Download An Arguement for Claude McKay`s Significance in

David Arteaga 1
Spokesman for the Oppressed:
An Argument for Claude McKay’s Significance in the Harlem Renaissance
The term “Harlem Renaissance” is somewhat anomalous. Harlem refers to the
predominantly African-American neighborhood within the borough of Manhattan. Renaissance,
according to its French roots, means “rebirth” of art and literature.1 Via word-by-word analysis,
Harlem Renaissance strictly means a cultural rebirth in Harlem. Nonetheless, it is difficult to
separate this cultural movement from its socio-political aspects. It is thus fitting that Claude
McKay heavily participated in the Harlem Renaissance, for his character encompasses
multidimensional artistic and political facets as well. This essay examines Claude McKay and his
complex relationship with the Harlem Renaissance. In fact, this essay seeks to argue that Claude
McKay became a prominent leader in the Harlem Renaissance through his publication of Harlem
Shadows because the novel successfully expresses the voice of African Americans during the
1920s.
The Harlem Renaissance began in 1920. Because northern factories lacked the workforce
needed to meet the industrial demands of World War I, many African Americans in the South
migrated north in search of work. With this influx of African Americans, northern cities
experienced the creation of a “new cultural landscape,” a landscape in which African American
writers, artists, musicians, and intellectuals were introducing works to previously whitedominated cultures.2 Although the creation of a new cultural landscape occurred nationwide, the
Harlem Renaissance derives its name from the neighborhood of Harlem in the borough of
Manhattan, New York City. It was to this neighborhood, in particular, that many African
American artists and intellectuals moved. Well-known African American artists who lived in
Harlem during the 1920’s include but are not limited to: Paul Robeson, Count Basie, Langston
Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Augusta Savage. The goal of these African Americans and other
David Arteaga 2
participants in the Harlem Renaissance was “to find outlets for group expression and selfdetermination as a means of achieving equality and civil rights” (History.com Staff). In other
words, the Harlem Renaissance was a means by which African Americans established a national
black identity through various forms of artistic self-expression — dance, poetry, literature,
music, theater, and the arts. Although the Harlem Renaissance was short-lived, coming to an end
at the start of the Great Depression in 1929, it established a stepping ground for a new era of
American politics.
Claude McKay’s history with the Harlem Renaissance is complex. Let us examine the
trajectory of his life step-wise, for this knowledge is critical in order to analyze McKay’s role
and significance in the movement. Claude McKay was born in Jamaica on September 15, 1889.
According to Max Eastman, McKay was raised by a “wise and beautiful mother” and lived an
early, “happy tropic life of play and affection” (McKay and Eastman xi). As McKay grew older,
however, he became attracted to America, “a new land to which all people who had youth and a
youthful mind turned” (quoted in Cooper 298). Thus in 1912, at the age of 23, McKay moved to
the United States with plans to learn scientific farming. McKay’s agriculture studies lasted only
two years, however. At first, McKay studied at the Alabama Tuskegee Institute, but strong
southern racial prejudice influenced his transferring to Kansas State College. In 1914, McKay
left Kansas State College, for he wished to pursue a literary career in New York City. McKay
landed in Harlem where he worked job-to-job as a porter, janitor, and waiter in order to pay for
his living. After his publication of “The Harlem Dancer” and “Invocation,” McKay gained
national publicity. This recognition afforded his meeting Max Eastman, editor of The Liberator,
an American Marxist magazine. Thanks to Eastman, McKay not only worked for The Liberator
but also began to identity with the bohemian radicals of Greenwich Village. This work with The
David Arteaga 3
Liberator afforded McKay a new life of luxury.4 In 1919, he travelled to England to write for
Sylvia Pankhurst’s socialist paper The Workers’ Dreadnought. In 1921, McKay returned to
Harlem and briefly worked as co-editor of The Liberator. During this period, McKay published
Harlem Shadows and befriended leading African American intellectuals James W. Johnson and
W. E. B. Dubois. At the end of 1922, McKay travelled to Russia, where he was very popular
amongst the political and literary elite.4 In fact, McKay met Trotsky, Sen Katayama, and various
Russian writers. After time in Russia, McKay spent twelve years in Europe until his return to
America in 1934.
It is evident that McKay’s biography during the 1920’s is indeed complex. Certain critics
have examined this biography and made arguments that belittle McKay’s role in the Harlem
Renaissance. I plan examine these arguments and refute them step-wise.
