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 i!
73-9977
LANG, Phyllis Martin, 1938-
CLAIJDE MCKAY: THE LATER YEARS, 1934-1948.
University of I l l i n o i s at Urbana-Chanrpaign,
Ph.D., 1972
Language and. Literature, modern

University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan

©Copyright by
Phyllis Martin Lang
1973

Except for quotations from

all hitherto unpublished
writings of Claude McKay
(5) Copyright by
Hope McKay Virtue
1973
All Rights Reserved

THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED.

 CLAUDE MCKAYi THE LATER YEARS, 193^-19^8

BY
PHYLLIS MARTIN LANG
A.B., Nebraska Wesleyan University, I960
M.A., University of Nebraska, 1962

THESIS
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In English
in the Graduate College of the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1972

Urbana, Illinois
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

THE GRADUATE COLLEGE

A p r i l , 1972

I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY

SUPERVISION K V PHYLLIS MARTIN LANG

FNTTTT.!?n CLAUDE MCKAY; THE LATER YEARS, 193U~19k8

BE ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
THE DEGREE OF_

?CU^?l( 7t£—<±
In Charge of Thesis

7<g^#€
T Head of Department

Recommendation concurred inf

£?jk
•^—; i_- &*&<&•
- ^^jy^' " '#fr^fa^C<U<i'&
•—7 "* •""="— Committee

on
Final Examination!

t Required for doctor's degree but not for master's

D517
 PLEASE NOTE:

Some pages may have

indistinct print.

Filmed as received.

University Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge

the encouragement and assistance provided me in the prepa-
ration of this dissertation by Professor Keneth Kinnamon.
I am also grateful to Ted and Vicki Seitz who offered
constant encouragement throughout the research and the
writing. In addition, I wish to acknowledge the assistance
provided me through released time from teaching duties and
financial support by MacMurray College. I owe much grati-
tude to Terry Fields, who translated the newspaper articles
in Pravda and Izvestila; to the staffs of the Schomburg
Collection in the New York Public Library and the James
Weldon Johnson Collection at Yale University, who were most
helpful In providing the manuscripts which were essential in
this dissertation; and to Carl Cowl, who arranged for me to
cite the unpublished materials. Finally, I would like to
thank my husband, Wayne, whose devotion to me and to my
intellectual developments made this dissertation possible.
 iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER Page
I. Introduction. ••• •• » 1
II. Expository Prose 7
III. Fiction 137
IV. Poetry 193
V. Conclusion 269
APPENDIX 279
LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED 287
VITA r 307

5
<
 1

CHAPTER I.
Introduction

Claude McKay, Jamaican-born poet, novelist, and essayist,

is one of the most quoted black American writers. The popu-
larity of his one poem "If We Must Die" is evidenced by a
recent article in Time Magazine which described the prison
riots at Attica, New York. In discussing the prisoners, the
writer of the article states: "They passed around clandestine
writings of their own; among them was a poem written by an
unknown prisoner, crude but touching in its would be heroic
style."1 Reproduced in neatly printed letters with the
article was part of that "crude but touching" poem—the first
four lines of "If We Must Die." This episode is but one of
several attesting to the popular acceptance of the poem.
Winston ChurchMl quoted it to the British during one threat
of German invasion;2 Churchill also read it when he addressed
Congress to urge the United States to enter the war effort.3
McKay himself recounted that the poem was found on the body
of a dead white American soldier.^ The poem seems to be
almost universally accepted as a plea to a struggling people
to continue the fight.

But, ironically, Claude McKay, the man who created that

intense poem, is little known. Nearly every anthology of
Afro-American literature contains at least a summary sketch
 2

of his life, but no complete biography has yet been written.

Discussions of McKay are often limited to comments on his
birth, death, date of published works, trip to Russia, and
conversion to Catholicism. Although McKay published four
volumes of poetry, three novels, a book of short stories, an
autobiography, a collection of essays, and some seven dozen
articles,* little recognition has been given the man and his
work. Even during his own lifetime he was often overlooked
when distinguished black artists were recognized. A few
scholarly works on McKay have appeared recently, but none so
far has considered the total creative production of McKay,
Sister Mary Conroy in "Claude McKay; Negro Poet and
Novelist"° considered the themes of Harlem, return to the
soil, and vagabondage in the published fiction and selected
poems. Wayne Cooper in "Claude McKay: The Evolution of a
Negro Radical, 1899-1923"? discussed McKay's growing radi-
calism, but Cooper's work ends with a discussion of McKay's
visit to Russia in 1922-23, An earlier thesis by Ralph
Johnson, "The Poetry of Dunbar and McKay: A Study,"°
compared the dialect poetry of McKay as found in Songs of
Jamaica and Constab Ballads with the dialect poetry of Paul
Lawrence Dunbar. The most complete analysis of McKay's
poetry is found in Jean Wagner's book, Les poetes negres des
Etats-Unls.9
McKay's life might be divided into four parts. From the
time of his birth In 1889 until coming to America in 1912, he
lived in Jamaica, where he educated himself. At the end of
that period he published two volumes of poetry, Songs of
 3

Jamaica (1912) and Constab Ballads (1912). Between his

arrival in America in 1912 and his departure for Russia in
1922 he tried various careers; his occupations ranged from
student to poet to railroad worker to editor. During that
period he published two more volumes of poetry, Spring In
New Hampshire (1920) and Harlem Shadows (1922), as well as
many essays on diverse topics. Between the years 1922-193^
he visited Russia and then lived in France, Spain, and
North Africa. During those European years he created his
four fictional works, Home to Harlem (1928), Ban.lo (1929),
Glngertown (1932), and Banana Bottom (1933). In early 193*»
he returned to the United States; during the last fourteen
years of his life he published two books, A Long Way from
Home (1937) and Harlem: Negro Metropolis (19^0), forty-five
essays, and some new poetry. Several unpublished works in
manuscript form including three unfinished novels, various
essays, and over one hundred poems survive the last two
periods.
The last period (193^-19^8) Is particularly interesting
because McKay was writing non-fiction, fiction, and poetry.
In the first period he wrote only poetry, which was recog-
nized and highly commended. In the second period, he wrote
poetry and non-flctlon; both brought him recognition. In
the third period, he wrote fiction which established for him
a reputation which equaled and probably exceeded his early
reputation for poetry. During this time, though, he admitted
he could no longer write poetry. In the final period he
attempted all three forms of writing. But his creative
 4

impetus seemed to have shifted from fiction to expository

prose. These works sold while the fiction went unpublished.
During this period he also returned to poetry, some of which
continues his old vein of protest, some of which reflects his
growing Interest in the Catholic Church. Most of the poetry,
like the fiction of this period, was not published. One of
the last things he wrote before his death was "My Green Hills
of Jamaica," a reminiscence of his childhood in Jamaica.
Perhaps this prose piece fittingly completes McKay's literary
life because it returns to the setting, themes, and attitudes
of his initial volumes of poetry.
This dissertation, then, is concerned with scrutinizing
all the works, both published and unpublished, which Claude
McKay produced in the last period, 193^-19*18. Although the
focus will be upon these last works, they will be, whenever
possible, related to earlier published works. To facilitate
discussion, this body of materials will be divided into three
parts. Chapter II will consider the expository prose. Most
of this material was published; an early consideration will
provide biographic and thematic backgrounds. The expository
prose will Include the two published books, the forty-five
published essays, and some unpublished essays. Chapter III
will consider fiction. The unpublished novel Harlem Glory
will be discussed and related to Home to Harlem and the first
stories from Gingertown. Chapter IV will consider the poetry
written in those last years. Much of the poetry was unpub-
lished; many of the poems are directly connected with the
themes examined in the prose written during this period.
 5

The primary focus of this dissertation, therefore, will

be descriptive, rather than biographical or sociological or
critical. These poems, essays, and novels written during
the last few years of McKay's life deserve inspection and
placement within the total body of McKay's works.
 6

NOTES FOR CHAPTER I.

x
"War at Attica: Was There No Other Way?"
September 27, 1971, p. 20.
2
Stephen Bronz, Roots of Negro Racial Consciousness:
The 1920's: Three Harlem Renaissance Authors (New York:
Libra Publishers, 196*0, p. 7^.
3 Lucius Harper, "Dustin' Off the News: What We
Thought When They Buried Claude McKay," Chicago Defender.
June 12, 19^8, p. 2.
^ Claude McKay speaking and reading, Anthology of
Negro Poetry, collected by Arna Bontemps, Folkways recording,
FP91.
•5 Selected Poems of Claude McKay (New York: Bookman
Associates, 1953) was published five years after his death.
° Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, English Department,
University of Notre Dame, 1968.
? Unpublished master's thesis, History Department,
Tulane University, 1965.
° Unpublished master's thesis, English Department,
University of Pittsburgh, 1950.
9 Paris; Llbrairie Istra, 1963, pp. 211-281.
 7

CHAPTER II.
Expository Prose

Claude McKay returned to the United States early in

193^» following twelve years of roaming through Russia,
Europe, and North Africa. During the last five years
abroad, he had published four volumes of fiction; upon his
return he was determined to continue writing fiction which
would display his understanding of Europe and North Africa
as well as his perceptions of the changes in Harlem. But
despite his hopes of creating a fine new novel, nearly all
of the published works between 193^-19*18 belong in the
category of expository prose. Although McKay continued to
write fiction and poetry, only the autobiographical works
and the essays on diverse topics found publishers.1 These
published works vary greatly in subject matter, but they
have in common McKay's continued examination of the world
and his role in that world. Perhaps it is better to start
with these works of expository prose because they establish
some of the biographical details of McKay's life and display
the issues which concerned him throughout the last fourteen
years.

The expository prose between 193^-19^8 can be divided

into three large categories; the autobiographical, including
A Long Way from Home published in 1937t "My Green Hills of
 8

Jamaica," an unpublished essay written shortly before his

death, and an autobiographical essay published posthumously
in Phylon which contained part of the unpublished essay; the
sociological, including Harlem: Negro Metropolis, published
in 19^0, and numerous other essays describing international
situations, presenting conditions in Harlem, and arguing for
black nationalism; and the religious, including three pub-
lished essays regarding his conversion to Catholicism and
one unpublished essay "Right Turn to Catholicism." The
categories are not exclusive; the autobiographical and
religious essays, especially, overlap.
Two published works reveal McKay's life to the reader.
A Long Way from Home published in 1937 discloses the details
of his life between 1919 and 193*1. Evidently McKay did not
write a segment describing in detail his life after 193**.*
shortly before his death, however, he did write "My Green
Hills of Jamaica," which captures his memories of his island
home. "Boyhood in Jamaica," published in Phylon in 1953»
presents a few pages of "My Green Hills." The editors
included the explanatory note that this article was taken
from McKay's

part of the autobiography of brown childhood by

Cedrlc Dover and himself, entitled East Indian,
West Indian (In manuscript),, The emphasis in
selection has been on scenes, events and reflec-
tions which may add something to his autobiog-
raphy . • . , and to the revelations of motiva-
tion and circumstance contained in his Selected
Poems . . . . We feel that a deeper under-
standing of such a significant Negro poet implies
a more sensitive appreciation of the problem of
which he was a part. ("Boyhood," p. 134)
 9

In this short article McKay quickly traces the years from

his childhood in Sunny Ville to his arrival in America and
concludes with the realization that he will never see his
green hills again.
Throughout the article he recalls the natural beauties
of Jamaica—pimento trees, lush blossoming mango trees, as
well as natural destructive forces—floods, earthquakes, and
hurricanes. He also recalls things which are typically
Jamaican: tea meetings which were the popular entertainment,
moonshine babies made of pieces of broken crockery and
glistening in the moonlight, the village of Sunny Ville
where he was born.
But above all, he remembers the people and relates
them to the other groups of people he encountered during his
life. He speaks of Jamaica as "a beautiful garden in its
human relationships" ("Boyhood," p. 139)J under the
influences of English, Spanish, Jewish, Indian, Chinese.
Hindu and Mohammedan, "we lived cooperatively, we lived
together" ("Boyhood," p. 137). He recalls the work songs of
Sunny Ville as "community songs for community work. They
were not made in the mind of an individual intent on his
individualism. They grew from a way of life" ("Boyhood,"
p. 138). From his vantage point in the mid-19^0's he sees
the Jamaican people as "a rising people, and sometimes I
think that the Negroes amongst them will give leadership to
the Negroes of the world in the great struggle that lies
ahead" ("Boyhood," p. 1^3).
 Perhaps the most striking thing about the article Is
McKay's changes in attitudes after he left Jamaica. While a
young man In his green hills, "people of all kinds were just
people to me. I had a romantic feeling about the different
kinds of human groups and nations, until I came to America
and saw race hatred in its most virulent form" ("Boyhood,"
p. 141). As a result of his American experiences, McKay
began to view his world differently. When he arrived at
Charleston, South Carolina, in 1912, his perceptions were
already changing. The older man looking back on that first
glimpse of America wrote: "Where in all America could one
land and find more beauty and moral ugliness at the same
time?" ("Boyhood," p. 145), And that moral ugliness, which
repelled him as much as the beauties of America itself
attracted him, led him to write:
The carriers [of Americanization] are prejudiced
and materialistic. Most Americans, it seems to
me, from the extreme left to the far right,
believe that what the rest of the world needs is
more sanitation and material luxury: enamel
bathtubs, gleaming wash basins, and two bottles
of milk for every person. • • • Sometimes I
wonder if this dominating materialism is not the
major problem of the modern world. Communism
and Christianity can become reconciled, as
Islam and Christianity were reconciled. But how
can we reconcile the conquering forces of
American industrial materialism—the American
Way of Life—with those vast forces that still
cling to the traditional human values which
America holds in such contempt? ("Boyhood," p. 143)
But the article is not entirely negative. Although
McKay despised the things he had witnessed, he comments that
his writing
 11

is the farewell testimony of a man who was bitter

because he loved, who was both right and wrong
because he hated the things that destroyed love,
who tried to give back to others a little of what
he had got from them and the continuous adventure
of being a black man in a white society. Happily,
as I move on, I see that adventure changing for
those who will come after me. For this is the
century of the coloured world. ("Boyhood," p. 145)
For McKay these words describe his entire life. The ambiv-
alence in the man was reflection of the society which con-
fronted him. The struggle of the "continuous adventure"
challenged and Inspired him. But even at the end of his
life he strongly felt the optimism of a changing world.
The article ends with a most poignant paragraph which
seems to capture much of the despair of an aging, ill poet
but also captures much of the joy of his remembered home-
land:
I was in another world, a new world which grew
into many worlds that engulfed me, though some-
thing of me was always separate, something that
belonged to the beautiful green hills of my boy-
hood. I have sought to recapture their charm and
influence, which in a wider sense is the shaping
influence that makes the difference between the
white and the coloured worlds. I have tried to
do this simply and honestly, without bitterness
or excessive comment, as my final literary duty.
For the creeping pressure of disease tells me
this is my last book, and I will never again see
my green hills and the people I loved so much.
("Boyhood," p. 145)

"My Green Hills of Jamaica," written in 1946, is a far

more extensive version of the first twenty-three years of
McKay's life. The essay is divided into sixteen sections of
varying lengths beginning with a long section on the history
of Jamaica.-^ The remaining fifteen sections describe
 12

Jamaica and its people and recount the major events in

McKay's life until he leaves for America.
The section on the history of Jamaica begins with the
discovery of the island by Columbus, then recounts other
pieces of historical interest such as the rebellion of the
blacks in 1866, the manumission of quadroons and octoroons
about 1800, and the diamond Jubilee of Victoria. Throughout
its history, Jamaica was a "haven of welcome for people who
have been uprooted in other countries" (GH, p. 6 ) ; as a
result McKay feels there was "no acute racial antagonisms-
no white suppression of blacks and browns, East Indians and
Chinese, sanctioned by traditions or laws. • . • [They doj
not feel they are suppressed because of their color, because
anyone with talent can rise out of the masses" (GH, p. 8 ) .
McKay insists there was no hatred of whites because ninety-
five percent of the people are brown and black: "no Jamaica
£slc, McKay consistently used "Jamaica" as both noun and
adjective.il peasant imagines he is inferior to anybody but
God" (GH, p. 13). In addition, although the whites of the
island controlled administrative justice, actual law
enforcement was carried out by blacks, thus reducing hos-
tility against the enforcer. In McKay's eyes, the "racial"
problems of the island were not between black and white but
between the light mulattoes of the lower middle class, who
were clerks and civil servants, and the blacks who were
laborers and farmers (GH, p. 19).
 13

McKay also comments that in many respects Jamaica was

too "Englandized" (GH, p. 15). Houses, for instance, were
not of native architecture, and education made the children
into "little black Britons" (GH, p. 7 ) . ^ Points made in
"Boyhood In Jamaica" such as his comments on the acceptance
of bastardy and on the traditional human values which
Americans so despise are echoed in this section.
Each of the remaining sections of "My Green Hills" is
much shorter. Again, many of the descriptions and comments
closely resemble those presented in "Boyhood in Jamaica."
Many of the segments are in chronological order. He
describes Sunny Ville, where he started to school when he
was four years old. There, he encountered the "first
awakening to the warm human world around me" (GH, p. 2 ) . At
age six, he went to live with his brother U'Theo and during
the next few years read Arnold, Haeckel, Draper, Spencer,
Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Kant, and Berkeley. But McKay
admits, "Of course I was never a militant free thinker. And
I never had any desire to deride the church and religious
people. . . . He Ql'Theo] always said to me that an agnostic
should so live his life that Christian people would have to
respect him" (GH, p. 8 ) , When McKay was fourteen years old,
U'Theo decided to return to Sunny Ville and leased an
estate, Palmyra. At this point McKay breaks the chronolog-
ical narrative to describe his mother and father, the growing
of sugar cane, and the great flood. In the midst of these
descriptions, he stops once again to tell the story of two
 14

local characters, Old Tom Fool and Uncle Jim. Then McKay
shifts ahead to his constabulary service to narrate the
story of a rude American who when arrested for pushing a
peasant woman off a streetcar adequately shows his prejudice
through his strenuous objections to black policemen and
judges.
The narrative then returns to Sunny Ville and McKay
tells of his brother's choir which achieved renown by
singing the "Messiah," of the Great Revival from which
McKay remained personally aloof, and of the Woolsevs who
controlled the village. At this time (the chronology is
unclear; McKay is perhaps sixteen years old), he is reading
Marie Corelli, Mrs. Humphrey Ward, Mrs. Gaskell, Mrs. Henry
Wood and such publications as the Jamaica Times. The Outlook,
and the New York Herald.
In the eleventh segment (1907; McKay is eighteen years
old), he describes going to Kingston to attend a trade
school. Much of Kingston, however, including the trade
school, was destroyed in an earthquake, and McKay once again
returned to the green hills of Clarendon.
The next two sections characterize his parents. His
mother "loved people and believed in being kind to everybody.
She was quite different from my father who believed in jus-
tice, a kind of Anglo-Saxon Justice" (GH, p. 55). His
father had become a successful farmer. Through diligent
labor and frugal habits he had acquired at least one hundred
fertile acres. Since his father believed so strongly in
 15

justice, he became a mediator in order to settle the differ-

ences of the peasants. From his father McKay learned of his
Ashanti heritage. When McKay was sixteen, his mother died
of dropsy. He describes her beauty in death: "she lay in
her coffin almost fragile, brown and beautiful" (GH, p. 60).
He concludes the section with these words: "I never thought
that in three decades, I'd be laid low with the same disease
that killed my mother" (GH, p. 61). McKay loved his mother
intensely. Both she and Jamaica represented home to him.
He later described her in poems which show his affection for
this woman who was beautiful and vital, as was Jamaica.-'
The last three sections of "My Green Hills" describe
his apprenticeship to a wheelwright (the two years before
his mother's death); his continuing attempts to write poetry;
and most importantly, his meeting with Mr. Jekyll, who read
his poems and singled out for praise his dialect poems:
"Poems seemed to flow from my heart, my head, and my hands.
I just could not restrain myself from writing. When I sent
them to Mr. Jekyll, he wrote back to say that each new one
was more beautiful than the last. Beauty! A short while
before I never thought that any beauty could be found in the
Jamaica dialect. Now this Englishman has discovered beauty
and I too could see where my poems were beautiful" (GH, p. 67),
It was Mr. Jekyll, an English nobleman who chose to live like
a peasant in Jamaica, who encouraged his reading and
thinking. By allowing McKay the full use of his library,
Jekyll continued the liberal education begun by U'Theo,
 16

