Person · 1889–1948
Claude McKay
The Jamaican-born poet and novelist whose "If We Must Die" became an anthem of Black resistance.
A militant voice of the [[harlem-renaissance]].
A militant early voice of the Renaissance, Claude McKay wrote the defiant sonnet "If We Must Die" during the 1919 Red Summer and the bestselling novel "Home to Harlem."
On the timeline
- July 1919Claude McKay's "If We Must Die"
Published amid the Red Summer's racial violence, McKay's defiant sonnet becomes a touchstone of Black resistance poetry.
- 1928Claude McKay's 'Home to Harlem' Becomes First Black Novel on Bestseller List
Claude McKay's novel 'Home to Harlem' (1928) became the first novel by a Black American author to reach the national bestseller list. The novel's frank portrayal of working-class Black Harlem, its jazz clubs, sexuality, and street life, established the legitimacy of gritty realism in Black fiction alongside the more genteel Harlem Renaissance tradition.