First, it has been argued that Claude McKay’s absence from Harlem during the 1920s
belittles his significance in the Harlem Renaissance.2,5 McKay was absent from Harlem from
1919-1921 during his work in England and from 1922-1934 during his travels in Russia &
Europe. Nonetheless, it is arguable that although McKay was physically absent from Harlem for
most of the Harlem Renaissance, he was spiritually and emotionally present. In his
autobiography A Long Way From Home, McKay describes a comfort that overcomes him when
he returns from England to Harlem in 1921: “A wave of thrills flooded the arteries of my being,
and I felt as if I had undergone initiation as a member of my tribe. And I was happy. Yes it was a
rare sensation again to be just one black among many. It was good to be lost in the shadows of
Harlem again” (79). McKay’s description of Harlem as “my tribe” establishes a connection
between Harlem and Jamaica. This connection suggests that Harlem is McKay’s trans-oceanic
home, away from his native Jamaican upbringing. Furthermore, it should be noted that McKay
David Arteaga 4
did not leave Harlem with mal-intention. In A Long Way From Home, McKay explains that his
desires to travel in 1922 were not motivated by a desire to leave Harlem; rather, they were
motived by a dominant urge: “All I had was the urge to go, and that discovered the way” (121).
Second, it could be argued that McKay’s experiences with wealth and white elite
alienates him from most African Americans, and for this reason, he is not a representative
African American voice in Harlem Shadows. It is true that McKay’s literary fame afforded his
association with powerful white elite.4 For example, during his time with The Liberator, McKay
worked in close association with many white radicals living in Greenwich Village. Moreover,
during his travels in Russia, McKay was well received amongst white Russian political and
literary leaders. In fact, McKay was invited to exclusive Russian party circles.4 Nonetheless,
McKay suffered from the trials of racial prejudice before and after his literary success. As a
child, McKay learned of his family’s abduction in Madagascar and subsequent voyage to
Jamaica where they were sold as slaves at auction.3 In addition, McKay suffered from racial
prejudice while learning at the Alabama Tuskegee Institute. However, perhaps McKay’s most
poignant experience with racism occurred in 1921, after he had earned national literary
recognition. McKay and a white co-worker at The Liberator were invited review the New York
play He Who Gets Slapped. Although both were dramatic guests, McKay was sent to the second
balcony while his co-worker was sent to the first row. McKay wrote about his emotions while
sitting on the second balcony: “Apart, alone, black and shrouded in blackness, quivering in every
fiber, my heart denying itself and hiding from every gesture of kindliness, hard in its belief that
kindliness is to be found in no nation or race” (quoted in Tillery 56). These experiences give
McKay’s voice strong credibility and reliability as he seeks to describe the sentiments of African
Americans suffering from racial prejudice in Harlem Shadows.
David Arteaga 5
Third, McKay has been criticized for using traditional English structure and language
rather than native dialect in Harlem Shadows.5 During the Harlem Renaissance, African
American writers sought to use black vernacular and folk expression to deform traditional white
literary structure.5 McKay’s poetic structure, however, is strongly traditional. In fact, in Harlem
Shadows McKay often utilizes the English sonnet. In light of these criticisms, Hathaway argues
that although McKay uses antimodernist structure, he conveys modernist themes: “McKay
provided an alternative model of modernist writing during the period by addressing distinctly
modern themes, particularly surrounding race and urbanization, in an antimodernist form” (58).
In other words, although Harlem Shadows features traditionally structured poetry, the novel is
distinctly African American, for it discusses modern themes (read: “modern” for the 1920’s)
concerning African Americans in Harlem.
Fourth, it has been argued that McKay’s disagreements with major figures of the Harlem
Renaissance diminishes his role in the movement.5 Being a left-wing radical, McKay disagreed
with the values of conservative African Americans and often called for more activism on behalf
of apolitical African American leaders. Despite these disagreements, whites, blacks, liberals, and
conservatives praised Harlem Shadows upon its publication in 1922.6 In fact, the novel was very
well received by conservative African American leaders Walter White and James Weldon
Johnson. Walter White, Executive Secretary of the NAACP from 1931-1955, acknowledged
McKay as “without doubt the most talented and versatile of the new school of imaginative,
emotional Negro poets” (quoted in Tillery 54). James Weldon Johnson, executive secretary of
the NAACP from 1920-1930, gave McKay more flattering praise: “Mr. McKay is a real poet and
a great poet … No Negro has sung more beautifully of his race than McKay and no poet has ever
equaled the power with which he expresses the bitterness that so often rises in the heart of his
David Arteaga 6
race … The race ought to be proud of a poet capable of voicing it so fully. Such a voice is not
found everyday … What he has achieved in this little volume sheds honor upon the whole race”
(quoted Tillery 54). It is thus arguable that Harlem Shadows’ universal reception, especially from
McKay’s political antagonists, transcends the disagreements between McKay and major figures
of the Harlem Renaissance.
