1. Vocabulary
inglorious – 1. shameful; 2. not famous or
honored
mock – to ridicule or mimic
accursed – under a curse
constrained – 1. forced; 2. stiff or
unnatural

2. Claude Mckay
b. Sept 15, 1889 in
Jamaica to peasant
farmers
Writer of several books of
poetry, fiction and essays
Father had enough land
that he could vote
Had an early education
from his older brother
who was a school teacher

3. Wrote his first poem at 10
In 1907 met Walter Jekyll who encouraged
him to write in his own dialect and set his
poems to music
Published Songs of Jamaica in 1912, the
first poetry book published in Jamaican
Patois

4. In 1912 came to U.S. to study at Booker T.
Washington’s Tuskegee Institute and was
shocked by the racism he encountered in
South Carolina
Went on to Kansas State where he was
inspired by W.E.B. DuBois
1914 came to New York and married his
sweetheart Eulalie Lewars

5. 1919 joined The Liberator as Co-Executive
Editor until 1922
He published If We Must Die during “The
Red Summer”
Joined the radical African Black
Brotherhood for a short time
1919 left for London
Was a Communist and atheist

6. Worked for the communist Worker’s Dreadnought in
London
In 1928 published his most famous novel Home to
Harlem which won him the Harmon Gold for literature
It drew sharp criticism from DuBois and other black
leaders because of its frank description of the nightlife in
Harlem
In later life he became disillusioned with Communism
and converted to Catholicism
He died in Chicago in 1944