Jekyll's curiosity and open acceptance of many divergent

beliefs greatly influenced the thinking and the sensitivity
of the young McKay.
McKay does not describe in precise detail his service
with the Kingston constabulary, but clearly that vocation
was not suitable for him. Through Mr. Jekyll's influence,
he was dismissed from the constabulary before his five years
term was up.
Probably the most important event recounted in all of
"My Green Hills" is the publication of Songs of Jamaica in
1912. The twenty-three year old poet suddenly found himself
the center of much adulation: "The praise of the book in
the island press was amazing. It was all praise—praise-
not a derogatory word. Then later, when the reviews came in
from different parts of the British Empire it was all the
same. Praise, Praise, Praise! • . . everywhere my book of
poems was a sensation" (GH, p. 74). Constab Ballads soon
followed and McKay became the noted poet of Jamaica. As a
result of the two volumes he received the Medal of the
Institute of Arts and Sciences of Jamaica, which included a
cash award and a silver medal.
McKay became friends with Lady Henrietta Vinton-Davis,
who later worked with Garvey. She encouraged him to go to
Tuskegee and Initiated his great belief In America, "the new
land to which all people who had youth, and a youthful mind
turned" (GH, p. 80). Against warnings of American prejudice
and predictions that prejudice would change him, McKay said
 17

good-bye to his green hills and Its people and left for
America.
Although McKay chose to leave the island, his love of
Jamaica remained throughout his life. For McKay, Jamaica
was the soil in which he was rooted and which revitalized
him.' He continually attempted to find substitutes for the
land he loved, but neither Harlem nor Europe could recapture
the vitality of the island. The orderly life of Jamaica in
no way prepared him for the confusion and discrimination he
was to find in America.° Bishop Shell in his introduction
to "My Green Hills" wrote;
Claude McKay arrived in this country from -a
land in which racial prejudice posed no great
problem. Distinctions were made in Jamaica,
of course; but nothing like the often violent
manifestations in the United States happened
there. It was a bitter experience to this
young man fresh from his green hills, the
knowledge that even here in the land of the
free, Negroes were denied the enjoyment of
basic rights. It was for him a strange fruit
on the tree of democracy. (GH, pp. 2-3)
McKay was not an outsider in Jamaica. The race structure was
also a class structure; the rigid organization made its mem-
bers secure. The home for which McKay searched for the
remainder of his life he had left behind in Jamaica.
That love for Jamaica is apparent throughout his pub-
lished works. His affection for the natural beauty of
Jamaica never diminished nor did his love for its peasant
peoples. Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads depict the
scenes and people of the island.9 in Spring in New Hampshire
and Harlem Shadows several poems recall the island.10 The
love poems are closely related to the longing for Jamaica
because they frequently utilize lush natural descriptions.11
In Home to Harlem the setting and actions are far from
Jamaica, but Sister Conroy argues that Harlem is a substi-
tute for Jamaica; Harlem is equated with the soil of
Jamaica as the revitalizing racial home. Even in Banjo,
set in Marseilles, the sexual act becomes for Ray a surrogate
homeland as the woman's body becomes the soil which is the
homeland.-^ The last two pieces of fiction return to the
setting of Jamaica. Banana Bottom employs the Jamaican
countryside as effective background for Bita's growing real-
ization of her connections with the soil. In "Truant," the
middle story of Gingertown. Barclay Oram knows he must leave
the city. Although Barclay does not reappear in the collec-
tion, the next four stories are set in Jamaica implying that
Barclay might have escaped to the lush green island. In the
published articles and books written during the last years,
Jamaica largely disappears, unless Harlem once again becomes
a surrogate. Likewise, the published poems of the last
period, unlike the earlier poems, do not recall Jamaica.
But this last piece of writing does. The streams and
hills, the soil and flowers, the animals and people remained
always a part of McKay. His wanderings took him to Europe
and Africa, but Jamaica remained the symbol of youth and
vitality and stability.xy In a sense, "My Green Hills"
completes the cycle of McKay's writings. Songs of Jamaica
and Constab Ballads are Jamaica; in "My Green Hills" he
 19

returns to that Jamaica. He could never return physically,

but in his last years, his thoughts returned to the hills of
Clarendon.
This final work of Claude McKay provides a fine intro-
duction to his works. Many of the essential themes are
here; the vitality of the soil and the people close to the
soil, the roles of blacks and whites, the love and fear of
America, the need for essential traditional human virtues,
£*nd black pride. The nostalgia for times past which traced
its way through many of McKay's works is here also.
The rural-urban conflict which appears throughout
McKay's works clearly had its beginnings in Jamaica. For
McKay, Jamaica (rural Jamaica, not Kingston) was peaceful but
invigorating. It offered a contrast to the perplexities of
the city, controlled by the white man. This attitude stems
from his childhood when his world was ordered and protected.
During those years in Jamaica the young writer could create
his own world.l* But upon leaving Jamaica and coming to
America he found a world thrust upon him. The nostalgia for
that childhood existence which can create its own world is
intense. Thus the country with its peaceful vitality gives
strength to the people close to it; the city with its mechan-
ical and racial restrictions destroys spontaneity. A world
cannot be created in the city; the world there must be
accepted.

The style of "My Green Hills" resembles the poetry

more closely than it resembles any of the other prose works.
 20

This final work is personal, descriptive, and emotional, as

are many of the poems. McKay himself comments that "My
Green Hills" differed stylistically from his other works.
He said that it resembled a folk story but was much closer
to the poetry than to any of the other prose works excepting
the stories in Glngertown.
But although "My Green Hills" is charming, it is also
flawed. In sections the prose lumbers; the scenes are ade-
quately described but not vivid. The facility with language
which the young McKay displayed appears in this manuscript
only occasionally. Too often McKay chooses a trite phrase
rather than seeking the precise, powerful word. At times
"My Green Hills" is highly personal, as in the lines in
which McKay comments he is dying of dropsy as his mother did.
But despite these flaws, the piece merits a responsive
reading. The nostalgia is great; the rural existence holds
many attractions for the poet. McKay's enthusiasm for his
green hills is infectious. As biography, it reveals some
aspects of the man who was to engage himself in so many
different endeavors once he arrived in America.
A. Long Way from Home begins its narrative in 1919.
The events of the years between 1912 and 1919 when McKay was
viewing the "violent manifestations" and "bitter experiences"
which would illustrate the "strange fruit" are known only
sketchily ("Boyhood," pp. 2-3). But "My Green Hills" and A,
Long Way together present many insights into the development
of the mature Claude McKay. '
 21

4 Long Way from Home received several reviews when it

appeared in 1937? the reviews in periodicals ranging from
Opportunity to the New York Times Book Review were for the
most part favorable.18 Alain Locke's comments about the
book were mixed. He noted its "picaresque charm" but also
commented rather negatively that the work "exploits a per-
sonality" and concentrates on "cosmopolitan vagabondage and
the pursuit of experience for experience's sake."1" In a
second review in New Challenge Locke conceded McKay's
"splendid talent" but McKay's "spiritual truancy" blights
that talent.2n For Locke, McKay's lack of loyalty to
Jamaica or the Harlem Renaissance or radicalism or other
expatriates is his worst sin. Locke notes; "Even a fasci-
nating style and the naivest egotism cannot cloak such
inconsistency or condone such lack of common loyalty."21
The worst indictment is that McKay is the black twin of
Frank Harris, "a versatile genius caught in the ego-centric
predicament of aesthetic vanity and exhibitionism."" Locke
concludes his comments by noting that unfortunately McKay
represents many of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
They too have lost their purpose and loyalty and have chosen
"decadent aestheticism" -* rather than discipline and respon-
sibility. Locke believes the young writers must "become
truer sons of the people, more loyal providers of spiritual
bread and less aesthetic wastrels and truants of the
streets,"2^
 22

Several other critics comment upon the charm of the

book. Horace Gregory noted that the "charm and pathos" of
the work "overwhelm the narrative."25 He further observed
that the most significant episode in the book is McKay's
description of his shoddy treatment at the performance of
He Who Gets Slapped. In a negative vein Gregory remarks
that McKay was influenced "by the smooth falsetto of the
lesser romantics" which at times resulted in a falseness in
McKay's comments. Gregory especially objected to McKay's
last words of the book. For Gregory, those words are as
false as Frank Harris' dyed hair which McKay noted in one of
his later encounters with Harris. The critic in The Saturday
Review of Literature stressed that McKay "writes with charm,
taste, and candor about the matters which engross him, and
his intellectual stature grows with the experience encoun-
tered, while the reader follows with pleasure and benefit."2"
That reviewer also noted McKay's insistent independence from
causes and movements and praises his "forthrightness and
clear-sightedness which are admirable . . . ." The commen-
tator in the New York Times Book Review labelled 4 Long Way
as an "unusual and very readable book" and noted particularly
that two themes, "the Negro workingman and the determined
writer, are interwoven in a candid and perfectly natural
way."2''' For John LaFarge the fact that McKay was a "charming
gentleman with a splendid presence and a gift of intelligent,
humorous speech"28 could not compensate for McKay's overly
strong reliance on senses and passions. LaFarge's review
 23

ends with the criticism that "He seems still to bask in the
moonlight of memory."
Henry Moon and George Streator wrote rather lengthy
and perceptive reviews. Both of them commented upon the
value of the book in revealing the complexities of being
black in a white society. Henry Moon remarked upon the
sense of color which permeates the book: "This ability to
enjoy life was made possible, paradoxically enough, by his
intense color consciousness. Instead of being thwarted by
his black skin or being submerged in blind and sterile hate,
Mr. McKay was spurred to greater effort. . . . But a poet he
would be, a black poet determined that in his case the
adjective black should not be synonymous with second rate."2?
Moon also notes that the autobiography reveals varied aspects
of that color consciousness. He observes McKay's insistence
upon "group aggregation" rather than segregation or integra-
tion. He also notes that McKay adequately defends himself
against his many critics: "He swings lustily at smug whites
whose view of the Negro is peculiarly distorted. Toward
Left critics who have disowned him, he is no less belllg-
erant. Nor does he pull his punches in answering the criti-
cism of middle-class Negroes whose prissy sensitivities were
offended by his 'Home to Harlem.' For all these A, Long Way
from Home should reveal new facets of the perplexities of
being black."30
George Streator recognized McKay's position as a
spokesman. He wrote: "Claude McKay is a revolutionary poet.
 24

He is a revolutionary thinker. His point of view, no matter

how offensive to a small class of relatively emancipated
middle-class American Negroes, is the point of view of the
oppressed masses. . . . The seething black masses are clear
to his vision because their sense of oppression is his sense
of oppression."31 Streator sees the book has value because
it indicates that all black people do not think similarly.
Both people and issues are too complex for simplistic
approaches. For Streator, McKay illuminates many of those
complexities.
A, Long Way from Home is divided into six sections; each
section has a geographical focus. The first section is set
in America; then McKay goes to England; back to New York; to
Russia; to Europe; and finally to Africa. In each of the
sections McKay is clearly measuring the world which surrounds
him. Although each section is told in retrospect, each
creates the feeling of witnessing the people and events with
McKay.
In the first section, "American Beginnings," McKay
tells of the years 1919-1920, the period in which he met
Frank Harris and Max Eastman, had his poems published in
several periodicals, and embarked, through the aid of a gen-
erous benefactor, on a trip to England. Some early bio-
graphical details are revealed in this section: his child-
hood with no religious training, his reading under the guid-
ance of Mr. Jekyll and U'Theo, his early intoxication with
poetry, and the creation of "If We Must Die." As he recalls
 25

telling Frank Harris of his background, we too learn of his

early years.
McKay seems to categorize himself accurately when he
refers to his "eclectic approach to literature and my
32
unorthodox idea of life." As a result of his divergent
responses, his friends come from all societal and economic
levels. His white friends include Eastman and Harris as
well as Michael the pickpocket. His black friends include
his fellow workers on the railroad and Hubert Harrison,
editor of Negro Worlds McKay can be highly intellectual; he
also can enjoy the Intimacy and "native excitement" (ALW,
p. 49) of the cabarets. He is concerned about large racial
problems as well as intensely personal problems. His diver-
gent responses were to remain throughout his life.

Several things which were to become characteristic of

both the man and his writing are apparent in this section.
The double attitude towards America appears in the fourth
paragraph. He is bitter towards America but that resentment
generates his creative expression. The spirit of vagabond-
age is there also; in McKay the vagabondage and the dual
attitude are inseparable:
But after a few years of study at the Kansas
State College I was gripped by the lust to
wander and wonder. The spirit of the vagabond,
the daemon of some poets, had got hold of me.
I quit college, I had no desire to return home.
What I had previously done was done. But I
still cherished the urge to creative expression.
I desired to achieve something new, something
in the spirit and accent of America. Against
its mighty throbbing force, its grand energy
and power and bigness, its bitterness burning
(ALW, p. 55). Civilization can both lull and destroy; like
America, it nourishes but also ravages. As a result the
attitude towards both civilization and America is ambiva-
lent.33
Part two, "English Inning," tells of months spent in
England, a period which was not entirely happy.3^ McKay was
not in sympathy with the English environment, and he found
the people to be largely unsympathetic with him and other
black people.35 But during those months he met G. B. Shaw;
he began to read Marx and to listen to discussions (he even
compare.! Marxists to theologians—in earnestness and seri-
ousness*; , he became an active member of the International
Socialist, Club; he wrote articles for the Negro World and
for Sylvia Pankhurst's weekly, the Workers' Dreadnought; and
he saw his third book of poetry published.
His job with Miss Pankhurst resulted from a letter he
wrote to George Lansbury, editor of the Dally HeraldfIn
response to a series of articles denouncing the use of black
troops in Germany. McKay's letter condemned the Herald's
racist-sexist position.36 When the Herald refused to publish
the letter, radical Sylvia Pankhurst published it in her
Workers' Dreadnought. In this section of 4 Long Way from
Home. McKay devotes many pages to Miss Pankhurst and her
work. McKay's view of her is complimentary. He found her to
be plain but fiery and shrewd. Through her, he became
acquainted with the extreme radicals in London. Throughout
the section, McKay admits his debt to her—both financially
and intellectually.
 When the book was published, however, Miss Pankhurst
was not pleased. She wrote Lee Furman saying:
. . . I take very strong exception to many
statements therein, and particularly the last
four lines on page 78 and the first ten lines
on page 79• All the matter contained in those
lines is absolutely untrue and a serious libel
on myself.
I, therefore, ask you Immediately to withdraw
the book from circulation and delete those
passages.
I regret to have to write this, but you as
publishers should have been aware that these
statements are libellous, and I repeat they are
absolutely untrue.
It is a pity that Claude McKay should have
chosen to libel one who has treated him with
consideration and kindness.-^/
The passage to which Miss Pankhurst refers narrates
the events surrounding a story which McKay wrote about a
sawmill strike in London. One mill, controlled by George
Lansbury, employed scabs. According to McKay, Sylvia
Pankhurst refused to print the story because she owed money
to Lansbury and paper to the Dally Herald. McKay speculates
that she allowed personal feelings to moderate her radical
views and Miss Pankhurst objected most strenuously to those
speculations about the episode.
In addition to McKay's growing political radicalism,
one other aspect is apparent in this section: McKay's
increasing awareness of the connections between race preju-
dice and sexual fears. The Dally Herald did not campaign
against the French use of black troops because of economic
or political or moral reasons. Rather, the attack revealed
itself in headlines such as "Sexual Horrors Let Loose by
France" and "Appeal to the Women of Europe." McKay says:
 29

"I think the Anglo-Saxon mind becomes morbid when it turns

on the sex life of colored people. Perhaps a psychologist
might be able to explain why" (ALW, p. 76). The sexual
issue is apparent again when he reads the reviews of Spring
in New Hampshire, published while he was in England, and
notes:
So there it bobbed up again. As it was among
the elite of the class-conscious working class,
so it was among the aristocracy of the upper
classJ the bugaboo of sex—the African's sex,
whether he is a poet or pugilist.
Why should a Negro's love poetry be offensive
to the white man, who prides himself on being
modern and civilized? Now it seems to me that if
the white man is really more civilized than the
colored (be the color black, brown or yellow),
then the white man should take Negro poetry and
pugilism in his stride, just as he takes Negro
labor In Africa and fattens on it. (ALW, pp. 88-89)
Black poets should not write love poetry, even though the
black poet Antar had written love poetry twelve centuries
ago. But Claude McKay continued to write poetry—love poetry,
protest poetry, nature poetry, and nostalgic poetry.
Radicalism and racism contributed to the sensitive pursuit
of his craft.
This chapter reveals McKay's growing sophistication.
Away from America, he begins to see even more clearly the
subtleties of racial prejudice. He confronts new political
and social ideas and he struggles to fuse them in his con-
tinuing search for his role In the world.
In section three, "New York Horizon," McKay recounts
the period of his close association with The Liberator: this
period of his life would provide much of the creative impetus
 30

until he returned to Harlem in 1934. Throughout the years

abroad he frequently turned to scenes and people he remem-
bered from these months. But the New York in this section
was not just Harlem, it was also Greenwich Village, Broadway,
the Battery, and the Bronx—the entire city stretched before
the young poet.
The love for New York which is apparent throughout
this section begins in the first paragraph: "Like fixed
massed sentinels guarding the approaches to the great
metropolis, again the pyramids of New York in their Egyptian
majesty dazzled ray sight like a miracle of might and took my
breath like the banging music of Wagner assaulting one's
spirit and rushing it skyward with the pride and power of an
eagle. • . . the immense wonder of clean, vertical heaven-
challenging lines, a glory to the grandeur of space" (ALW,
p. 95)• Just as clearly demonstrated Is his hatred for the
city; " . . . visions are broken and shattered and one
becomes one of a million, average, ordinary, Insignificant"
(ALW, p. 95). For McKay, New York was America and all
discriminations could be suffered anywhere.
During his months with The Liberator McKay met many
outstanding people: entertainers such as Charlie Chaplin
and Florence Mills; white writers such as Elinor Wylie,
H. G. Wells, and e. e. cummings; black writers such as James
Weldon Johnson, W. E. B. DuBois, Walter White, Jessie Fauset;
and black radicals such as Hubert Harrison, Grace Campbell,
Cyril Briggs. Johnson, White and Fauset would all become
 31

important to the Harlem Renaissance, Just as McKay would be,

even though away from Harlem.
Although appointed co-editor of The Liberator. McKay
was always aware of his color and pre-determined social
position. At one point, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, he refers
to himself as a "black page" for Eastman (ALW, p. 102). But
not so humorously he recalls that restaurants refused him
and that Broadway theatres sent him to the balcony. In lines
which show clearly the effect of this race prejudice on him,
he sayst
I think the persons who invented discrimination
in public places to ostracize people of a dif-
ferent race or nation or color or religion are
the direct descendants of medieval torturers.
It is the most powerful instrument in the world
that may be employed to prevent rapprochement
and understanding between different groups of
people. It is a cancer in the universal human
body and poison to the Individual soul. It saps
the sentiment upon which friendliness and love
are built. Ultimately it can destroy even the
most devoted friendship. Only super-souls
among the whites can maintain intimate asso-
ciation with colored people against the insults
and insinuations of the general white public
and even the colored public. Yet no white
person, however sympathetic, can feel fully
the corroding bitterness of color discrimi- ,g
nation. Only the black victim can. (ALW, p. 135)
The other theme throughout this section is McKay's
desire to move on.3? McKay enjoys his intellectual world.
His creativity was high; he says "I was full and overflowing
with singing and I sang in all moods, wild, sweet and bitter"
(ALW, p. 147). But at the same time, "Where formerly in
saloons and cabarets and along the streets I received
Impressions like arrows piercing my nerves and distilled
 32

poetry from them, now I was often pointed out as an author.