Lastly, it has been argued that because McKay is not African American, his voice on
behalf of African Americans in Harlem is weakened.5 It is arguable, however, that McKay
identifies with many African Americans in Harlem, for he like they travelled from tropic homes
to New York City. As a result, poems in Harlem Shadows that express McKay’s urge to return to
the tropics of Jamaica (i.e. “Home Thoughts,” “Homing Swallows,” “The Plateau”) reflects
African Americans’ urge to return to the warmer, more tropic areas of the South.
Although I have discussed these arguments and defended them on McKay’s behalf, I
believe that they are mute when one considers the goal of the Harlem Renaissance, McKay’s
intentions in publishing Harlem Shadows, and discussions of literary ownership. In A Long Way
from Home, McKay discusses his emotions after the publication of Harlem Shadows: “The
publication of my first American book uplifted me with the greatest joy of my life experience …
I had achieved my main purpose” (117). He describes the novel as a “sheaf of songs” and claims
that, “I sang in all moods, wild, sweet and bitter” (116). In other words, McKay’s “main
purpose,” or authorial intent, in Harlem Shadows was to publish an American novel featuring his
“songs,” or self-expression. It is arguable, however, that Harlem Shadows embodies not only
McKay’s individual expression but also the expression of all people in Harlem, for as Wimsatt
and Beardsley argue, poems belong to neither the poet nor the reader. Rather, poems belong to
the public: “The poem is not the critic’s own and not the author’s. … The poem belongs to the
David Arteaga 7
public. It is embodied in language, the peculiar expression of the public, and it is about the
human being, an object of public knowledge” (470). If poems belong to the public, Harlem
Shadows, a series of lyrical poems that describe the life of an African American in Harlem,
certainly belongs to the inhabitants of Harlem. We should not be concerned with the reader’s
thoughts concerning Harlem Shadows or McKay’s thoughts concerning Harlem Shadows. The
novel belongs to the people of Harlem during the 1920’s and is a means by which those
inhabitants raised national awareness of their identity. Thus, McKay’s publishing Harlem
Shadows agrees with and promotes the intent of the Harlem Renaissance — African American
self-expression to raise national black identity — regardless of McKay’s absence from Harlem
during the 1920’s, association with Anglo-Saxon elite, use of traditional poetic structure,
political disagreements with Harlem Renaissance leaders, and non African American label.
The voice that McKay expresses in Harlem Shadows is emotionally diverse. Poems range
from expressions of helplessness, despair, & suffering to expressions of resiliency, strength, &
protest. According to Hathaway, racism elicited such polarized emotions during the early 20th
century, for although racism was repressing, it also provided an adversity that united African
Americans.5
Let us first examine McKay’s expressions of helplessness, despair, & suffering in Harlem
Shadows. In “In Bondage,” McKay reveals African Americans’ hopelessness to escaping racial
prejudice. For instance, although McKay dreams of a peaceful, “leisurely” world, “where life is
fairer, lighter, less demanding,” he acknowledges that such life is unrealistic, for he feels
eternally bound to the condition of slavery under white men, who themselves are slaves to an
insatiable lust for power: “But I am bound with you in your mean graves,/ O black men, simple
slaves of ruthless slaves” (McKay 28). Moreover, in “The Castaways,” “The Tired Worker,” and
David Arteaga 8
“Dawn in New York,” McKay reveals how urbanization has converted Harlem into a modern
wasteland.5 In “The Tired Worker,” McKay dreads the dawn, for it sheds light upon the ruins of
inner city Harlem: “O dawn! O dreaded dawn! O let me rest/ Weary my veins, my brain, my life!
Have pity!/ No! Once again the harsh, ugly city” (McKay 44). Lastly, McKay voices the despair
of African American women, who under the subjugation of being black and female often sold
their bodies to make a living in the 1920s. For instance, in “Harlem Dancer” McKay, sitting
amongst a crowd of men in a strip club, notices that an African American female dancer smiles
while she dances in order to mask her inner sadness: “But looking at her falsely-smiling face/ I
knew her self was not in that strange place” (McKay 42).
