Poems: “if We Must Die” by Claude McKay and “harlem” by Langston Hughes

                                                   Assignment 2: Project Paper

                                                      Jennifer Williams
                                                   

                                                    Strayer University

                                                            HUM 112

                                                      Prof. Josiah Harry

                                                        May 30, 2015

Poems: “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay and “Harlem” by Langston Hughes

Contribution of McKay and Hughes to the Harlem renaissance

The fight against racial segregation experienced several transformations. One of these changes includes the Harlem renaissance. In the 1920’s there was some growing discontent with certain tactics by the then civil rights movements in regards to the fight against black segregation (Ogunyemi, 2013). McKay and Hughes are among the notable figures that spearheaded the Harlem renaissance in the United States.  McKay was greatly involved in the Harlem renaissance through his literary works during this time. The involvement of McKay in the publication of the Liberator exposed him to the right avenues to fight lukewarm strategies within the civil right movement towards black community segregation (Ogunyemi, 2013). He was against the growing need for nationalism by Marcus Garvey and middle class reformist NAACP (Ogunyemi, 2013). It is the Liberator magazine that he published his famous poem known as If We Must Die that called promoted the themes of Harlem renaissance. Hughes on the other hand formed a group of radicals against individuals who behaved like midwives of the Harlem renaissance (Jarrett, 2012). These midwives were accommodative and tried to perpetuate Eurocentric culture and beliefs to gain social equity (Jarrett, 2012). Hughes concentrated on depicting the actual life that the black community was experiencing.