hhhhhA native of Sunny Ville, Jamaica, Claude McKay was born Sept 15, 1890 in the West Indies. He moved to
the United States in 1912, and studied agriculture at the Tuskagee Institute and Kansas State University. In 1914
McKay came to New York, where he wrote for the avante-garde politics and art magazine The Liberator. His
1919 piece, If We Must Die, urged blacks to fight oppression or to die with dignity.
hhhhhIn reaction to his experiences of racism in the U.S., he turned away from his youthful conservatism. McKay also found inspiration in the joys and sorrows of street life. In 1920 he wrote Spring in New Hampshire, followed by Harlem Shadows in 1922. With these two works McKay established himself as the first and most militant writer of the Harlem Renaissance. Seeking to escape the racial tensions of the U.S., in 1922 he moved to London and then to the Soviet Union, where he was welcomed by the Communist party (though he never officially joined them). He later relocated to France and Morocco, before returning to the United States. His 1928 Home to Harlem became the most popular book of the times.
hhhhhhIn 1940 McKay became an American citizen. Two years later he converted to Catholicism and worked with a Catholic youth organization until his death in Chicago on May 22, 1948.