Looking at the History of Claude McKay's 1919 Poem, 'If We Must Die'

At USA Today, Molly Vorwerck writes about the influence of Claude McKay's poem, "If We Must Die," which Ava DuVernay included in a short film she created for the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2016. "Written in response to the 'Red Summer,' a period of lynchings and violence against blacks that swept the USA in 1919, McKay’s poem urges readers to be brave and fight back in the face of death," writes Vorwerck. More: 

The first major event of Red Summer occurred in Chicago in July 1919 after a black teenager allegedly swam into a section of Lake Michigan reserved for whites only and was drowned by angry whites. During the ensuing 13 days of violence, 38 people died, more than 500 were injured and more than 1,000 black families were left homeless. The most violent and widespread events took place in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Elaine, Arkansas, but lynching and rioting spread across the country. From April to November 1919, more than 165 Americans died, with thousands more injured.

McWhirter says McKay, a recent immigrant to the USA and a porter with the Pennsylvania Railroad, was inspired to write "If We Must Die" after encounters with violent white mobs along the railroad line.

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Eve Dunbar, an associate professor of English at Vassar College, says "If We Must Die" was McKay’s way of fighting back. “As we continue to face these conditions of oppression and police brutality, art provides an emotional and intellectual space for people to imagine otherwise.”

McWhirter agrees, suggesting that perhaps no other piece of literature so succinctly captures the struggle of racial injustice — then and now.

“McKay’s poem sort of crystallized a moment,” McWhirter says. “I would argue that this is also the case for the Black Lives Matter movement because the poem speaks to an assertion of a person’s individual human rights, that there is only so much one is willing to take.”