I lost the rare feeling of a vagabond feeding upon secret
music in me" (ALW, p„ 114). The section ends with the
vagabond moving on to recapture the secret music. The action
is impelled when his former wife suddenly appears and he
realizes he must play truant again and "escape from the pit
of sex and poverty, from domestic death, from the cul-de-sac
of self-pity, from the hot syncopated fascination of Harlem,
from the suffocating ghetto of color consciousness. Go,
better than stand still, keep going" (ALW, p. 150).
McKay during this period with The Liberator continued
to formulate his own critical and aesthetic theories. He
insisted class labels could not apply to art and that art
must be judged by aesthetic, rather than social standards.
As a result of this position, he and Michael Gold could not
continue as co-editors of The Liberator. He also insisted
all people were interesting to write about: "It depends on
the writer's ability to bring them out alive" (ALW, p. 112).
Clearly, these thoughts were preparation for characters such
a

as Jake and Banjo, to be created in the next few years.

In the fourth and longest section, "The Magic
Pilgrimage," McKay recounts his visit to Russia from
November, 1922, to June, I923. A portion of the section is
a rebuttal to an article which appeared in The New Masses
severely attacking McKay;^° he also spends several chapters
telling of the grand welcome which the people of Russia gave
him. He says: "Never before had I experienced such an
 33

Instinctive sentiment of affectionate feeling compelling me

to the bosom of any people, white or colored. And I am
certain I never will again. My response was as sincere as
the mass feeling was spontaneous. That miraculous experience
was so extraordinary that I have never been able to under-
stand it" (ALW, p. I67). For a man who had experienced
bitter racial prejudice, such a welcome must have been
exhilarating. He became "a black ikon" (ALW, p. 168) to the
people he met in Moscow and Petrograd. An indication of his
popularity occurred at the first meeting of the Congress of
the Communist International.4"1 Upon entering the Bolshoi
Theatre he was immediately "handed from usher to usher like
an object that was consigned to a special place" (ALW, p.
122). He thought that he was being sent to the balcony, as
frequently happened to him in American theatres. Instead,
he was ushered to the platform and seated beside Max Eastman,
just behind Zlnovlev.
Although in sympathy with the revolution,42 McKay was
at no time a member of the Communist Party. He says, "I
could never be a radical agitator. For that I was temper-
mentally unfit. And I could never be a disciplined member
of any Communist party, for I was born to be a poet" (ALW,
p. 173). But he was an unofficial delegate to the fourth
Congress of the Communist International.
In this section McKay mentions numerous newspaper
articles written about him, although he does not quote any
of them. Between his arrival in November, 1922, and his
 34

departure in June, 1923» several articles appeared in Pravda

and in Izvestlla. including Trotsky's letter to McKay which
appeared in both newspapers. (See the Appendix for summary
and discussion of these articles.)
These newspaper articles indicate that McKay did
receive the recognition which he mentioned in section four
of A Lfl&S. Way from Home. He was black and therefore unusual
but he was also accepted. He met the leaders; he gave inter-
views to the newspapers; he read his poetry. He received
the acceptance and admiration in Russia which he could never
find in America.
But even in this atmosphere of recognition, racial
prejudice, however, reappears. Sen Katayama, a Japanese
educated in America, who arranged for McKay's acceptance at
the Congress, saw clearly the prejudices of the American
delegates. McKay recalls that "He CSen Katayama] said that
though they called themselves Communists, many of them were
unconsciously prejudiced against Negroes because of their
background. He told them that really to understand Negroes
they needed to be educated about and among Negroes as he had
been" (ALW, p. 180). But for the most part McKay was revered
for his blackness rather than despised.
In this section it is clear that even as early as 1922
McKay was formulating thoughts about organizing black groups
to gain power. He recalls a conversation with the mulatto
delegate in which he said:
•What we need is our own group, organized and
officered entirely by Negroes, something similar
 35

to the Finnish Federation. Then when you have

your own group, your own voting strength, you
can make demands on the whites; they will have
more respect for your united strength than for
your potential strength. Every other racial
group in America is organized as a group, except
Negroes. I am not an organizer or an agitator,
but I can see what Is lacking in the Negro
group.' (ALW, p. 178)
These ideas will return frequently in the later years of
McKay.
For McKay, the visit to Russia was not entirely polit-
ical. He thoroughly enjoyed the cities he visited and the
people he met. Cities always fascinated McKay. He responded
wholly to Moscow and to Petrograd. The streets and buildings
and monuments attracted him greatly. He says of Petrograd:
"Petrograd is poised and proud, with a hard striking strength
like the monument of Peter the Great, and a spaciousness like
the Neva. In its somber might it appeared brooding and a
little frowning of aspect at first. Many streets were desert
stretches, and massive buildings still bore the gaping wounds
of the revolution. But when one became a little more
acquainted with the city, the great half-empty spaces became
Impressive with a lonely dignity and beauty" (ALW, p. 211).
But for McKay the people of the cities are even more impor-
tant. He mingles freely with them, eats and drinks with
them, visits their homes. Although he spoke no Russian,
language proved no obstacle in his enjoyment of the Russian
people. In "The Magic Pilgrimage" McKay lists the people he
was photographed with. Many of those photographs are in the
3
McKay papers in the James Weldon Johnson Collection.
Here again is the destroying canker; it appears even in the
most idealistic society.
"The Magic Pilgrimage" is perhaps the most compelling
of all the sections in A, Long Wav from Home. Obviously,
McKay thoroughly enjoyed his visit to Russia where he was
lauded as a hero. And much of his enthusiasm during the
original Journey is evident in this section. Perhaps in
this section, more than any of the others, the reader feels
at one with McKay, experiencing the events and responses.
Section five, "The Cynical Continent," returns McKay
to Europe and spans the years from mid-1923 to early 1928,
when he started writing Banio. Old acquaintances Frank
Harris, Max Eastman, George Grosz return in the section.
During these years McKay also met Sinclair Lewis, Edna
St. Vincent Millay, and Leopold Senghor.
McKay's criticism of other artists in this section
seems sharp and pertinent, McKay admired Hemingway but
denies that Hemingway influenced his writing; "I fall to
find any relationship between my loose manner and subjec-
tive feeling in writing and Hemingway's objective and care-
fully stylized form" (ALW, p, 25). McKay's greatest praise
for Hemingway comes in these words:
I find in Hemingway's works an artistic illumina-
tion of a certain quality of American civiliza-
tion that is not to be found in any other
distinguished American writer. And that quality
is the hard-boiled contempt for and disgust with
sissyness expressed among all classes of
Americans. , • .Mr. Hemingway has taken this
characteristic of American life from the streets,
the barrooms, the ringsides and lifted it into
the realm of real literature. . . • All I can
 38

say is that in literature he has most excel-

lently quickened and enlarged my experience of
social life. (ALW, p. 252)
McKay also likes D. H. Lawrence. For McKay, the confusion
and turmoil apparent in Lawrence's works clearly represented
the age (ALW, p. 248). Perhaps here McKay is also commenting
on his own work which also creates "ferment and torment and
turmoil, the hesitation and hate and alarm, the sexual
inquietude and the incertitude of this age, and the psychic
and romantic groping for a way out" (ALW, p. 247). In Joyce
McKay found no confusion or doubt but "the sum of two thou-
sand years, from the ending of the Roman Empire to the ending
of the Christian age. Joyce picked up all the ends of the
classical threads and wove them into the ultimate pattern in
Ulysses" (ALW, p. 247).
McKay also responded fully to artists in other mediums
such as Isadora Duncan and George Grosz. McKay comments
that Grosz's Eoce Homo perfectly recreates the atmosphere of
Berlin; "For me that book of drawings is a rare and icono-
clastic monument of this closing era even as Rabelais is of
the Renaissance" (ALW, p. 240). McKay met Isadora Duncan
twice; on one occasion she danced for him "tragically and
beautifully" (ALW, p. 290) in her studio. Shortly after
their second meeting, she was killed.
But the section is more than a listing of the famous
people McKay met and his opinions of them. Two things raise
it above a diary level. One is McKay's views of his own
work. He says: "Any critic who considers it important
 39

enough to take the trouble can trace in my stuff a clearly

consistent emotional-realist thread, from the time I pub-
lished my book of dialect verse (Songs of Jamaica) in 1912,
through the period of my verse and prose In The Liberator,
until the publication of Home to Harlem" (ALW, p. 250).
Several times in section five he refers to this emotional-
realist thread which sets his work apart. During the mid-
1920' s, he admits, he had found the general approach for his
prose but he still searched for the form. When the pub-
lisher advised converting a group of short stories into a
novel, he followed that advice and quickly wrote Home to
Harlem. Then just as quickly, he began Banjo, following
Senghor's advice to write the truth about the blacks in
Marseilles. (ALW, p. 278) His comments about his writing,
as well as others; indicate a sharpening of his critical
perceptions.
The other significant thing about this section is
McKay's observations about the differences between other
expatriates and himself. In the discussion he again presents
his dual feelings about America: "For I was in love with
the large rough unclassical rhythms of American life. If I
was sometimes awed by Its brutal bigness, I was nevertheless
fascinated by its titanic strength. I rejoiced in the lav-
ishness of the engineering exploits and the architectural
splendors of New York" (ALW, p. 244). Unlike some expa-
triates who lamented the lack of respect for artists, McKay
 40

felt, "I am partial to the idea of an artist being of and

among the people, even if incognito. The puritan atmosphere
of America was irritating, but It was not suffocating. I
had written some of my most vigorous poems right through
and straight out of the tumult and turbulence of American
life" (ALW, p. 244). He also felt that sex was no problem
to him, unlike many of the other expatriates. The thing
which separated McKay from the others was color and no white
person could understand that problem:
For they were not black like me. Not being
black and unable to see deep into the profundity
of blackness, some even thought that I might
have preferred to be white like them. They
couldn't imagine that I had no desire merely to
exchange my black problem for their white prob-
lem. For all their knowledge and sophistication,
they couldn't understand the Instinctive and
animal and purely physical pride of a black
person resolute in being himself and yet living
a simple civilized life like themselves. Because
their education In their white world had trained
them to see a person of color either as an in-
ferior or as an exotic. (ALW, p. 245)
Section five indicates that Europe may have been cyni-
cal, but McKay was not. He continued to analyze with
objectivity; he rejected some people and ideas but always
with charm; he began to create novels, a new endeavor for
him. He was still seeking his role, this time as a black
novelist and expatriate searching to be "resolute in being
himself."
In section six, "The Idylls of Africa," McKay recounts
many of the events and people in his life from 1928 until
his return to the United States. His attraction to both
Spain and Morocco is strong. Once again he responds fully
 41

to the cities which he visits; for McKay, each has a sepa-

rate atmosphere. Perhaps the quality which is most evident
through the work is McKay's adaptability to any city or
group of people which he happens to encounter. Whether the
city be New York or Petrograd or Barcelona or Marrakech, he
Is able to Immerse himself in the lives of the people. Never
does he exhibit any sense of superiority to a culture but is
always curious about it and eager to understand it. In Fez,
for example, "my days were fully occupied in sampling the
treasures of the city and its environments; in picking up
the trails of the peasants bringing their gifts to the town;
following the Afro-Oriental bargaining; feeling the color
of the accent of the story-tellers in the market places.
• . . And I was never tired of listening to the native musi-
cians playing African variations of the oriental melodies in
the Moroccan cafes" (ALW, pp. 299-300). But when he returns
to Paris to meet the representatives of the Harlem Renais-
sance he discards his native dress so he can be a part of
the sophisticated urban culture.
This section also reports the successes and failures
of Home to Harlem. One chapter discusses the varied recep-
tions of the novel. He defends himself against attacks that
he "betrayed the race" in his novel;
I thought that If a Negro writer were sincere in
creating a plausible Negro tale—if a Negro char-
acter were made credible and human in his special
environment with a little of the virtues and the
vices that are common to the human species—he
would obtain some recognition and appreciation.
. . . As if the Negro group had special secrets
which should not be divulged to the other groups.
 42

I said I did not think the Negro could be be-

trayed by any real work of art. If the Negro
were betrayed in any place it was perhaps in
that Negro press, • • • with its voracious
black appetite for yellow journalism.
(ALW, p. 317)
The adventures in these last years abroad seem to give
him an even greater understanding of the world in which he
lives. He chooses to call himself an "internationalist" but
he concludes he can never escape "the white terror always
pursuing the black. There was no escape anywhere from the
white hound of Civilization" (ALW, p. 304).ifi< Within this
complicated world of white and black, he attempts to sort
out the repulsions and attractions which each color has for
the other. He discusses sexual attractions with their arti-
ficiality and psychological problems, with one person ever
unable to understand the other. He finally concludes that
white lovers or sociologists or writers can do some good,
but they can never solve the problems of black people:
"Well, whatever the white folks do and say, the Negro race
will finally have to face the need to save itself. The
whites have done the blacks some great wrongs, but also they
have done some good. They have brought to them the benefits
of modern civilization. They can still do a lot more, but
one thing they cannot do« they cannot give Negroes the gift
of a soul—a group soul" (ALW, p. 349). He goes on to say
that somehow a weak, disunited and suppressed group of people
must develop group pride and strength and self-respect. For
McKay the greatest hindrance to the development of a group
soul is the misunderstandings about the difference between
 43

"group segregation" and "group aggregation" (ALW, p. 352).

A group can win rights only through a group spirit and a
strong group organization. The black intelligentsia must
be united with the black masses and the unity must come from
within, rather than from without.
To end the book with these comments about the need for
strong unity indicates their importance to McKay. McKay in
the last words of the book remains a poet, "a troubadour
wanderer, nourishing myself mainly on the poetry of exist-
ence. And all I offer here is the distilled poetry of my
experience" (ALW, p. 354). But he yearns for a "great
modern leader" to celebrate in his poetry. The poet cannot
become the leader who unites all the people, but he could
herald that leader.
A Long Way from Home is an engaging book, in many
respects representative of McKay at his best. He creates
cities and their atmospheres with precise details; the peo-
ple talk and act with much life; the scenes appear accurate
and vivid. The hand of a fine craftsman, who is immersed
in atmospheres throughout the world, is evident within the
book. As the critics noted, this book possesses much charm.
Many scenes are Imbued with a chuckle or a sly smile; McKay
delights in puncturing those characters who are artificial
or who betray themselves in some way. The enthusiasm of this
Jamaican poet as he encounters Harlem and Europe is also
attractive. McKay is always the optimist. He expects to
find pleasant people and experiences in the new situations
 44

and he usually does. McKay's own humanism is also evident

throughout the book. He may lean towards socialism, but he
was always most concerned for the people and their problems
rather than for organizations.
Throughout the book also is the other side of McKay,
the man who searches for meaning in his confused world of
black and white, the man who attempts to find solutions to
the problems which beset black men. Still essentially a
poet in the years described, he is striving to find answers
which will enable him to survive in a society which he accepts
but which will not accept him. In that sense this book
marks the end of McKay, the creative imaginer of scenes and
characters, and the beginning of McKay, the analyzer of
problems and conditions in the world he views around himself.
A Long Way from Home marks the movement from imaginative
literature to expository prose.

