How Did Claude Mckay Influence The Harlem Renaissance

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Claude Mckay, an African-American, was a rather large influence on the Harlem Renaissance, ever since he was a young adult he has been repelled by the bigotry between colored and white people, leading to the prompting of his emotional literature. He spent a good amount of time working on poems - expressing his side of discrimination - also fighting for what was right during the Harlem Renaissance. During the 1920-1940 time period, The Harlem Renaissance was a large movement of flourishing poetry, arts, music and literature with themes including the role of African-Americans in the American society, African-American culture, slavery, racism and social equality. A great deal of artists originated from Jamaica and the Caribbean Islands, bringing their works to display. Claude Mckay was part of this renaissance, contributing his poems and volumes. This …show more content…

He came into this world on September 15, 1889. When he was younger and not yet in school, Mckay was studying under his eldest brother Uriah Mckay with his mentor Walter Jekyll. He learned everything from Science to Math to English. He had a special caring for English, Mckay would study poets such as John Milton, Alexander Pope and Arthur Schopenhauer. Jekyll started to notice Mckay’s peaked interest and advised him to start writing poems, Mckay wrote his first verses in Jamaican. At age seventeen, Mckay went to work as a woodworker in Brownstown. He studied here briefly before leaving to work in Kingston, where he left a year later due to racism. In London of 1912, Claude Mckay published his first volume, “Songs of Jamaica” and “Constab Ballads” with Jekyll’s advisement. These poems show different views of black life in Jamaica. After the publishing, he immigrated to South Carolina, then Alabama where he enrolled in Tuskegee Institute. Two months later he transferred to Kansas State

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