem Shadows, a poetry collection made up of past works from previous volumes, magazines, and periodicals. Published in 1922, it solidified his position as a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
The Harlem Renaissance
a cultural movement based in Harlem in the 1920s that celebrated black culture, art, music, and literature
During the 1920s, Claude McKay became involved with the Universal Negro Improvement Association and wrote for its publication, Negro World. He also visited the Soviet Union to attend the International Communist Party’s Fourth Congress. (More on McKay’s interest in communism later.)
Claude McKay Biography: Tour of Europe and North Africa
In the late 1920s, Claude McKay moved to Paris where he worked as an artist’s model to support himself. While there, he rubbed shoulders with the likes of political activist, Upton Sinclair, and poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay. Unfortunately, while there, he also fell severely ill with a respiratory infection.
Once Claude McKay recovered, he set upon a decade-long tour of Europe and North Africa. During this time, he published his three novels:
He also published a short story collection, Gingertown, in 1932 before returning home to the United States in 1934.
Claude McKay Biography: Later Life
In 1937, Claude McKay published his biography, A Long Way Home. By the late 1930s, McKay had developed an interest in Catholicism and became involved with Harlem’s Friendship House. These experiences inspired his essay collection, Harlem: Negro Metropolis, published in 1940, the same year he became a U.S. citizen.
Some historians question the authenticity of A Long Way Home. For example, McKay denies any connection to communism despite clear evidence to the contrary.
In the early 1940s, Claude McKay left New York City for Chicago to work as a teacher for a Catholic organization. Unfortunately, by the mid-1940s, his health was rapidly declining. He battled several illnesses before dying of heart failure in 1948.
Claude McKay Poems and Quotes
Claude McKay covered a variety of themes, but placed an emphasis on the black experience of oppression in America and elsewhere (e.g., Jamaica). We’re going to take a look at two of his popular, earlier poems that we mentioned above.
First, let’s take a look at “To the White Fiends”:
Think you I am not fiend and savage too?
Think you I could not arm me with a gun
And shoot down ten of you for every one
Of my black brothers murdered, burnt by you?
Be not deceived, for every deed you do
I could match – out-match: am I not Africa's son,”
- Claude McKay, “To the White Fiends,” 19182
Here, Claude McKay directly addressed white oppressors and threatened retaliation for their horrific treatment of African Americans in a militant call for civil rights.
The next poem, “If We Must Die,” once again addresses the oppression of African Americans:
“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!”
- Claude McKay, “If We Must Die,” 19193
Although McKay wrote “If We Must Die” specifically about the plight of African Americans, oppressed people of all backgrounds felt the sentiment of the poem and rallied behind it.
Claude McKay: Home to Harlem
Home to Harlem was not only Claude McKay’s most successful novel but the most successful book written by an African American of the time. While Home to Harlem deals with issues of oppression like most of McKay’s works, it also emphasizes Black pride and gives a look into the lives of ordinary, working-class Black people in Harlem.
'It's the same life, even ef they drink champagne and we drink gin.'" - Claude McKay, Home to Harlem, 19284
Claude McKay and Communism
In the 1920s, Claude McKay developed an interest in communism, seeing it as a way to achieve equality for all. As we discussed earlier, he even attended the International Community Party’s Fourth Congress during one of his trips to the Soviet Union. It was not until the late 1930s that he began to distance himself from communism. And, of course, in his autobiography, he vehemently denied any association with communism to throw followers of McCarthyism off his back.
Claude McKay's Impact on Society
Claude McKay was among the older writers of the Harlem Renaissance and greatly influenced the younger writers of the movement, such as Langston Hughes. He encouraged them to highlight their own unique experiences as Black men and women in America. Today, he is among the most notable writers of the Harlem Renaissance with his unique perspective as a Jamaican immigrant.
Fig. 3 - Langston Hughes
Claude Mckay- Key Takeaways
- Claude McKay was born in Jamaica in 1889 to well-off peasant farmers who instilled in him a sense of pride in his African heritage. He developed an interest in poetry, particularly the British greats, under the tutelage of his brother and English neighbor.
- After leaving his hometown for work, he published his first two poem collections, Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads, based on his experiences.
- In 1914, he left Jamaica to settle in the United States where he briefly attended the Tuskegee Institute and Kansas State College before moving to New York City.
- Once in New York City, he published poems in various periodicals and magazines. After a brief stint in Europe and the publication of his third poetry collection, Spring in New Hampshire, McKay returned to Harlem where he became involved with the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
- After visiting Paris in the mid-1920s, McKay set upon a tour of Europe and North Africa, during which he published his most popular novel, Home to Harlem.
- Upon his return to the United States, he developed an interest in Catholicism and began work with Harlem's Friendship House before traveling to Chicago to work as a teacher for a Catholic organization until his death in 1948.
- Today, we remember McKay for his key role in the Harlem Renaissance and his influence on the younger writers of the movement.
References
- Claude McKay, Songs of Jamaica (1912)
- Claude McKay, 'To the White Fiends', Pearson's Magazine (September 1918)
- Claude McKay, 'If We Must Die', The Liberator (July 1919)
- Claude McKay, Home to Harlem (1928)
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