Unfortunately, 4 Long, Way from Home was not a finan-

cially successful work. Part of the reason, at least in
McKay's mind, was that Lee Furman did not publicize the book
adequately. Furmans declared bankruptcy shortly after the
book was published; It seems McKay chose, unluckily, the
wrong publisher. ^
"Boyhood in Jamaica," "My Green Hills of Jamaica," and
A L2HS. Way from Home exhibit many of the personal, biographic
details of Claude McKay's life. Aspects of McKay's thought
are evident in the sociological and political prose written
between 1934-1948. This second category of expository prose
 45

Includes the last published book describing Harlem and the

published essays analyzing topics including international
situations, labor conditions in Harlem, racial Issues, and
Communism.
A Long Way from Home appeared in 1937* McKay's next
and last published book was Harlem: Negro Metropolis, which
came out in October, 1940. Between 1934 and 1940 McKay
wrote many articles which were published in various news-
papers and periodicals. He also worked on a novel, Harlem
Glory, which he never finished. Several of the articles
and parts of the unfinished novel were incorporated into
Harlem: Negro Metropolis.
When this last book appeared, it received several
notices which evidently included a recommendation by the
Book-of-the-Month Club and a review by Dorothy Canfield. °
Ted Poston commented that McKay in this book is "unexcelled
in his vivid description, his arrangement of contrasts, his
depiction of light and shadows."47' But Poston disagrees
with McKay's insistence on separatism and with McKay's view
that the masses desire separatism while the intellectuals
consistently oppose it. Poston also sees a weakness in
McKay's support of Sufi Abdul Hamid and Ira Kemp. The critic
contends that McKay overrates both of them. For Poston,
McKay concentrates too much on the "spectacular, bizarre and
exotic side of Harlem." As a result of a tendency toward the
vivid, Poston asserts that "McKay the poet is still superior
to McKay the new and questionable social scientist."4,8
 46

Roi Ottley also attacked the book. * He comments that

McKay's portraits of the people of Harlem are generally
colorful, but when the poet attempts to analyze the move-
ments of Harlem, "he gets into interpretative difficulties
from which he is unable to extricate himself." Ottley fur-
ther suggests that McKay did not thoroughly analyze his sub-
ject and as a result is a "captious critic, allowing the
deep undercurrents of Negro life and their broad social
Import to escape him." The reviewer in Commonweal believes
McKay attempted too much.*0 Even a good story-teller like
McKay cannot describe Harlem in such a way as to appeal to
all readers. On the other hand, the reviewer in the New
Yorker suggests that Harlem: Negro Metropolis is an excel-
lent and complete study which reveals much of the real
Harlem.-*

Harlem: Negro Metropolis is divided into eleven chap-

ters which can be combined roughly into five divisions.
"Harlem Vista" and "The Negro Quarter Grows Up" present a
description of Harlem. "God in Harlem: Father Divine, 1935
A.D.F.D.," "The Occultists," and "The Cultists" analyze the
mystic appeals to the people of Harlem. The chapters "Harlem
Businessman," "The Business of Numbers," "The Business of
Amusements," and "Harlem Politician" treat the power or lack
of power in Harlem. The eleventh chapter, "Marcus Aurelius
Garvey," is a sympathetic view of Garvey and his Universal
Negro Improvement Association. The last chapter, "Sufi Abdul
Hamid and Organized Labor," discusses the problems of labor
 47

organizations in Harlem with great emphasis upon the workings

of the Communist Party in Harlem. The book is illustrated
with photographs of Harlem scenes and of Harlem people.^
The first two chapters of the book trace the growth
of the black metropolis as families moved from San Juan Hill
and Brooklyn and Manhatten into Harlem. The first apartment
house rented to blacks was near 134th St. and 5th Avenue.
Then, although the white residents attempted to stop "the
black invasion,"-'3 black families moved west towards 7th
Avenue. The power of money allowed Aframerleans to "obtain
and consolidate the new territory" (HNM, p« 18) because,
unlike white renters, the blacks were willing to pay exorbi-
tant rent and so the Aframerlcan realtors devised strategems
to develop North Harlem.
As the black masses were attracted to Harlem, so also
were churches and cabarets. Between 1910-1922, the large
black churches disposed of their downtown property and moved
to Harlem. This movement of the churches Induced conserva-
tive black families to move also. At the same time, caba-
rets moved from downtown to Harlem, making Harlem famous as
"an amusement center" (HNM, p. 19). But national and
international attention did not come to Harlem until the
rise of Garvey*s Pan-African movement.
McKay contends that Harlem is different from all other
areas in New York City, which are unified by language or
religion. In Harlem the basic bond is "that common yet
strange and elusive chemical of nature called color" (HNM,
 48

p. 30). Visually, Harlem is congested with Wes*; or East or

North Africans, West Indians, South Americans, Aframericans
(the term McKay uses throughout the work), who are servants,
numbers kings, bootleggers, doctors, teachers, and janitors.
As McKay says: "Harlem creates the Impression of a mass of
people all existing on the same plane. . . . There is no
other minority group in New York having such an extra-
ordinary diversity of individuals of achievement and wealth
who are compelled to live in midst of the mass. Inexorably
the individual Is identified with the mass and measured by
its standards" (HNM, pp. 22-23). As a result of "a mass of
people all existing on the same plane," numerous problems
are created which McKay examines in later chapters. But
many of the problems seem to grow from the desire of the
elite—doctors, politicians, businessmen, musicians, social
workers—to establish a separate area for themselves, an
exclusive residential district as well as an exclusive
philosophical district. But wherever the elite move, the
common people follow. Separation is not possible; all the
elite can do is make slightly more desirable such areas as
Strivers Row, the Block Beautiful, and Sugar Hill.

Within the movement to Harlem, McKay discerns three

individual surges. The first surge he labels "a people's
movement" (HNM, p. 26) from downtown to Harlem when families
were searching for space and freedom from racial harassment.
The second expansion was "the mass elbowing-out of post-war
years" (HNM, p. 26) when Garvey reached his peak of
 49

popularity. The third, not as spectacular as the first two,

was the move of the established blacks up Sugar Hill from
"the Harlem valley to the heights" (HNM, p. 26). This desire
for separation from the masses would create so many of the
labor problems to which McKay devotes the latter half of his
book.
McKay also realized the immediate problems of the move-
ment up Sugar Hill. Landlords profited greatly from the
desire for ostentation. For McKay, a cultural life had to
be based upon a reasonable group economy, and the "identifi-
cation with the hectic pseudo-renaissance period [the Harlem
Renaissance] of the Aframerican elite was not an economic
asset" (HNM, p. 27). In 1940 he could ridicule the Harlem
Renaissance with these words:
The build-up of a fashionable and artistic Harlem
became the newest fad of Manhattanites in the
middle nineteen twenties. And the propaganda in
favor of it was astoundlngly out of proportion to
the economic potentiality of a Harlem smart set
and the actual artistic and intellectual achieve-
ment. New Yorkers had discovered the existence
of a fashionable clique, and an artistic and
literary set in Harlem. The big racket which
crepitated from this discovery resulted in an
enormously abnormal advertisement of bohemian
Harlem. And even solid real estate values were
affected by the fluid idealistic art values of
Harlem. (HNM, p. 26)

The point which ends this section is one which McKay

hammers throughout the remainder of this book and many of
the other essays in magazines and newspapers. McKay con-
tends that the problem of Aframerloans Is not integration or
separatism but "adjustment." So he writes: "The larger
problem is the adjustment of the Aframerlcan as a minority
 50

to fit into the frame of the American composite" (HNM,

p. 31). He turns to that problem of adjustment in the
remaining sections of Harlem: Negro Metropolis.
The next three chapters analyze the mystic appeals of
the cultists and the occultists for the people of Harlem.
In the chapter entitled "The Occultists" McKay comments that
"the religious heart of the Negro is his golden gift to
America" (HNM, p. 73). McKay stresses that the organized
black church is an important institution in America and that
the African Methodist Episcopal Church Is the most impres-
sive of all the denominations. But because the religion of
the black people is so much larger than the organized
churches, it overflows into the occult. For McKay, the
rituals of the occultists grow from the Guinea fetichists in
Northern Africa, who are the "most powerful of magic makers.
Their ritual is an elaborate extravaganza of music and wild
dancing and shouting" (HNM, p. 74). The Harlem occultists,
though, have refined their work and become numberologists,
magicians, oracultists, metaphysicists, and spiritualists.
Candles, numbers, Incenses, dreams, seances are Important
to the occultists and their followers. Pagan and Christian
symbols are used, and the priest or priestess, usually clad
in oriental garb, attracts his followers through a combina-
tion of "cosmic mysteries and jungle apprehensions" (HNM,
p. 76).

The chapter ends with a description of several prac-

ticing occultists. The description of one priestess who has
 51

a message for Rosemary from her crippled mother Is the same

description which appeared in a 1939 article." McKay finds
the most interesting of the occultists to be Madame Fu
Futtam, the last wife of Sufi Abdul Hamid, the labor agita-
tor who plays such an important role in the last chapter of
the book. Madame Fu Futtam, rather than corresponding with
the intense sensual stimulation of the other occultists
through incense, music, and color, established a Temple of
Tranquillity. She "aspires to create tranquillity in Negro
character in the hope that Negroes might grow within and
develop their spiritual forces like the oriental peoples"
(HNM, p. 80).
McKay admits to a greater interest in the occultists
than in the cultists. Perhaps the intimacy and the exami-
nation of self attract him in contrast to the great crowds
and the noise of the cultists.
Just as the religious fervor of black people overflowed
into the occultist movements, so it also overflowed with
even more enthusiasm into the cults, which, for the most
part, were heaven seekers. In the short chapter entitled
"The Cultists" McKay describes George Wilson Beeton, who
with his World's Gospel Feast became the first cult leader
to compel serious attention.
Unlike the other illiterate cult leaders, Becton was
college-educated. Therefore, he appealed to both the
intelligentsia and the common people. His meetings were
"patterns of order and grace. The congregation waited in a
 53

was revealed as a mystic. During the preceding twelve years

Father Divine was developing his collective enterprise. He
owned a rooming house where lodgers received free room and
board in return for all money which they earned. Those not
employed performed household tasks. In 1931, Father Divine
was arrested because the community of Sayville was disturbed
by the deification of Lhe leader, by the orgiastic gospel
feasts accompanied by dancing and shouting, and by the mix-
ture of black and whites In the worship of Father Divine.
His arrest immediately aroused the sympathy of the Harlemites.
In May, 1932, he was tried by Judge Smith in the Supreme
Court of Nassau County and sentenced to one year's imprison-
ment and a $500 fine. But three days after the sentencing,
Judge Smith suddenly died. For the followers of Father
Divine, this was the supreme miracle: Father Divine was God
and God had punished the judge. Two weeks after the death
of the judge, the Appellate Court reversed the decision and
Father Divine came triumphantly to Harlem. Instead of being
God to a few hundred followers, Father Divine now became God
to several thousand.

By the time of Becton's death, Father Divine had estab-

lished many Kingdoms, not just in New York but throughout
the United States. The Kingdoms provided rooming accomo-
dations for $2.00 per week. Like Beeton, Father advocated
celibacy and divided his kingdoms by sexes; even married
couples who joined the Kingdom had to separate. Since members
I

54

of a kingdom were both white and black, sexual separation

eliminated some of the criticism.
The Glory Homes of the Glory Savior closely resembled
the Divine Kingdoms of Father Divine. Both fed body and
soul. Both insisted on full collective living, always with
the restriction of no sex. The residents of the Kingdoms of
New York were mostly brown and black, but in California the
followers were predominantly white. All the believers were
primarily middle-aged, happy in their worship of the God.
Like the Glory Soulers (the followers of the Glory
Savior), the Angels of Father Divine danced to express their
joy. His words were spiritual nourishment for his followers,
but their joy was physical. McKay describes their movements
as "anarchy": "Rampant individual steps punctuate the
rhythm. Fragments of every conceivable dance measure whirl
about: A rare huddle of Guinea fetishers, an ecstatic
Senegalese plunging to the call of the tom-tom, a patter of
Moroccan flamenco, an Irish jig, a briefly oblique schot-
tische, the one-step, the rhumba? altogether they make one
glorious variation of all the dances of creation" (HNM,
pp. 39-40). All the dancing was individual; here also male
and female remained separate.

Songs were also important. The words may be a para-

phrased gospel hymn; "This is my story, this is my song, /
Praising my Father all the day long" (HNM, p. 40) or new
words to a popular dittyt "Though dark the clouds may be
today, / My heart has planned your path and Mine, / Have faith
 55

in GOD, / Have faith always . . . " (HNM, p. 40) or words

designed to further the ritual of the meeting; "An open
confession is good for the soul. / Good for the soul, good
for the soul, / An open confession is good for the soul, /
the half has never yet been told" (HNM, p. 42).
As the song indicates, public confession was an essen-
tial ritual. Angels confessed to former sinful lives in
order to show the complete change which Father Divine had
worked: "'I was sick and almost crazy seeing that man I
killt, until one day I seen Father Divine. Father he takes
charge of me and I surrendered to him. Father turned me
inside out and made a new man outa me. I did as Father told
me to do. I works as he wished me to work. I sleeps as he
put me to sleep.'" (HNM, p. 4l). It was public confession
which established Faithful Mary's position in the Angels.
Father Divine had raised her from the gutters of Newark to
make her his most trusted angel. She told her story over
and over again, impressing upon congregations the supreme
power of this little god from Sayville.
One difference between this account of Father Divine
and of the Glory Savior is apparent. Harlem Glory places
much reliance upon the sexual overtones of conversion. But
in this account of Father Divine, although the singing and
dancing may be unrestrained, specific sexual references are
unacceptable to the Angels. McKay describes one woman's
confession in this way: "She shrieks, agitating her shoul-
ders violently: 'I don't want any man, for the sinful flesh
 56

of man Is as cruel as the devil himself playing with the

soul of a woman.' • • • The woman quivered all over and
continued: 'Father chased the trouble of man out of my life
and plunged his spirit into me. Keep plunging, Father! Oh,
my God, I thank you Father'" (HNM, p. 42). And the response
was that "the congregation seemed to be a little shocked by
the savage intensity of the female angel's disavowal of man.
There was a kind of awkward lull. The male angels looked
slightly sheepish. And indeed, as I scanned the faces of
the female angels, It appeared that some were trying to
refrain from derisive laughter. Evidently the woman was out
of harmony with the universal spirit of Father Divine" (HNM,
p. 43).
Father Divine himself was a man of wide interests. He
protested discrimination against blacks, Jews, and aliens.
In 1936 he organized a Righteous Government Convention. Its
platform (written by Father Divine) attacked the New Deal,
labor unions, medical science, employment agencies, tariffs,
and control of crops. It also demanded destruction of fire-
arms, abolition of discrimination in the Civil Service,
abolition of segregation, and abolition of capital punish-
ment. Father Divine proclaimed himself to be against all
injustice In the world, a man interested primarily in estab-
lishing peace for individuals and peace for the entire world.
In McKay's view Father Divine's success grew from the
condition of Harlem itself. The Harlemites are "eternal God-
seekers" (HNM, p. 45). They seek a god who is good and
 57

compassionate. And when Father Divine projects himself as

God, he projects that image. He also unifies all religions
within himself; other religions are but "different manifes-
tations of his Spirit" (HNM, p. 44).
Another reason for his success is the removal of things
which confuse people. In his Kingdom there Is no sex, no
race, no color, no money. These problems may be part of the
man-made world, but they do not exist in his God-made world.
Even the body does not exist; the followers become angels.
On the subject of race and color, McKay quotes Father Divine
as saying:
'I have no color conception of myself. I have
arisen in Person as an outward expression to
manifest that I am personally living even as
I am mentally, spiritually and eternally living.
I came to unify all of humanity. They all need
me: every nation, every tongue and every people,
all the different nationalities and all the five
races collectively. My Power Is restoring Unity
where there is Division. If I were representing
race or creed or color or nation, I would be
limited in my conception of the universal. I
would not be^as I am, that I am, omnipotent.'
(HNM, p. 4 6 ) 5 &
On the subject of money Father Divine is just as force-
ful. No collections are taken, but an angel must give all
money and property to the Kingdom. Father Divine and his
followers absolutely refuse to discuss financial arrange-
ments. But the Kingdom of Peace owns much property, includ-
ing a country estate. Because Father Divine assured his
followers of happiness and security, his power grew.
One interesting aspect of Father Divine is his connec-
tion with the Communist Party. The Communists and the
 58

Divinites demonstrated together, but it was clear that

Father Divine had the greater strength. Co-operating with
the Communists was always to Father Divine's advantage. He
used their platform to denounce his own dislikes such as
trade unions. The division came when Father Divine attacked
the New Deal, which the Communists supported. Quietly the
Communists left Father Divine's support although he still
continued to call them "comrades" and to tell the world he
accomplished what the Communists advocated. To McKay the
linking of Father Divine with the Communists was not strange:
both movements, exploiting the principle of the
uplift of the down-and-out masses, have a striking
similarity.
If one takes the trouble to tear through the
gaudy metaphysical and animistic masquerade of
Father Divine's Mission and the Communists'
highly intellectualized materialistic concep-
tion of Society, one discovers the same funda-
mental principle: the abnegation of all indi-
viduality, collective servitude and strict
discipline in every domain of life with one
man as supreme dictator. (HNM, p. 48)

In 1937 misfortune struck Father Divine because he

could not control money. He could refuse to recognize money,
but because it was the important symbol of power in the man-
made world, it eventually brought dissension through the
best angel of all, Faithful Mary. Father Divine, in order
to show his complete faith in Mary, deeded property to her.
Evidently, she became obsessed with possessions and began
gathering her own money from some of the followers.*7 she
refused to return the property or the money and started an
unsuccessful rival cult. After a year of poverty and ill-
ness, she returned to Father Divine. Her rejoining the
 59

Divinites Increased again the power of the little man:

"Father Divine has accomplished miraculous feats. But
nothing he has done has so fortified his position and ele-
vated his authority than compelling the humble return of
penitent Faithful Mary to his Kingdom" (HNM, p. 6l). When
she confessed how the spirit of Father Divine had pursued
her until she was once again caught and returned to the fold,
she epitomized, in McKay's view, the power of Father Divine:
"she is typical of the potentialities of the Divine people.
Their collective Initiative is enormous and they accomplish
practical wonders under the leadership of Father Divine. But
when they are herd-driven by his power, they are lost souls.
Many observers recognized that Faithful Mary was a key per-
son in the Divine organization. But she was a key fashioned
by Father Divine. And when that key fell out of his hand,
it was worthless, it could open no other door" (HNM, p. 63).
Near the end of the chapter McKay argues that Father
Divine exerts not just cult or religious power but political
power as well. His Righteous Government has given him a
forum to speak on political issues. Moreover, he is inter-
ested in his followers' political education and insists that
they vote. His political power is also evidenced in his
early support of the Communist Party and in his attacks on
the New Deal. Because he advocated integration, he was
admired by the intelligentsia. His power is clearly illus-
trated in one of the closing paragraphs:
 60

And that is Father Divine in the grandeur of his

glory in the year 1940 A.D.F.D. He has magnif-
icently created his kingdom on earth. He has
ushered in his own millennium, with angels of
all complexions and races cavorting in his
heavens in the Metropolitan heart of New York.
His arcadian extension of the Promised Land is
abundant with all the milk and honey and perhaps
locusts that enchant the dreams of the lotus
lovers of Paradise.
His size, his color, his race, the subtle
combination of ignorance, mystery and arrogance
all have contributed to his elevation to the
throng of Deity. His followers are hypnotized
by the strangeness of it all:—God must be like
that! (HNM, p. 70)
In this long chapter on Father Divine, McKay presents
an objective view of the man and his movement. He sees
clearly the need in Harlem for such a movement. He also
sees the power which Father Divine wields. Perhaps one of
the most Interesting comparisons is to correlate this
account of Father Divine with the fictionalized account in
Harlem Glory. The fictionalized characters and scenes seemed
to be preparation for this analytical account which in
nearly every way works so much better.
From religion McKay moves his focus to the businesses
and politics of Harlem. The chapters which trace the eco-
nomic growth of Harlem are divided into businessmen, the
numbers game, and amusements.
Although McKay mentions several wealthy businessmen
and discusses at length the businesses which exist in Harlem,
he sees the "chronic sickness" of Harlem to be the "lack of
community commerce among the residents" (HNM, p. 89). He
continues: "There is no other American community in which
the huge bulk of local business, from the smallest to the
 61

largest, is operated by outsiders" (HNM, p. 89). The trades-

men are Greek, Italian, Puerto Rican, Oriental or Jew, but
not Aframerlcan. No restaurants or cafeterias are owned by
blacks. Until Father Divine came to Harlem, no blacks oper-
ated laundries. McKay attributes this lack of enterprise to
the blacks' positions as snobbish domestics for wealthy
white families. They would rather work in kitchens or dining
rooms than operate a pushcart or a small store.
But McKay, in spite of his criticism, contends that as
a result of Marcus Garvey and Father Divine, "the Negro
Community has been awakened to the possibilities of the small
business in the basement or a pushcart in the street" (HNM,
p. 92). Both of these movements urged the black masses toward
community enterprise with the resulting economic growth.
After thus condemning the former lack of economic growth and
praising the new urge towards community enterprise, McKay
goes on to discuss various successful Aframerlcan enterprises
such as the Victory Mutual Life Insurance Co., the Brown
Bomber Baking Co., the Amsterdam News, and the Madame C. J.
Walker Co. which are controlled by funds from black Investors
and employ black workers.
In the chapter on the numbers game, McKay establishes
that "playing numbers is the most flourishing clandestine
industry in Harlem" (HNM, p. 101). But it, too, is a part
of the community enterprise, "a community pastime in which
old and young, literate and illiterate, the neediest folk
and the well-to-do all participate" (HNM, p. 101). He traces
 62