Despite these emotions of despair, McKay’s protest poetry in Harlem Shadows reflects a
strong will to fight racial prejudice. In fact, according to Smith, Harlem Shadows is “saturated
with protest” against policies of discrimination (272). For example, in “Enslaved” McKay calls
for the destruction of the white man’s world. In fact, he pleas angels to “consume/ The white
man’s world of wonders utterly/ … To liberate my people from its yoke!” (McKay 32). The most
famous of McKay’s protest poetry, however, is “If We Must Die.” McKay wrote the poem in
response to the race riots of 1919. As African Americans moved to northern cities in search of
jobs during WWI, whites and blacks not only interacted at the work place but also in social
settings. African Americans were now attending theater shows and visiting beaches that were
previously visited by only whites.8 Smith explains that whites did not enjoy these social changes,
and resentment resulted in race riots in major American cities. In “If We Must Die” McKay
encourages African Americans to be courageous in their fight for equality: “Like men we’ll face
the murderous, cowardly pack,/ Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!” (McKay 53).
Looking at the draft of “If We Must Die,” it is evident that Claude McKay intended for the poem
David Arteaga 9
to be emphatic. The draft featured only one hand-written correction: “accursed” was changed to
“accurséd.”9 The addition of this accent mark changes the two-syllable word “accursed” to a
three-syllable word “accurséd.” This extra syllable draws greater attention to “accurséd” for two
reasons. First, “accursed” does not normally have an accent; the unfamiliarity of the accent’s
presence draws attention to the word. Second, while reading the poem, the accent’s creation of
an additional syllable requires that the reader slow down while saying “accurséd.” This change is
small, yet it is indicative of McKay’s intentions with the publication of “If We Must Die.” Just as
he sought to draw greater attention to the word “accurséd” through the addition of an accent,
McKay also sought to draw greater attention to African American identity, racial prejudice, and
national inequality in Harlem Shadows.
“This is not the poetry of submission or acquiescence; this is not the voice of a gradualist;
or is this the native dialect of the jackass. It is one of scorching flame, a voice conscious of
persecution, that dares to strike back with vehemence” (Smith 272). McKay’s self-expression in
Harlem Shadows on behalf of African Americans was strong. In fact, as Smith describes, this
self-expression dared to “strike back” against racial injustice. As a leading spokesman of an
oppressed race, McKay facilitated the establishment of a national African American voice, a
voice that sought to emphasize not only the injustices of racial prejudice but also the courage,
strength, and resiliency of African Americans. It was this voice amongst others that “forged a
path for future generations and ushered in a new era of American culture and politics” during the
early 20th century (History.com Staff). For this reason, Claude McKay is a prominent, praiseworthy, and admirable leader of the Harlem Renaissance.
David Arteaga 10
Citations
1
The Renaissance. “Wikipedia.” Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
2
McKay, Claude. A Long Way from Home. Ed. Gene Andrew Jarrett. Reprint ed. New York:
Rutgers UP, 1937. Google Books. Web 9 Nov. 2014.
3
McKay, Claude, and Max Eastman. Harlem Shadows: The Poems of Claude McKay. New
York: Harcourt, Brace, 1922. Print.
4
Cooper, Wayne. “Claude McKay and the New Negro of the 1920’s.” Phylon (1960-) 25.3
(1964): 297-306. JSTOR. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
5
Hathaway, Heather. “The ‘Modernism’ of Claude McKay’s Harlem Shadows.” Race and the
Modern Artist. 54-68. Google Books. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
6
Tillery, Tyrone. Claude McKay: A Black Poet’s Struggle for Identity. Amherst: U of
Massachusetts, 1992. Google Books. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
7
Jr., W. K. Wimsatt. “The Intentional Fallacy.” The Sewanee Review 54.3 (1946): 468-88.
JSTOR. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
8
Smith, Robert A. “Claude McKay: An Essay in Criticism.” Phylon (1940-1956) 9.3 (1948):
270-273. JSTOR. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
9
McKay, Claude. “If We Must Die.” Draft. Yale University. New Haven. n.d. Print.
10
“Google Ngram Viewer.” Google Ngram Viewer: Aframerican. Web. 30 Nov. 2014.