the history of the game from its Mediterranean background,

its establishment in Spanish barbershops between 1910-1920,
its hectic spread in the 1920's to its take-over by racke-
teers during and after Prohibition.
The fascination of numbers is multiple to the people
of Harlem. The profits are large; a winning number can con-
vert a penny Into six dollars. The game Is open, simple,
and Inexpensive. In addition, a winning number brings imme-
diate fame to its holder. In Harlem Glory the narrator
states: "The ignorant masses were excited by the idea of
their big Negroes understanding the magic of Stock Exchange
and working out a plan on which all Harlem could participate"
(HG, p. 8 ) . McKay comments in Harlem; Negro Metropolis
that "The Magnetism of the game was heightened by its ille-
gitimate link to the Stock Exchange. Harlem folk thought
that they too had a little part in the ramifications of the
stock market" (HNM, p. 109). Along with the numbers game
also grew the science of numerology and interpretation of
dreams. Since the game was totally chance, any omen was
Interpreted as a number. For McKay the growth of mysticism
was compatible with the growth of the numbers game.
In Harlem Glory the character Ned Rose, who was por-
trayed as an unassuming, benevolent numbers king, seems to
be based on an actual numbers king, Caspar Holstein. Like
Ned Rose, Holstein was phllantropic, donating money to col-
leges, benevolent Institutions, and individuals. Holstein
also established the literary prizes for Opportunity
 63

magazine. Both were West Indian. Ned Rose, however, was

killed in gangland fashion. Caspar Holstein was kidnapped,
eventually released, but finally dropped out of the racket
altogether.
Two factors dramatically changed the numbers game
between the 1920's and the 1930's. One was the muscling in
of white racketeers. In the early years, whites were con-
temptuous of "the nigger pool." But the change came when
Holstein was kidnapped in 1928 and held for $50,000 ransom.
Harlem earlier had been known as the headquarters of Garvey
and the site of an artistic renaissance. Now it was clear
Harlem had an "underworld comparable within its dimensions
to the dazzling dynamic underworld of the whites, a world in
which the shrewd enterprising members of the Negro minority
chiseled out a way to social superiority by the exploitation
of the potentialities of their own people" (HNM, p. 105).
Racketeers like Dutch Schultz became aware of the profits
involved in the numbers game, which was an agreeable side
interest to bootlegging. So whites began to scrutinize
more closely "the nigger pool."
The other factor was Federal and Municipal investiga-
tions. As the profits became known, tax investigators found
income tax fraud. And so the numbers kings and queens began
to retire. The investigators also discovered that "the sec-
ret 'nigger pool' was no child's play. But, disarming as
black laughter In Harlem, albeit loosely organized, it was a
formidable parasitic growth within the social body of the
blacks" (HNM, p. 105). Finally as a result of the Seaburv
investigations of 1931, the Stock Exchange discontinued the
publication of the Clearing House reports; consequently the
lucky numbers shifted from the Stock Exchange to horse racing.
For McKay the numbers game is not all evil. When the
game went underground and became controlled by the "invisible
white syndicate" (HNM, p. 114), left behind were the little
stores operated as fronts for the game. Those businesses
faced ruin, but surprisingly they held on and won new cus-
tomers. The owners discovered they could successfully com-
pete with other small businessmen and so contributed to the
growth of small businesses which McKay discussed earlier.
The third and shortest chapter of this section mentions
the business of amusements. Before Prohibition the Irish
owned most of the taverns. During Prohibition the Italians
gained prominence. Repeal brought back Aframerican-owned
cabarets, but the crowds went to white owned places. In
1940, McKay comments, there is no Aframerlcan owned dance-
hall in Harlem; musicians are paid at lower rates; there is
no legitimate theatre in Harlem. Once again black people
are forced into the role of giving their money to outsiders.
The point is clear: Harlemites do not control their world.
The eighth chapter of Harlem: Negro Metropolis, enti-
tled "Harlem Politician," is a sprawling, poorly organized
section which begins with an account of all the people who
held political or municipal jobs in 1939-1940 with salaries
ranging from $2,500 to $12,000 per year. Some thirty names
are mentioned. McKay then continues to enumerate librarians,
 65

postal service employees, educators, and doctors. The dis-

cussion of doctors leads McKay into one of his favorite
topics; segregation. McKay firmly believes that separatism
is part of the "adjustment" which black people must make.
He argues that a fine black hospital should be established
in Harlem. Although the white radicals and black intelli-
gentsia would be angered by such a proposal, McKay feels
that such an institution would compel recognition by the
white medical profession.
With a quick shift McKay moves from doctors to politi-
cians. He traces the history of black politics within the
larger framework of New York City politics. Tammany Hall
began the recognition of the black minority, but it offered
only indirect representation because the black people were
represented by "leaders" who In turn were represented by
white leaders in the Tammany organization. Political
appointments were usually made to those recommended by the
United Colored Democracy (the first black Democratic group)
rather than to someone who had labored loyally for votes.
Indirect representation often did not reward deserving peo-
ple. But beginning in 1917 State Assemblymen were elected.
In 1920 George Harris became the first city alderman to be
elected. During the 1920's and 1930's such men as Herbert
L. Bruce, Henri W. Shields, Charles Filmore, William T.
Andrews, and Daniel L. Burrows were elected. At the time of
writing (1940), however, the black minority had no represen-
tative on the City Council although it did have two in the
State Assembly.
 66

In McKay's view the Garvey movement initiated the idea

of the black minority exerting its own political force and
stirred independent political action. That desire for
direct political representation created men who could become
responsible leaders. With political awareness came the
recognition that unity is necessary to elect a candidate.
Using Herbert Bruce as a unifying device, this chapter
makes another shift to a section entitled "Racial Groups."
Bruce is a West Indian and McKay uses this section to compare
the Aframerlcan with two other groups—the West Indians and
the Puerto Ricans. In speaking of the West Indians, McKay
may well be revealing his own experiences when he came to
America. To McKay, the sharpest struggle lies between the
educated American black and the West Indian because "The
educated American Negro is brought up in the old tradition
of special protection and patronage for the talented members
of his group. He regards the West Indian as an outsider,
who should not share in the special patronage" (HNM, p. 132).
In addition, the differences in backgrounds create dissen-
sion. Most immigrants come to this country hating those who
oppressed them in their native country. But West Indians
seem to lack that resentment. They boast of better social
conditions for blacks in the islands; McKay accuses them of
"pretense" (HNM, p. 134). The West Indians do not under-
stand the relationships between class and color in the
islands. There, the whites are the wealthy aristocrats; the
browns are the tradesmen and civil servants; the blacks are
 67

the laborers. There are no rich black or poor white as

might be found in America. They do not understand that a
black man may earn as much money as a white man in America
but not be allowed to spend it as he wishes because of his
color. This color discrimination "creates a resentment of
which the average West Indian is oblivious until he lands in
this country and participates in the life of the Negro
minority" (HNM, p. 135).
The other group which McKay discusses in this section
is the Puerto Ricans. Their background is also different
because McKay says that color has never been a major problem
in Puerto Rico. They also have retained their Spanish lan-
guage, which unifies them. McKay praises the Puerto Ricans
because he feels their "adjustment" has been better than the
Aframericans'. Rather than moving into larger and costlier
apartment houses, the Puerto Ricans concentrated their money
and energy on building up small businesses. As a result the
group is largely traders—few professional people, but also
few laborers. However, there also Is a large criminal ele-
ment. But McKay also finds the Puerto Ricans to be more con-
cerned with literary culture and he ends the chapter with a
lengthy discussion of Arthur Schomburg, the Puerto Rican
immigrant who amassed the collection now housed by the 135th
Street branch of the New York City Public Library.

The fourth section of Harlem: Negro Metropolis includes

only one chapter, "Marcus Aurelius Garvey," which gives a
brief biography of the man and traces the development of his
 68

Universal Negro Improvement Association. Much of the chapter

concerns itself with the years I916-I927, which span Garvey's
arrival in this country and his deportation to Jamaica.
This chapter differs from the ones previously discussed
in two ways. First of all the sense of the past is much
stronger in this chapter. Garvey was not in Harlem in the
1930'sj most of his work was done before his deportation.
But the importance of Garvey to Harlem is evident throughout
the book. Frequently, McKay comments that the UNIA caused
certain political or economic results to occur.5° It might
be argued that since this essay deals with earlier events,
it should appear near the front of the collection. Perhaps
McKay deliberately placed it near the end so that he could
first show Harlem of 1940, the Harlem which grew from Garvey's
influence between 1916-1927.
The second way In which this chapter differs is that
McKay in 1940 is obviously sympathetic to Garvey.59 Perhaps
McKay saw much of himself In Garvey. They were both born in
Jamaica, Garvey two years before McKay. Garvey's father was
an artisan; McKay's father was a well-to-do peasant farmer.
Both young men were sent to Kingston to learn a trade;
McKay's career was interrupted by the earthquake which
destroyed the trade school, but Garvey became a successful
printer. Both wished to study under Booker T. Washington at
Tuskegee and then return to Jamaica to teach their agricul-
tural knowledge to the peasants. McKay came to America in
1912, Garvey in 1916. Both were concerned with the published
I

69

word. While still in Jamaica, Garvey established Garvey's

Watchman. In London he was associated with the African
Times and Orient Review. By January, 1918, the Negro World.
the weekly newspaper of the UNIA, was organized. Both men
also spent time in London during a formative period. Garvey
began his Back to Africa thinking while there in 1912-1913.
Both men were interested in the common people: Garvey
preached to themj McKay In his fiction wrote about them. As
a result, both men were ridiculed or ignored by the black
intelligentsia. Both men were also attacked because of their
separatist ideas. McKay says:
Garvey was a fervent admirer of Booker T.
Washington's marvellous skill in building up
and holding together a modern all-Negro insti-
tution. He was a partisan of the Tuskegee
school of politics. And this school was espe-
cially detested by that northern Negro group
led by the powerful National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People of New York
and the Equal Rights Association of Boston.
They accused Garvey of advocating Segregation
and of pandering to the worst prejudices of
Southern whites. Opposition was erected
against him. This opposition was joined by
the small but intelligent and influential
group of Negroes affiliated with the Labor
and Radical movements. And doubtlessly It
was this powerful combination of the Negro
intelligentsia, aided by wealthy supporters,
which finally brought about Garvey's down-
fall, (HNM, p, 158) b 0
McKay, too, was severely attacked for his belief that sepa-
ratism was essential at times. Both were converted to Roman
Catholicism, although Garvey was converted in his youth and
later left the Church. McKay is much closer to Garvey than
to any other figure in the book. For that reason the chapter
is both lengthy and highly sympathetic.
 70

The differences between the two men are also numerous.

Garvey had an excellent common school educations he even
claimed to have studied at the University of London. McKay
had little formal education; his university was the librar-
ies of U'Theo and Mr. Jekyll. Garvey could attract and
manipulate thousands of people through his presence and his
organization. McKay was not a forceful political organizer;
he chose to write, not to speak. Garvey returned to his
Jamaica (not by choice, however); McKay elected never to
return to his "green hills."
At one point in the essay McKay analyzes the reasons
for Garvey's initial success In 1918. At this time confusion
and despair were great. No one spoke for the common black
man. Both the NAACP and the Equal Rights League were estab-
lished and were fighting for the rights of black people, but
they appealed to the intelligentsia. The Democrats had been
returned to office again in 1916, but they offered no solu-
tions, only more problems. Wilson seemed to feel little
obligation to his black supporters. Southern whites claimed
they did not want blacks, yet prevented blacks f?*om moving
north to the industrial centers. In the midst of the War,
America had little time for minority pleas or problems.
Black soldiers were segregated and mistrusted. There was a
general feeling that black people would never be citizens,
but would always be the outsider, the Universal Stranger. ^

Into this confusion and despair came Marcus Garvey

with his magical appeal of "Back to Africa." Probably most
 71

of his followers did not desire to go back to Africa, but

they supported his Black Star Line. The masses listened to
his speeches, cheered his parades, supported his pleas.
McKay notes; "Inspired by the response of the masses,
Garvey outlined a programme for a planned Negro economy. He
exhorted Negroes to trade among themselves, to make contacts
for trading with Negroes abroad, to start a real Negro
Church based upon African religion, build Negro schools and
a society of Negro people. He wanted to create a Negro
society according to the European plan, with royalty, nobil-
ity, laity, priests, workers" (HNM, p. 151)• His presence
reached everywhere—the deep South, the Caribbean, and the
Congo. He became the modern Moses, the black savior" (HNM,
P. 152). 6 2
By 1919 the Black Star Line had acquired Its first
boat with a black captain, black mates, and a black crew.
It was tangible evidence that black people would be independ-
ent; they could manage their own affairs. Unfortunately, on
its first voyage to the West Indies in 1920 with a cargo of
liquor, the ship proved unseaworthy. The crew became undis-
ciplined, "raided the cargo and went on a boozers' holiday"
(HNM, p. 154). 6 3
Also in 1920 Garvey held the first Universal Negro
convention in Harlem. This colorful and exuberant assembly
made New York City aware of Garvey and the UNIA. Delegates
came from every state plus Africa, Brazil, Columbia, and
Central America. The scene was lavish: "Garvey wore a
 72

magnificent uniform of purple, green and black, and a plumed

hat. He stood In his car and saluted the cheering crowds
that jammed the sidewalks. Behind him in full regalia rode
the nobility and the notables of the Universal Negro Asso-
ciation, brilliant sashes denoting their rank. The African
Legion filed past, stiff, erect, left, right, left, right,
and all the auxiliaries of the association and the enormous
mass of the rank and file" (HNM, p. 155)• In his speeches
Garvey praised the people for their work and support and
urged them to greater deeds.
In 1921, according to McKay, Garvey had a chance to
become a political leader. But he lost the opportunity
because he angered the northern black intelligentsia. Black
people had fared badly under Wilson. Booker T. Washington
had been a Republican with great influence, but with his
death no one remained who could deal with both northern and
southern whites and conservative blacks. Garvey controlled
the black masses, but in 1921 he supported Warren Harding's
view of the role of the blacks in politics with this tele-
gram;

All true Negroes are against Social Equality,

believing that all Negroes should develop along
their own social lines. . . . The New Negro will
join hands with those who are desirous of keeping
the two opposite races socially pure and work to-
gether for the industrial, educational and politi-
cal liberation of all peoples. The Negro peoples
of the world expect the South to give the Negroes
a fair chance. Long live America. Long live
President Harding in his manly advocacy of Social
Justice. (HNM, p. 157)
These words angered the northern black intelligentsia.
McKay explains their anger In this way;
For 75 years "Social Equality" has been the red
sign of danger between the white world and the
Negro. Southern whites interpret it to mean,
mainly, intimate social Intercourse between
whites and blacks, with resultant miscegena-
tion. The Northern Negro intelligentsia
challenge this interpretation. They interpret
Social Equality to mean equal opportunity for
Negro Americans under the American system of
economy: aqual opportunity in the industrial,
education, political and other avenues of
American life.
In the West Indies, Social Equality is
generally used in the careless way of the
Southern whites. And so it meant the same
thing to Marcus Garvey as it did to them.
So Garvey, with his inability to make the distinction, lost
the opportunity to be a successful political leader.64
By 1922 Garvey was charged with using the mails to
defraud.65 But the case was not tried until 1923, a delay
which infuriated Garvey's opponents but gave him time to
organize another convention, more spectacular than the
previous one. His robes and plumes were grander; he
increased his noble followers (new titles included Duke of
Nigeria and Overlord of Uganda); he received gifts for his
cause, for African Redemption, and for the new Black Star
Line. When Garvey's case came to trial, he chose to act as
his own lawyer. And McKay indicates that he grandly played
the role but nevertheless his sentence was five years in
prison and a fine of $1,000.
About this time Garvey began working in two new areas.
He established the African Orthodox Church with a black
theology, and he established connections with Liberia. The
 74

Black Star Line was reestablished and a boat purchased to

take American blacks to settle in Liberia. But during the
1924 Convention of the Association, designed as a farewell
party for the new pioneers, the government of Liberia issued
a repudiation of the UNIA and refused to recognize the dele-
gates who were sent to make arrangements for the settlers.
Garvey retaliated by releasing a report made in 1920 by
Ell Garcia, sent by Garvey to Liberia to survey the country.
The report was highly critical of the practices of the
LiberIan government and as a result "injured the cause of the
Liberians among the Negro peoples of the world" (HNM, p. 167).
Eventually Garvey lost his investment in Liberia as well as
the faith of those who believed in "Back to Africa." McKay
says: "Marcus Garvey had dreamed of a vast model colony in
Liberia. But it was Harvey Firestone who realized the dream
with his extensive rubber plantations" (HNM, p. 168).

In 1925 Garvey's appeal to the Supreme Court was

rejected and he entered the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. His
followers worked diligently for his release: "His lawyer
released a memorandum showing that the chief count upon which
Garvey was convicted was untenable. Petitions were sent to
the President of the United States. The jury that convicted
him came out with a statement in favor of his release. Met-
ropolitan newspapers, such as the Dally News, which has a
large circulation in Harlem, demanded that Garvey be par-
doned" (HNM, p. 170). But he was deported in November, 1927.
 75

Garvey spent the last thirteen years of his life trying

to keep his organization together from Jamaica. He visited
England, where he had a cold reception, and Paris. He hoped
to see Africa but was prevented by British authority. He
organized another convention in Jamaica in 1929» 66 hut his
manipulations split the organization and a rebel group was
formed in New York. He eventually returned to London where
he attempted to organize a movement to help Ethiopia during
the Italian invasion. When Haile Selassie arrived in London,
he snubbed Garvey. Garvey denounced Selassie as "a coward
and a traitor to desert his people and run away from his
country" (HNM, p. 176). This whole episode served only to
weaken further Garvey's power.
When Garvey died in London in 1940, he was still recog-
nized by the American black masses as their leader. Few
people believed he misappropriated funds from the Back to
Africa movement. Even the intellectuals during the 1930's
came to admire his Ideas, even if they could never accept
his methods. '
But for McKay, the finest thing which Garvey accom-
plished was to increase racial consciousness among black
people of all classes. In addition to unifying the masses,
he encouraged artistic achievement. His craft and art ex-
hibits revealed the cultural achievement of black people.
The paintings of the Black Christ and the Black Virgin of
the African Orthodox Church and the literary Harlem Renais-
sance movement were a part of the Garvey era. 8 "The New
 76

Negro" grew partly from the racial consciousness and inde-

pendence which Garvey taught. Black artists became concerned
with their heritage and with the intense social problems of
their existence. And they began asserting their own idenity
in varied ways.
McKay calls Garvey "a weaver of dreams * . . who
translated into a fantastic pattern of reality the gaudy
strands of the vicarious desires of the submerged members of
the Negro race" (HNM, p. 143), But he was also a man with a
plan for a black economy, a black Church, black schools,
and a complete society of black people. It is no wonder his
appeal was so great. As McKay says:
There has never been a Negro leader like
Garvey. None ever enjoyed a fraction of his
universal popularity. He winged his way into
the firmament of the white world holding aloft
a black star and exhorting the Negro people to
gaze upon and follow it. His aspiration to
reach dizzy heights and dazzle the vision of
the Negro world does not remain monumental,
like the rugged path of the pioneer or of the
hard, calculating, practical builder. But it
survives In the memory like the spectacular
swath of an unforgettable comet. (HNM, p. 143)
This essay is one of the finest in the collection. The
focus is sharply on Garvey and seldom wavers. The language
of the essay is vivid and forceful. This chapter and the
one on Father Divine indicate that McKay has not lost his
eye for concrete detail nor his ability to choose words
which best convey an atmosphere or an attitude.
The last chapter of Harlem: Negro Metropolis. "Sufi
Abdul Hamid and Organized Labor," explores the labor unions
and the Communist Party in Harlem. In the process of
 77

viewing these two large topics, McKay also discusses racial

intermarriage, Supreme Court appointments, and the black
intelligentsia. Like some of the other chapters, the organ-
ization is sprawling as McKay freely associates ideas. The
chapter ends abruptly, which means the book also ends
abruptly.
The early part of the chapter discusses the Sufi who
came to Harlem from Chicago in 1932. He began as a street
agitator, attracting not just the common people but also edu-
cated jobless youth, and soon convinced the masses that an
organization was needed to increase jobs for blacks. Against
him was the older intelligentsia, the Church, and the Press,
who all accused him of segregation. After the Sufi organized
the Negro Industrial and Clerical Alliance, the group solic-
ited jobs and picketed stores. After some early success, in
1934 the Sufi carried his campaign to 125th street, where he
urged people to buy only from stores which employed black
people. He hoped to keep money in Harlem rather than allow
it all to leave the area. But the picketing brought no suc-
cess and Hamid lashed at the Harlemites, saying that "the
Harlem Negroes were folding their arms, waiting for the white
folk to do something, but that white folk could not help them
if they did not help themselves" (HNM, p. 191). Hamid could
not believe in a system of Christian gradualism; he felt that
only direct pressure would improve the economic imbalances of
black people.
 78

About this time some of the more conservative leaders

of Harlem formed the Citizens League for Fair Play. (Sufi
was also a member.) But their intellectual, forthright
approach was unsuccessful, also, until one department store
agreed to hire thirty-five black clerks. At this point the
two groups severed their friendship. The Sufi insisted that
some organization was necessary to protect the clerks; the
Citizens' League felt obtaining the jobs was sufficient.
The Citizens' League also wanted the clerks to be light-
skinned middle-class Harlemites who had not picketed; the
Sufi wanted the black youth who had actively engaged in
picketing to be rewarded.
To support the dissension, a Harlem Merchants' Associ-
ation (white) was formed. It supported the Citizens' League
and attacked the Sufi. Finally the thirty-five positions
were filled but, shortly after, all the newly employed blacks
were released, proving the Sufi's contention that some sup-
portive organization was necessary.
The Sufi's movement was also bitterly attacked by the
Communists, who labelled him a "Black Hitler" (HNM, p. 196).
The campaign continued until, in McKay's words, "The nation
was treated to a fantastically exaggerated Idea of the growth
of an organized Nazi and anti-Semitic movement among Negroes"
(HNM, p. 200). His attempts to find jobs for his black fol-
lowers in white stores were labelled anti-Semitic, although
the Sufi did not distinguish between Italians, Greeks, or
Jews,
 79

Finally in 1935 legal procedures caught up with the

Sufi. In 1934 he was brought to court on charges of disor-
derly conduct which "specified that he was conducting a race
war against the Jews" (HNM, p. 200). He had been discharged,
but in 1935 he was charged with "preaching atheism and ped-
dling his pamphlet without a license" (HNM, p. 205). He was
sentenced to twenty days in jail, but evidently the real
reason was the old charge of "Black Hitler."
Following this episode the Sufi retired from labor
agitation and returned to mysticism. But after the riot in
March, 1935» he appeared once more to exhort black people to
action. McKay reports the appearance In this fashion:
From his step-ladder above the pavement the Sufi
thundered; 'The investigation will not solve
your problem. Harlem is expecting a miralce, but
nothing can save Negroes but themselves. The
Communists and Socialists cannot; Republicans,
Democrats cannot save Negroes,' It was odd to
listen to him all tricked out in his Oriental
toggery. When I challenged him about it and
his recent reversion to the practice of mysti-
cism, he said that there was so much religion and
regalia In the soul of the Negroes one could do
nothing with them without some show of it.
(HNM, pp. 219-220)
He had organized the Afro-American Federation of Labor,
which continued to picket. In July, 19351 the Lerner Co.
asked for an injunction, arguing that the Sufi was trying to
drive the whites from Harlem. The Sufi and his witnesses
insisted he was only seeking cooperation for the benefit of
the entire community. But the judge ruled "that the Sufi's
organization was not a labor union, and handed down an
Injunction against its activities" (HNM, p. 211). Once again
 80

the Sufi retired and remained with his mysticism until his
death in 1938, He did have the satisfaction, though, that
before his death, the Supreme Court ruled that blacks could
make demands for employment on the basis of color because
they were discriminated on that basis.
The section on the Sufi Abdul Hamid does not have the
power or the charm of the earlier sections on Father Divine
and Marcus Garvey. McKay obviously feels sympathy for Hamid;
their ideas correspond in many ways. But perhaps the move-
ment lacked the color and the power of the UNIA or the King-
doms. So McKay's description of the Sufi also lacks power.
Also attacked in this section are the Communists and
the black intelligentsia. The Communists were unhappy with
McKay following his comments in A Long Way from Home. These
further comments could only have increased the hostility.
By the mid-1930's both the Communists and the Social-
ists were a part of the Harlem scene. McKay condemns them
both because they could recognize the problems but neither
could relieve social or economic conditions in Harlem. They
continued to argue that the problems were class, not color,
and so the solutions should be class, not color. McKay
insists that they so avidly opposed the Sufi because
At that time they had been waging a national and
International campaign for the recognition of the
Negro's right to life. The Scottsboro and Angelo
Herndon cases were the flaming stars around which
their campaign revolved. The Communists fixed
their eyes on the stars and refused to look down
upon the common ground of community life, where
the Negroes were carrying on a practical struggle
for bread and shelter. Their primary aim had
been radically to exploit the Negro's grievances.
 81

Therefore they use their influence to destroy

any movement which might make for a practical
amelioration of the Negro's problems.
(HNM, p. 196)°9
The Communists fought any black organization because they
wanted no competition in their appeal to the black masses.
For that reason they attacked for so long A. Phillip Randolph
and his attempts to organize the Pullman Porters. They
accused him of alliance with segregationists and of enslaving
black people again. But when he finally did succeed, they
were the first to congratulate him. McKay argues that "Com-
munists and Socialists have always been evasive on the issue
of employment for the Negro minority and integrating it with
American industry. They prefer to agitate about Segregation
and Race Prejudice in general, and avoid the fundamental
issue" (HNM, p. 197)• He continues; "To the thinking Negro
Clike McKay] it was too obvious that the Communists were out
to exploit all the social disadvantages of the Negro minority
for propaganda effect, but that they were little interested
in practical efforts to ameliorate the social conditions of
that minority" (HNM, p. 203).
One point which particularly aggrevates McKay is that
the Communists are not color blind, as they profess. Black
Communist leaders all have white wives, but so do the white
leaders. Evidently they believe a man should have the right
to choose his mate, as long as she is white. McKay develops
at some length the situation and concludes that as long as
the black woman is ignored, the Communists will never domi-
nate the black minority (HNM, p. 234).
 82

But the Communists continue to accuse blacks of race

hatred. McKay argues that resentment and protest are not
evidences of hatred; rather "The Negro minority nurses
resentment against the white majority as such, because
against them it maintains a barrier of social and economic
discrimination. It is sound Americanism that the Negro
minority should voice its protest and exercise its constitu-
tional right to agitate and strive to ameliorate its social
status" (HNM, p. 208). But the Communists use race hatred
to their advantage and accuse anyone who speaks of uniting
black people as chauvinists or nationalists,
McKay is also incensed with the Communists' attitude
towards the employment of black workers. The Communists
could not support Hamid's organization or the Harlem Labor
Union but it could support the CIO in its national drive for
membership. The CIO looked like the answer to Harlem's labor
problems because it "declared its primary aim to organize the
disinherited among American workers, the semi-skilled and
unskilled, regardless of nationality, race and color, Norman
or Brahmin birth or previous state of servitude. . . . " (HNM,
p. 213). But the Harlem Labor Union was wary of promises
and insisted that under the CIO whites would be clerks and
blacks would be menials. And the fighting which ensued
between the Communist-backed CIO and the AF of L partially
proved the Harlem Labor Union correct. In the struggle to
preserve the organization, the individuals were sacrificed.
Jobs would be offered to blacks, then withdrawn and offered
 83

to whites. In many cases the HLU took over when the CIO
failed; it became especially active in areas which were
overlooked—grocery stores, butcher shops, pawn shops, and
bars.
McKay argues that black trade unions must start at the
bottom with small shops and domestics. The unions must be
concerned with the total welfare of its members. It must
work slowly and carefully to find its strength. It cannot
suddenly spring forth, nor can It depend upon white support.
(HNM, p. 216) Randolph evidently professes the same belief
because McKay says of him; "Mr. Randolph believes that the
Negro group must cooperate, but only with other American
groups. He believes that the mainspring of the Negro minor-
ity lies within itself" (HNM, p. 230). 7 0 In McKay's view
the Communists' biggest trick occurred in 1936 when it organ-
ized the Popular Front7 to fool the world and the National
Negro Congress to fool the American blacks.72 The National
Negro Congress united many black organizations. A. Phillip
Randolph was elected president. McKay exonerates him,
saying that although Randolph understood well the tactics of
the Communists, "he headed the Negro Congress because he
believed that the Communists were really sincere when they
adapted a neo-liberal style of clothing and promoted the
Popular Front in the interests of Democracy" (HNM, p. 221-
222). Once Randolph discovered that the Communists controlled
the Congress, he immediately resigned. The appeal of the'
Congress, however, remained strong for the intellectuals,
 8*1

especially those youthful ones. But the Congress made no

approach to the masses, who were not so easily persuaded by
slogans. There were still no jobs for the working force of
Harlem. But the direct attacks upon the HLU lessened as
the Communists hoped to unite all groups.
The attempt of the Communists to infiltrate and con-
trol black organizations is evidenced in the Negro Writers'
Guild. The Guild was a group of Harlem writers who also
were associated with the Federal Writers' Project. The Com-
munists immediately attacked the group as segregated and
proposed a white woman as member because she had written
articles about blacks. As McKay says: "None of us there
who were opposed to a white person's joining a Negro guild
had any desire to wound the sensibilities of this fine-
spirited woman. But the unpleasant thing had to be done and
we had to inform her that we wanted the guild to remain
Negro, She could not understand this. She taunted us with
condoning the Jim Crow policy and segregating ourselves"
(HNM, p. 247), Finally the group died rather than allow a
white woman to become a member."3
Later in 1937 another attempt was made to organize a
group of Harlem writers. This time, James Weldon Johnson
was President, a good choice because no one could accuse him
of believing in segregation. McKay comments:
At an initial meeting James Weldon Johnson
pointed out that he could see no segregation In
Negroes having their own all-Negro groups. It
was something like a man organizing his own
household and running it in his own way. He
could have his neighbors in as guests, and they
 85

could co-operate on general lines, but they

could not be members, Negroes had the same
larger human interests as white people, but
also they had peculiar interests which could
be worked out only among themselves. (HNM, p. 248)
But even James Weldon Johnson could not remove the segre-
gation label. Because the group could not withstand the
attacks, it died with Johnson in 1938.
Throughout the essay McKay also jabs at the intelli-
gentsia. He accuses them of little understanding: "They
imagine they can escape the problems of their group by join-
ing the whites as individuals. Their approach is academic.
And the attitude of the whites is to regard them as novel-
ties" (HNM, p. 218), But these people eventually discover
that race is important; they discover that they are "colored
comrades" (HNM, p, 219), They become totally alienated from
all groups because they have allowed themselves no racial
unity.
In addition he also accuses them of succumbing too
easily to the Communist dogma. The Communists, for instance,
know "that Segregation is the delicate, sensitive issue
about which few educated Negroes are sane and logical" (HNM,
p. 225). The intelligentsia who are easily fooled by the
people who proclaim social equality have little understand-
ing of the ramifications of such a belief. McKay repeatedly
attacks Adam Powell, Jr., for falling for the segregation
ploy.
McKay also attacks the intelligentsia for not sup-
porting those organizations which could help the masses such
 86

as the HLU, Again the point which McKay made in the first
chapter is clear; the elite wish to separate themselves
from the mass. Moreover, McKay believes the intelligentsia
to be defeatist. They assume the masses cannot organize
themselves (HNM, p. 228). Nor will they support black
businesses.74
McKay ends the essay with extremely pointed comments
on the intelligentsia and the masses. He feels they have two
aspects in common* racial consciousness and grievances
against white society. But the approaches to these simi-
larities vary. The masses group themselves together in an
attempt to become a responsible part of America, They are
part of "the aggregated community idea of Negro life" (HNM,
p. 259) as expressed by Booker T. Washington, who urged
black people to work together for advancement. In contrast
the intellectuals resisted this community effort as segre-
gation. McKay states further that the common people "seek
some practical way of compromise and adjustment to this
white society, because no individual or group can be happy
living under an eternal grievance" (HNM, p. 255) while the
intelligentsia choose to resist solutions. Finally, the
masses seek to choose black leaders while the intellectuals
choose white leaders. McKay feels this desire for white
leaders is illuminated through the association with the Com-
munists. He feels the intelligentsia were so attracted to
Communism because "they imagine they can use the threat of
Communism among Negroes to wring concessions from the major
 87

political parties" (HNM, p. 252). They fail to realize they

must fight alone; help cannot come from any white quarter.
They also fall to realize the black cause only serves the
Communist cause and can be betrayed at any moment. He says
that "Negroes should think for themselves. It is hurting
their cause when any organization not truly representative
sets itself up as their national and international spokesman.
Wild-eyed, panic-stricken neurotic whites who cannot think
how to save themselves from the bankruptcy of their own isms,
certainly cannot think for the Negro people" (HNM, p. 254).
This chapter more than any other in the work displays
McKay's comprehension of his world. He sees that Harlem must
"adjust its community life to the American standard" (HNM,
p. 181) and at the same time struggle against forces both
interior and exterior for "cultural, political and economic
adjustment" (HNM, p. 181). He also sees that "This issue of
Segregation is a formidable specter, paralyzing to the pro-
gress of the Negro community in every aspect of its life:
in politics, in culture, in business and labor. The Negro
community is feverishly agitated and divided by it" (HNM,
p. 183). For McKay, group solidarity is essential to release
prejudice and to allow improvement. His view that integra-
tion is unfortunate is supported by one of the last and most
forceful paragraphs in the book:
The idea of the constructive development of
Negro communities commercially, politically and
culturally, should be actively prosecuted, in
spite of intellectual opposition. The Negro
minority has been compelled of necessity to
create its own preachers and teachers, doctors
 88

and lawyers. If these were proportionately

complemented by police officers, sheriffs and
judges, principals of schools, landlords and
businessmen, etc., the Negro community, instead
of remaining unAmerican, would take on the
social aspect of its white counterpart.
Undoubtedly this would result in the easing of
the tension of the race problem and Negroes
would begin to regard themselves more as one
other American minority. (HNM, p. 260)
Harlem: Negro Metropolis lacks the charm of A Long
Way from Home, but it is a very different sort of book.
Harlem: Negro Metropolis does not focus on the growth and
development of a single personality; rather it focuses on
the entire area called Harlem, which includes many vivid
personalities. The book gives evidence that McKay took
seriously his move from imaginative recreator of a world to
perceptive analyzer of the world he found around him. The
search for the role of a black man In this modern world is
clear in this book, but the individual is placed against the
background of a large group of people.
McKay has attempted in this book to reveal the Harlem
he views in the late 1930's. Throughout the book McKay has
carefully delineated those forces both within and without
Harlem which aid or impede the adjustment process—pressure
for room, desire of the elite to be separate from the masses,
Father Divine and the cults, the mystics, the numbers game,
the politicians and businessmen, Garvey, the white world,
the Communist Party, the black intelligentsia, the black
masses, religious fervor, and desire for acceptance. Harlem
was seething during this period with nationalism, revivalism,
and poverty. McKay manages to capture all of those churning
 89

parts. With his eye for detail, he has chosen many things
which appeal to the reader. Parts of the book—the sections
on Garvey and Father Divine especially—read well and thor-
oughly entice the reader. In A Long Way from Home one of
the finest characteristics Is his ability to create the
atmosphere of a city. He displays that ability in Harlem:
Negro Metropolis as he recreates the atmosphere of one sec-
tion of a large city.
Like A Long Way from Home. Harlem; Negro Metropolis
was not a financial success; it sold only a few more than
1300 copies. From McKay's point of view the reason for both
failures was his earlier attacks upon the Communists. He
felt that publishers, book-sellers, and critics sympathetic
to Communism retaliated by preventing his books from reaching
the general public. After 1940 his poverty increased as did
his illnesses and his paranoid symptoms.7-> In the remaining
eight years of his life, McKay would turn to religion and
nostalgia to solace himself.
The importance of the ideas in Harlem: Negro Metropolis
to McKay the thinker and writer will become apparent as the
articles and poems are examined. McKay's attitudes towards
Harlem and Its black residents were unchanging, only the
means of expressing them might vary.
Between 1934 and 1948 McKay wrote forty-five articles
which appeared in various publications. During some years,
1934, 1936, 1942, 1944, 1947, 1948, no articles were pub-
lished. Of the remaining years McKay was most productive in
 90

1939» when he published fifteen articles, some of which

paralleled the work he was doing on Harlem: Negro Metropolis.
From a brief survey of the articles, the reader can see that
the majority of the essays involves inspection of McKay's
world rather than inspection of self. Also apparent Is that
the majority of articles cluster in the years 1939-1941,
when twenty-eight of the forty-one articles were published.
Those years were productive for McKay; he was actively
writing and seemed to find publishers, such as the New Leader
and the Amsterdam News. with some ease. During this period
also McKay reached his optimistic peak. He wrote several
columns for the New York Amsterdam News under the banner
"Looking Forward." For McKay the future seemed to hold prom-
ise; at this time the past was less Important.
Thematically, the articles can be divided into five
large categories with increasingly narrow focus: interna-
tional issues, racial issues, views of Harlem, attacks on
Communism, and personal miscellaneous topics. At times the
areas overlap, especially those articles concerned with
American racial and political problems. A chronological view
of the articles which McKay wrote in each area will indicate
the range of his concerns.
Although McKay returned from Europe in 193*1, his arti-
cles on International Issues did not begin to appear until
1939. In February, 1939, McKay published an article in The
New Leader in which he indicates that the "native North
African problem is similar in some aspects to the Afro-
 92

fighting European battles. In May, again in "Looking

Forward," McKay discusses Africa as part of an attack on
Mayor LaGuardia, who supported Mussolini at that time.79
McKay believes that LaGuardia would withdraw his support if
he understood that Italy's treatment, especially during the
conquest of Tripoli in 1931-32, of African natives and Arabs
is as unfortunate as Germany's treatment of the Jews.
In the fall of 1939, a lengthy article entitled "Once
On

More the Germans Face Black Troops" appeared in Opportunity.

McKay, writing in response to the French mobilization of
forces on the Franco-German frontier between the Rhine and
the Luxembourg border, comments that "African troops have
returned to the Rhineland again, fighting Fascism, fighting
82
for Democracy and the liberation of Christian and Jew."
McKay discusses the first employment of black colonialist
troops by the French as part of the Allied Occupation of the
3
Rhineland after World War I. The Germans objected to the
African troops because of their race and color, not because
of brutality or inattention to duty. McKay argues that
during the war the Germans felt they should not have to fight
an inferior race; after the war, the Germans felt demoralized
to be guarded by the same inferior people. The agitation
also stirred the British and Americans who emphasized not
"the humiliation of a Nordic people policed by African sav-
ages" but "the erotic implications of the occupation," ^ The
Bolsheviks, in addition, "saw in the Africans vigorous virgin
human material which could be moulded to the Interest of the
 93

proletariat in the world struggle between labor power and

capitalist power." * McKay insists that the agitation must
have been propaganda because on his own visit to Rhineland,
he discovered a cordial relationship between the African
troops and the common people, McKay then speculates that the
intense propaganda against the Africans culminated in Hitler's
obsession with the Jews, McKay suggests that Hitler probably
accepted the issue of Nordic superiority and African inferi-
ority but "he may have reflected that Germany was stripped
of her African colonies and that the Africans were merely the
pliant instruments of a victorious power, that would undoubt-
edly be dealt with some day. Also although Africa was vastly
rich, native Africans possessed no great individual wealth
or political power,"°° So Hitler replaced the Africans with
the Jews, who did have wealth and political power.
In November, McKay also published two more articles»
both of them concern Morocco, The first in The New Leader
comments briefly that Morocco will assume importance in the
power struggle among France, Italy, Germany, and Britain
because of its position on the Mediterranean, " The second
one, which appeared the following week in The New Leader,
gives a brief historical sketch of the division of Tangier
in 1924 when the International Zone was controlled by France,
Britain, and Spain,88 Italy also wanted power but was
ignored until a program of street terror was begun. After
the attack on Tripoli, Italian prestige was low, McKay spec-
ulates that the anti-Semitic program in Morocco was initiated
 94

by the Italians In an attempt to placate the Moslems in

Morocco,
The New Leader published one article by McKay In
September, 1941, By this time Germany controlled France, °
In the article McKay ponders what will now happen to the
African colonials. Although the Moslems preach that all men
are equal under God, McKay feels that they may not be able
to withstand the propaganda of the Nazis,
The last article in this section was written for the
Nation in mid-1943.90 This article discusses the three
groups which live in North Africa—Christians, Jews, and
Moslems, Much of the history of the area which McKay dis-
cussed in earlier articles reappears in this selection. The
bottom group, both socially and politically, is the Moslems,
who have not adopted the French civil code, McKay argues
that the Moslems1 whole way of life prevents them from accept-
ing a more modern way. He notesj "The Moslems have remained
imprisoned behind the ancient social-economic-religious sys-
tem of Islam. And though they groan and complain of oppres-
sion in their medieval prison, they seem to prefer it to the
modern way of life,""1 In contrast, the Jews have the status
of Europeans; their way of life, schooling, clothing, atti-
tudes make them indistinguishable from Spanish and French
citizens. The Jews became "the middlemen, par excellence,
of North Africa"^2 because of their close-knit family life,
their knowledge of Arabic, their understanding of the char-
acter of the Moslems, their knowledge of the needs of the
Moslems, In his discussion of the Christians, McKay looks
at the French, whose "mentality is conservative to the point
of reaction,"93 During the agitations of the 1930's led by
North Africans who had been educated in France, the French
civil and military authorities attempted to suppress all
movements towards reform, McKay comments that the hints of
"a political understanding between Moslems and Jews infuri-
ated the French colonists even more than the growing native
movement, which the French press was inclined to treat with
amused condescension."^ In addition, incidents between the
Moslems and the Jews occured, evidently incited by French
officers. In contrast, the Spanish Republican administration
in Tetuan Issued "a proclamation calling upon both peoples to
remember their long association and to respect each other's
right and customs,"°-5 In several ways, the Spanish monarchy
was more liberal toward the natives. The Spanish regime
permitted nationalist publications, some freedom of speech,
circulation of native money, and some religious freedom. As
a result of the native antagonism towards the French, the
Popular Front government, before its fall, consented to the
suppression of the native actlvitists, McKay concludes the
article by saying, "The native organizations were proscribed
and their leaders arrested and jailed. Thus the native move-
ments and their leaders were the first casuallties of the
reinforced French fascists.""6 In short, this essay supports
his earlier views that anti-Semitism was instigated and
 96

attitudes of natives and colonists towards each other were

part of the total world situation.
These nine articles indicate clearly McKay's concern
with North Africa. The issues there were complicated, as
indicated by the articles, but McKay felt compelled to
untangle some of the problems because events and attitudes
there complemented world attitudes and situations. In a
sense the articles are repetitive, but they were written
during several years and for several different publications.
Throughout the articles McKay shows slight change of atti-
tude; the Spanish responses always meet with favor in his
mind while the French do not and he remains vigorously anti-
Nazi and anti-Fascist. These essays adequately display his
concern for world problems as well as domestic and personal
problems. At times, however, that concern is marred by dog-
matism as he overstates his argument for the groups he
favors.
McKay's interest in international issues produced nine
articles during a five year period, but his interest In
racial issues was even more persistent. The first article
expressing racial concerns appeared in 1937\ it was followed
in the next eight years by eleven more essays stressing again
the themes of Harlem: Negro Metropolis—aggregation, unity,
and pride. Again, McKay published the largest number of
essays in 1939 when he was preparing Harlem; Negro Metrop-
olis o
 97

In 1937 one article "For Group Survival" appeared In the

October issue of Jewish Frontier. ' This article presents
many of McKay's thoughts on racial issues, ideas which will
reappear frequently in the following articles and the poetry
to be discussed later. McKay believes all blacks desire
Integration but integration depends upon the will of the
majority; therefore, integration will never be achieved in
America. Although a few educated leaders may enter the white
society, the black masses will never be allowed to infiltrate
the masses of white society. Therefore, integration is a
hollow hope. McKay also suggests that total integration is
not wise because the black people may be too easily destroyed
as were the German Jews.
McKay further suggests that the only weapon to combat
segregation is economic aggregation; a distinct group of
people should "utilize their collective brains and energy
for the intensive cultivation and development of themselves,
culturally, politically and economically."'8 Aggregation,
such as Booker T. Washington advocated, is not segregation
because it is self-imposed $ it allows a confident growth of
people who are similar.
McKay suggests blacks should model themselves after the
Jews in America who developed strong communities and organ-
izations, but who also remained a part of American institu-
tions. Black people need the strength to develop themselves
as well as to become a part of America. And the strength
 98

must be economic; to disallow economic strength leaves the

minority controlled by the majority.
In 1938 McKay published one article in the New York
Amsterdam News.99 The article attacks the Negro Congress for
sending a message to President Roosevelt urging that the
United States be made a "free haven" for Jews, McKay rather
bitterly asks how black people can ask for sanctuary for
another minority group when Aframer!cans do not possess it
for themselves. The second point of the essay is that the
National Negro Congress does not represent black people who
need an organization adequate for the times, controlled by
responsible black leaders, creating unity with both young and
old. McKay, near the end of the article, returns to his
favorite point of adjustment. He says that the color problem
twenty-five years ago was color prejudice with the issues
individualized. Now the problem is "of minority adjustment
and survival under highly centralized systems,"100 Like other
minorities the Aframericans need to find an effective organ-
ization and McKay feels the National Negro Congress is not
that effective organization.
In 1939 in five articles McKay discussed Ideas as varied
as the World's Fair and black troops in the Rhineland. In
April McKay reported on a meeting he attended to organize
blacks to achieve political and social ends. He was sur-
prised to find a white radical at the meeting who advocated
a new organization along racial lines, McKay sees two reasons
for this shift. The traditional Communist-Socialist line was
 99

that blacks should think as workers, not blacks, as a class

rather than a race. The radicals are shifting from this
stance because of the failure of International Socialism in
Russia as the social salvation of exploited peoples and the
rise of National Socialism in Europe with the philosophy of
Nordic superiority. McKay feels that if Democracy is to suc-
ceed between these forces of Communism and Fascism, black
people must play a more Important role. Once again he ends
the article with the comment that the old style black leader-
ship cannot endure the times; the authoritative voice of a
new black leader is needed.
McKay published three articles in May. In the first,
"Looking Forward" in the New York Amsterdam News, he moves
from comments about the May Day Parade to speculation about
U£
Aframericans. - He insists that black Americans should be
organized as an autonomous cultural group. He also Insists
that only blacks can create this organization and it must be
103
outside the framework of the Communist Party. J
The next week McKay published an article in The New
Leader.10^" The article begins with the need for a respon-
sible, authoritative organization to protect black people
from exploitative charges such as anti-Semitism, and then
ends with a direct attack upon Fascists and Communistsi
Such vandals of the Spirit of progress and tol-
erance are set to destroy all that still remains
noble in the human race in its eternal struggle
against the savage and the beast in man's nature.
One is aware of the Fascist enemy by the stripes
of the tiger; he does not dissimulate.
But the Communist hyena disguised as shepherd
dog is the sinister enemy that works havoc in the
 100

sheepfold under cover of darkness. He is assid-

uous in unhappy Harlem, often prowling behind
the scenes, ready to pounce upon every social
issue and convert it into an empty slogan and
seeking by any means to discredit the waryQ-
individuals and groups that keep him out.-'
McKay's last article in May appeared in his column in
the New York Amsterdam News, McKay regrets that blacks
could not agree sufficiently to have an exhibit at the
World's Fair, That rather insignificant disagreement sup-
ports McKay's view that an effective Aframerlcan leader must
be found to fuse together the Tuskegee group, which believes
in building a group economy and culture with the Northern
group, which believes in strengthening the legal and politi-
cal aspects of civil rights. The two groups must work
together. If this unity does not occur, then segregation
will remain for a long time.
The last article to appear in 1939 was "Once More the
Germans Face Black Troops" in Opportunity, November, 1939.
Since the article is both international and racial, it has
previously been discussed in the international section.
In 1940 McKay published his second article in Jewish
Frontier.107 The article begins by commenting that the
Indian Independence movement is the supreme test of British
democracy during the Second War just as the Irish Independence
Movement tested Britain during the First World War. But,
McKay argues, those who urge so strongly Indian independence
should not forget that the "supreme test of American democ-
racy is the Negro."x If America is to insist on solution
 101

of minority problems in other parts of the world, it must

first solve its own minority problem,
McKay argues that, in many aspects, the plight of the
black minority differs from that of European minorities. The
Emancipation Proclamation has not been revoked; the federal
government, as a whole, has attempted to protect the black
minority. But the will of the American people oppresses the
black majority, an oppression which is frustrating and
degrading. In the remainder of the article, McKay enumerates
the means of this oppression—employment restrictions,
organized labor, disfranchisement, Jim Crow laws. Even the
Communist Party which fought for social justice for black
people "toting with other funny things a black baby in his
bosom into the realm of democracy, has ended with broken
wings and the black baby dumped down back in its ugly old
cradle,"109
McKay concludes that Europe cannot solve American
minority problems. The solution must be found In this coun-
try with each minority realizing it must help to protect the
other minorities because "the struggle of any minority group
for human dignity and justice is a struggle for the best
interests of all of humanity."110
In the fall of 1941 McKay published two articles con-
cerning larger racial issues. In the first he discusses
soap-box speakers who appear to be pro-Nazi.111 McKay argues
that perhaps these speakers' position is valuable, not because
the Nazis offer hope for the world, but because if the Nazis
 102

won, blacks would be forced to fight. For that reason these

speakers are part of the struggle for democracy on the home-
front. This article shows a shift in McKay's position.
Before 1940 McKay argued vigorously that black people were
not pro-Nazi. Now he seems to accept that maybe some people
are, but that too is part of the struggle for freedom.
The second article also appeared In The New Leader.112
This article states clearly McKay's belief that segregation
is needed to build model black communities. For McKay, the
only way to gain respect is to build a solid community, as
Booker T, Washington advocated. This article was reprinted
3
in The Column Review and Editorial Digest In December.
Gunnar Myrdal referred to this article in An American Dilemma
when he challenged McKay's definition and use of the word
114
"segregation."
The last article concerning racial issues appeared in
1945 In March of Progress.11* The article begins with the
contention that segregation is but one part of the larger
issue of discrimination. As long as segregation remains the
central issue, the problems of discrimination cannot be
solved. Early in the article, McKay recalls Myrdal1s crit-
icism of his comments on segregation but McKay continues to
reiterate the point that segregation is but one facet of the
larger issue.
The article suggests that the problem is largely eco-
nomic. Segregation, which McKay argues appeared only after
the Civil War when political and economic conditions changed
 103

for the blacks, is profitable to the landlords and shop-

keepers; therefore, blacks must become economically and pol-
itically powerful so that segregation becomes unprofitable:
"The way out for the oppressed Negro lies in two directions:
One avenue of relief is enough political power to destroy
the property covenant system which 'fences In* this minority
group. The other road to freedom is the ownership—perhaps
by cooperative means—of sufficient land to live in comfort
and dignity. Ultimately land ownership is the real solution
of the dilemma, for those who own the land 'own the earth'
and determine the conditions under which people may live." 116
When blacks create their own communities, they will cease to
be exploited. Housing, food, stores, employment could be
provided for all members of those communities. Black people
themselves must solve the problems of segregation and discrim-
ination through economic and political unity. Then "on the
basis of mutual respect and economic justice, the white and
Negro race can live in juxtaposition."117
In these articles McKay's position on domestic racial
issues is clear. He advocates a strong black unity movement
with emphasis on cultural, economic, political, and legal
unity. He also strongly urges that a new black leader appear,
someone who can unite all the factions of the Aframerlcan
minority. Nothing in this position is new. He made similar
statements about the need for black leaders while in Russia
in 1922. Throughout his life he was aware of the need for a
 104

leader to unite black people. It is also evident that McKay

does not fear segregation. In an era when leaders urged
integration as the answer to problems of American blacks,
McKay's courage is visible.
McKay's racial concern is exhibited also in the articles
specifically describing Harlem. The importance of Harlem to
McKay is clearly evident in Harlem: Negro Metropolis. The
interest in political and economic aspects of Harlem did not,
however, begin in the late 1930's. McKay had been back In
America only a year when the first article describing the
Harlem scene appeared. In the next six years, he published
eight more articles.
As might be expected, the parallels between these arti-
cles and the fictionalized Harlem Glory and the essays in
Harlem: Negro Metropolis are many. The first article
appeared in early 1935 In the Nation.118 This article, which
incorporates much of the information already discussed in the
earlier chapter of Harlem: Negro Metropolis, describes
Father Divine, his rise to fame, and the growth of his move-
ment. McKay's arrival In Harlem in 1934 coincided with one
of Father Divine's big parades» it is little wonder that for
McKay an understanding of this little man was essential to
the understanding of the new Harlem. McKay even goes so far
as to compare the excitement generated by the Divine movement
with the excitement of the Garvey movement. Perhaps the most
striking thing about this article Is its parallels, previously
discussed, with Harlem Glory. The tone of the article appears
 105

to be neither critical nor laudatory. Father Divine is but

one of the many facets of Harlem: McKay describes the move-
ment as accurately as possible.
The second article of 1935 also appeared in the Nation.
McKay discusses the riot of the previous week, March 19,
1935, as "the gesture of despair of a bewildered, baffled,
119
and disillusioned people." 7 McKay states that the riot
was not a race riot but a spontaneous outbreak against the
stores on 125th street. The outbreak was not organized by
the radicals but grew from the labor agitations of the past
couple years. The essay in Harlem: Negro Metropolis pre-
sents the descriptions and facts of this essay in expanded
form. In McKay's view, all the leaders of Harlem want to
inherit Garvey's crown but none can unite the black masses.
So defeat and hunger and bickering increase until a riot
occurs. Like "There Goes God!" this article is highly de-
scriptive, McKay's sympathy is unmistakably with the
"defeated, abandoned, and hungry army," 120 but he still
wishes to present an objective picture of the events in
Harlem,

Two years later the article "Labor Steps Out in Harlem"

appeared in the Nation,121 This article is the middle step
between "Harlem Runs Wild" and the last chapter of Harlem:
Negro Metropolis, McKay stresses that labor agitation is
new in Harlem. Racial and religious movements have been
popular, but not labor movements. The article traces once
again the growth of the Sufi Abdul Hamid, who with his
 106

spectacular ways attracted jobless youth and formed the Afro-

American Federation of Labor, From the impetus of this group
sprang the Harlem Merchants Association, the Negro Labor
Committee, the Harlem Labor Union, Inc. McKay concludes this
history of the labor movements in Harlem by urging black
organizers to look out for the special interests of
Aframericans, White workers cannot and will not; the black
leaders must insist on equal employment conditions and then
strive to protect their workers. Once again, McKay urges
(implicitly this time) that black leaders must be found who
will solidify the economic unity of black people,
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. attacked McKay's comments in
122
"Labor Steps Out in Harlem." Powell accused McKay of
inaccurately reporting the events, Powell insists that to
build a nationalistic movement among blacks in America is to
commit racial suicide. For Powell, the future of the black
working masses is linked to the large trade unions.
McKay's reply to Powell's criticisms is a scathing
123
attack on Powell's philosophy and his intelligence. ^ McKay
insists he will support his own article until Powell proves
the facts are Incorrect, Then he continues, arguing that the
black communities must build themselves up. Any black person
who does not aid in the construction through better jobs and
consumers' power is "a moron and a danger to the group," 124
The article ends with McKay shrilly declaiming that Powell
does not have the intelligence to understand McKay's argu-
ments ,
 Two weeks later McKay defended the article again, this
time against an attack by George Schuyler in the Nation.125
McKay again insists his facts are accurate. He recalls that
Schuyler a few years ago advocated organizing the masses but
now Schuyler had changed his mind and views community self-
help as segregation. From living in Africa, McKay says he
knows it is possible for different groups to live adjacent
and each still retain its identity. This article also ends
with a vituperative attack on Schuyler. These two replies
indicate that McKay did not take gracefully criticism of his
comments,
1 96
McKay published the next article on Harlem in 1939.
This view of the cults is preparation for the much longer
section which will appear in a few months in Harlem; Negro
Metropolis. McKay introduces George Wilson Becton, who with
his World's Gospel Feast preceded Father Divine. From the
cults, the article moves to the occult and speaks of mystics
such as Madame Dodo, and of dream books, numberology, and
strange rituals. The last part of the article recounts an
episode in which McKay watched an occultist bring a message
to Rosemary from her dead mother. This entire article became
the heart of the chapter entitled "The Cultists," The epi-
sode with Rosemary reappears with a few minor changes in
"The Occultists."

In September of 1940 an article recounting the rise and

fall of Faithful Mary appeared In American Mercury.127 But
in telling of Faithful Mary, McKay must also relate the final
 108

events in the life of the Sufi. After the Sufi's unsuccess-

ful labor agitations, he retreated to occultism. Then in late
1937 he announced he was going to establish a Temple of Tran-
quillity in Harlem—an open challenge to Father Divine. In
an attempt to lure more followers, the Sufi purchased an
airplane to reach higher mysteries. But on July 13, 1938,
the airplane crashed and Father Divine once again could
reflect upon those who dared to oppose him. Faithful Mary
had also opposed Father Divine. The story of her defection
and repentence is, with a few minor changes, the same story
which appears in Harlem: Negro Metropolis in the chapter
entitled "God in Harlem: Father Divine, I935 A.D.F.D." Once
again, McKay delineates one of the most powerful forces in
Harlem,
McKay published his final article about Harlem In 1941.
In this short article McKay comments that crime is related to
prostitution which in turn grows from poverty. In other
words, "Harlem's problem Is an economic sore—one phase of
the problem of the Negro race in America."
These articles on Harlem are perceptive and objective:
McKay attempts to portray the world of Harlem as he finds it.
In a sense these articles are not as interesting as some of
the others because they repeat ideas already discussed in the
section on Harlem: Negro Metropolis. These articles are
preparation for the book of essays; as a result they have not
yet undergone the stylistic changes which make Harlemt Negro
Metropolis a finer work.
 109

The fourth section of articles are those dealing in

some way with Communism. Of the eight articles, three have
already been discussed in relation to earlier topics,129
' Of
the remaining five, the first appeared in 1938 in The New
Leader. McKay once again voices his belief that Aframericans,
like other minorities, should organize themselves for social
and political power. But the organization needs black lead-
ers, not Communist leaders. In the article McKay states his
objections to Communism:
(1) I reject absolutely the idea of government by
dictatorship, which is the pillar of political
Communism, (2) I am intellectually against the
Jesuitical tactics of the Communists 1 (a) their
professed conversion to the principles of
Democracy which is obviously fake, since they
defend the undemocratic regime in Russia and
loudly laud its bloodiest acts; (b) their
skunking behind the smoke screen of the Peoples'
Front and Collective Security, supporting the
indefensible imperialistic interests of
European nations and deliberately trying to
deceive the American people; (c) their criminal
slandering persecution of their opponents, who
have remained faithful to the.true traditions
of radicalism and liberalism. -^°

This article was reprinted in the New York Amsterdam News the
following week.13
In mid-1939t McKay published a rather long article in
The New Leader attacking the Communist-controlled League of
American Writers. McKay believes that the Organization sup-
ports policy and tactics which "if carried out on a national
scale, would foster undemocratic Ideals and inevitably lead
3
to the strict regimentation of American literature." Since
discovering these flaws in the group, McKay has ignored it
and he refuses to be influenced by famous writers who are
 110

willing to support an organization which sets up a dictator-

ship in literary pursuits. McKay ends the article with the
speculation that perhaps his experiences have made him more
suspicious than the average writer of groups which dictate
philosophy. As a result, "because of my experience and my
convictions I am opposed to any organization of intellectuals
of the Left or the Right, which is basically undemocratic,
such as the League of American Writers."133
The third article not previously discussed appeared
in The New Leader later in 1939.13 The article begins by
condemning the National Negro Congress because it is a
Communist organization.3* McKay also condemns Langston
Hughes, who has just returned from a trip to the Soviet
Union. Hughes evidently found no suppression of any minority;
McKay knows, however, that the intellectual minority is regi-
mented, a control far worse than racial suppression. McKay
then continues by stating that the Communist dictatorship is
far worse than the Nazi because "The Nazi dictatorship has
forthrightly declared Itself the enemy of progress, inter-
national culture, and labor as a liberating force. . . . the
Communist dictatorship sets itself up as the high protector
of labor and international culture, while it actually sup-
presses all criticism and progressive opposition and
reduces labor to subservience to a ruling clique."13° He
concludes the article by saying that perhaps the pact between
Germany and Russia has done some good. The pact confused
many people but It also delineated that the Communists were
 Ill

not the saviors; they too were suspect. McKay ends the arti-
cle with this strong statement: "I strike an attitude and
with clenched fist and outstretched hand I salute the sickle-
and-swastika comrades running like rats to cover as the
miasma of their foul propaganda is lifted." 3 '
McKay's last article about Communism appeared in mid-
3
1941 in The New Leader. It argues that the labor struggle
should be more than a class struggle; it should also be part
of the struggle for human progress and social adjustment.
The labor force should struggle against the Communists} McKay
suggests a coalition of left liberal and labor forces to
combat Communism and Nazism.

These articles once again make apparent that McKay may

have at one time espoused the ideals of Communism, but he is
no longer interested in the movement. During his years abroad
he was disillusioned by what he saw; following his return,
the Communist Party denounced him. His bitterness is appar-
ent as well as his independent desire never to be part of any
ideology.
The last category of articles to be discussed—Personal
Miscellaneous—includes ten essays on various topics. In
1937 "A Job in London" appeared in Opportunity.13^ All of
the material in the article was incorporated into McKay's
discussion of his stay in London and his job with Sylvia
Pankhurst in A Long Way from Home, chapter 7,

In 1938 McKay wrote a letter to the New York Amsterdam

News praising the paper for showing the working conditions of
 112

West Indians.1^0 In the same year he also published "A Little

l4l
Lamb to Lead Them" in The African.
Early in 1939 McKay published an article in the New York
Amsterdam News entitled "McKay on Spain."1^2 The interna-
tional comments have already been discussed, but the article
also contains a mild attack on Langston Hughes, McKay com-
ments that Hughes wrote articles on Spain but never referred
to the problems of North Africa and its relationship to the
Spanish Civil War. This article along with the other attack
on Hughes in "Pact Exploded Communist Propaganda Among
Negroes"1 3 indicates that McKay did not agree with Hughes'
assessment of international situations. Also in 1939 McKay
144
reviewed John Gunther's Inside Asia. Rather than crit-
ically discussing the book, McKay took the position that the
struggle in Asia reflects the race struggle in this country.
McKay feels that Japan has copied the western nations and
learned to exploit the Chinese, who suffer more than black
people in the American South, The need for prestige is worth
even more than human rights and so one group of people domi-
nates another, McKay ends the article with the comments that
the world would be much better if no group felt the need to
dominate.
In late 1940 McKay replied to Ted Poston's criticism
of Harlem: Negro Metropolis.1^* McKay emphatically denies
several charges which Poston made in his review, McKay
insists that he does not advocate economic segregation but
uplifting of the black community, that he does not hate
 113

Communists personally but does hate the Communist program

and propaganda tactics, that he is not anti-white but realizes
blacks should think for themselves as a minority group, and
that he is not anti-Semitic,
l46
In 1943 McKay wrote a brief article about Lincoln,
McKay sees Lincoln as a great hero, one who refused the rad-
icalism of either side. McKay lauds Lincoln as a man who
not only liberated the slaves but the whole American nation.
McKay believes that if the South had won, "this nation might
have remained cramped and stagnant and backward as Czarist
Russia."7
The remaining three personal articles are concerned
with McKay's conversion to Catholicism. Since their subject
matter separates them from the other articles, even from
these personal articles, they will be discussed in the last
division of this chapter.
Several trends are apparent in these articles published
between 1934-1948, The majority of them involve interna-
tional and racial issues; that involvement indicates that
McKay was concerned with issues beyond himself and his own
creative endeavors. Perhaps more than any other black writer
of the late 1930's, he had a grasp of large issues, a world
view which he attempted to convey to his readers. In addi-
tion he still had great compassion for black people around
him; he was still interested in the dignity of black people.
Also apparent is the productiveness of the years 1938-1941,
He had finished one book; he had started another and his work
 114

and energy spilled over into the articles. Evidently McKay

had a good working relationship with two publications. Four-
teen articles appeared in the militantly anti-Communist New
Leader between 1938 and 1943; eleven appeared in the New York
Amsterdam News in 1938-39. The two publications afforded
McKay a means to publicize his speculations upon diverse
topics. Many of these articles later became parts of Harlem:
Negro Metropolis; In that sense these articles provided
practice for his new occupation as observer of the world.
Perhaps McKay's success with the articles encouraged him to
give up the fictionalized account of the new Harlem and turn
to the essays to convey observed knowledge.
An examination of the autobiographical writings and
the political-sociological works reveal much about the inter-
ests and responses of Claude McKay during these last fourteen
years. One of the most important events, however, of the
last years was his conversion to Catholicism in 1944. As a
result of his own thinking about that event, McKay wrote
three essays analyzing and defending his action.
8
In "On Becoming a Roman Catholic" published in 1945,
McKay comments that he had thought about Catholicism since
1938 and that Catholicism was always for him an intellectual
matter. In a sense his conversion grew from his friendship
with Ellen Tarry, a black writer whom he met In 1938,1^9
She introduced him to Friendship House in Harlem, a Catholic
group, and to Catholic Action which, she said, was actively
engaged in fighting Communists, Since A Long Way from Home
 115

had been attacked by the Communists, McKay felt any group

opposing the Communists was also his friend, *
Beginning at the age of six when McKay went to live
with his brother U'Theo, McKay's early education instilled
in him a great skepticism toward any organized religion,
U'Theo was a school teacher and a lay reader for the Anglican
church, but he was also an agnostic. Under U'Theo's tute-
lage, McKay read Huxley, Lecky, Haeckel, and Gibbon. At age
sixteen, McKay became acquainted with Mr. Jekyll, also an
agnostic.
Throughout his years in America and abroad, McKay
observed carefully the people around him. He says; "It was
in Europe that I saw the vision of the grandeur and glory of
the Roman Catholic religion" ("Becoming," p, 44), He also
discovered
in Spain that Catholicism had made of the Spanish
people the most noble and honest and humane of
any in the world, while Protestantism had made
of the Anglo-Saxons and their American cousins,
the vilest, hoggish and most predatory and hypo-
critical people in the world. As a pagan I had
always accepted, without thinking clearly about
It, that Catholic countries were the most back-
ward and unprogressive in'the world. But Spain
taught me that progress was not with the
"progressives," ("Becoming," p, 44)!5l

But when he returned to America he was still an agnostic,1*2

In "On Becoming a Roman Catholic" McKay recounts this anec-
dote;
Ellen Tarry said; 'Claude, why don't you become
a Catholic? It is the only religion for a man like
you who has traveled all over and seen everything.•
I said: 'But Tarry, I am an unbeliever, an agnos-
t i c ' She replied: 'It is easier for an intellec-
tual not to believe than to believe.' Those words
 116

set me thinking hard, for I do not like taking

things easy. ("Becoming," p. 45)
At this point he began to study Roman Catholicism and its
role in world history. As a result, he says, "I was flooded
by the True Light. I discovered a little of that mystical
world of the spirit that eludes the dictators, the agnostics,
the pure materialists, I saw, too, the Roman Catholic Church
in a light different, indeed, from the manner in which I had
previously vlsloned it from the Protestant and agnostic
angle. I did not, however, become a Catholic, then" ("Becom-
ing," p. 45). He was finally converted and baptised when he
realized that the former Stalinists, disillusioned Trotsky-
ites, and Anarchists, whose ideas and beliefs he had repu-
diated, would, if he died, "take charge of my body. That
thought made me more than ever eager to become a Catholic"
("Becoming," p. 45J.1-53
The second essay of this period, "Why I Became a
Catholic," appeared in Ebony in 1946.x^ This essay empha-
sizes once again the intellectual appeal of the Roman Catholic
Church. The biggest flaw within the essay is that McKay over-
states his case for the Catholic Church, In defense of the
Church he Insists that Protestants, largely because of their
ignorance of the Catholic Church, are responsible for the
hatred between Catholics and Protestants and Jews, In addi-
tion, he asserts that the early Catholic Church had no race
or color prejudice: prejudice arose only after the Reforma-
tion occurred. In his opinion the greatest weakness of the
 117

American black is "his imitative Protestant and Anglo-Saxon

way of thinking and acting and his naive acceptance of the
materialistic Protestant god of Progress as his own. For it
seems to me that Protestantism is inimical and fundamentally
opposed to the material development and the intellectual and
spiritual aspirations of the Negro," ** He further comments
on the distinction between slavery in Catholic countries and
slavery in America and concludes that "It was the Protestant-
Anglo-Saxon-American system of slavery which brutalized the
black and reduced him to a subhuman being,"
The article concludes with an idea, which is expanded
even further in the unpublished "Right Turn to Catholicism,"
that the Catholic church is "the greatest stabilizing force
in the world today—standing as a bulwark against all the
wild and purely materialistic isms that are sweeping the
world,"157
McKay's most extended explanation and defense of his
conversion appears In the unpublished essay "Right Turn to
Catholicism," * The article is divided into three parts.
Part one begins by referring to the previous articles and by
Insisting that he is not a Catholic propagandist. He again
recounts the biographical details which led to his conversion.
This section also defends his political stance. He
insists he is neither pro-Communist nor pro-Fascist, but he
did feel the need to belong to something in which he could
believe, and in the Catholic Church he could have "faith and
hope and still believe in humanity" ("Right Turn," p. 3).
 118

For him, the Catholic Church has "particularly stressed the

virtues of humility, loving-kindness, compassion, obedience
and self-sacrifice" ("Right Turn," p. 3). In his study of
the Catholic Church McKay discovered that all the "isms"—
"Agnosticism, Atheism, Modernism, Capitalism, State Social-
Ism and State Communism were all children of the Pandora Box
of Protestantism" ("Right Turn," p. 4 ) .
More than half of part one is devoted to McKay's views
of Spain. For McKay, his attachment to the Church began with
his first visit to Spain in 1928. There he saw "the import-
ance of life in a Catholic country and the significance of
the Catholic faith" ("Right Turn," p. 4 ) . In this section
he traces the history of the Spanish strifes beginning with
the Revolution of 1931 and including the Spanish-Moroccan
struggle. He says that Spain was never Communist-minded and
the Republicans turned to Russia in 193& only because France,
Great Britain, and the United States had refused aid, McKay
supports Franco when he sayst "Now, years later, after a
violent, vicious and unspeakable world war during which
Franco established peace in Spain, as good or better than
that which exists among some of the allies, the victors are
denouncing Franco as pro-Fascist and demanding his overthrow*
Ah, this is indeed a strange world, a funny world!" ("Right
Turn," p. 10), The section ends with McKay saying he loves
Spain more than any other country: "Spain is Catholic and
not puritan and in spite of its material poverty, it is both
physically and spiritually the cleanest country in which I
have ever lived" ("Right Turn," pp. 10-11).
Part two of the essay discusses more specifically his
connections with Communism. Although he visited Russia, he
has never been a Stalinist or Trotskyist or Leninist or
Marxist, Nor has he ever "been a protagonist for or against
Soviet Russia" ("Right Turn," p, 14). He concludes that no
Communism exists in Russia, only State Monoply. True Com-
munism exists only in the monasteries of the Catholic Church.
He also denies belief in the theory of Class Warfare, "For
the Class War is inhuman and I am not inhuman" ("Right Turn,"
p. 14). He concludes the section with the comment that one
of the mistakes of Lenin was to try to force social revolu-
tions in other countries and then compares that action with
the United States trying to force democracy onto other
countries. For McKay democracy is always a farce because It
is based on white supremacy.
Part three considered another of McKay's interests—
black nationalism. He discusses the need for black people to
organize themselves to accomplish their goals, rather than
depending on white organizations. He maintains that the
blacks in America are a special minority and "the real issue
for us is Adjustment and not Segregation" ("Right Turn,"
p, 22), He states forcefully that "we Negroes of the New
World are not merely a lost remnant of a race, we also are a
lost people. We have no soul we can call our own, for we are
running away from ourselves. And whither we are running,
God only knows. Our eyes are turned not within to appraise
and strengthen ourselves, but without to the white world,
which despises us. Our leaders will sell the Negro people
to any group of whites for a price and social Intercourse"
("Right Turn," p. 22).
In the last few pages of this essay McKay states
obliquely but unmistakably his reasons for coming to the
Catholic Church. He had been attacked by liberals, Commu-
nists, and blacks. His writing had been ignored. He found
no people with solutions, only people who talked about "the
Negro Problem." He tried many ways to escape the world he
found: cabarets, common people, reading, and travel. But
the vagabond who both loved and despised his world finally
concluded; "I find in the Catholic Church that which does
not exist In Capitalism, Socialism or Communism—the one true
International of Peace and Good Will on earth to all men.
And as a child of Christendom, that suffices for me" ("Right
Turn," p, 25). All his life McKay seems to have been
searching for peace and good will and never finding it. ^"
His International was not modern, but traditional. For
McKay, joining the Catholic Church was a progressive step.
It was the "right turn" in the sense it was the correct thing
for him to do in 1944. It was also "right" in the movement
away from the radicals and liberals who could give him no
help and towards the established and the traditional.
He concludes the essay with the lines of a song he
remembers from childhood;
 'Keep in the middle of the road
Though the road be deep and wide
There's a ditch on either side-
So keep in the middle of the road,•

But now, I remember the song as I contemplate

the Catholic Church as a vast world organization
of true human brotherhood, preaching the World
of the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen,
and endeavoring to keep mankind in the middle
of the road. ("Right Turn," pp. 25-26).
"Right Turn to Catholicism" is a rambling essay,
loosely structured but highly revealing of McKay. The essay
lacks the precision or the fine style of some of his other
works, but the confessional style is appealing. In his
agnostic state, McKay wrote finer poems and prose. In the
later years he never recaptured that spark of the vagabond
days. Perhaps the religious conversion is an attempt to
find the intensity of belief which marked those early works.

Although his insistent defense of Spain mars part of

the first section, the essay as a whole shows his constant
search for something which would reward his faith and hope
and humanity. Nothing supported him and so he turned to the
Church, Perhaps McKay's vagabondage, his search for a home,
was always spiritual and in the Church he found a solace for
160
his battered soul. If A Long Way from Home marks the
change from creation of an Imaginative world to analysis of
the actual world, then perhaps his conversion is yet another
change to a spiritual world. Perhaps his conversion is the
greatest adventure of all, ("Boyhood," p, 145)
 122

The expository prose written between 1934-1948 Indi-

cates McKay's wide interests. He was involved with racial
issues, particularly those related to the problems of a
black man seeking his place in the modern world. But his
interests were not wholly racial; he was also interested in
international issues, the connections between attitudes in
different parts of the world. The autobiographical works
focus on his own role in the world; the sociological and
political works enlarge the focus because the view is pri-
marily of the world. The religious works change the focus
once again to another world, the spiritual.

The expository prose introduces the reader to some of

the essential themes of Claude McKay. It also provides an
introduction to the man and his concerns during the last
fourteen years of his life.
 NOTES FOR CHAPTER II.
1
Exceptions are the twelve new poems published between
I9J+5..47, Eleven of them appeared in Catholic Worker.
2
Claude McKay, "Boyhood in Jamaica," Phylon, 14
(1953)t 134-46. Hereafter cited within the text, abbre-
ivated as "Boyhood," and followed by the page reference.
3
Claude McKay, "My Green Hills of Jamaica," Intro-
duction by Bishop Bernard J, Sheil, typewritten manuscript,
McKay Papers, Schomburg Collection. Hereafter cited within
the text, abbreviated as GH, and followed by the page
reference. The McKay Papers In the James Weldon Johnson
Collection include several other versions of "My Green
Hills of Jamaica." A section on china dolls appears in
one version; for the most part the changes involve rear-
rangement of the sections.
^ See also Claude McKay, "Boyhood in Jamaica," and
Wayne Cooper and Robert C. Reinders, "A Black Briton Come
'Home's Claude McKay in England, 1920," Race, 9 (1967),
67-83.
5 See "Mother Dear" in Songs of Jamaica (Kingston:
Aston W. Gardner Co., 1912), p. 78; "My Mother" and
"December, 1919" in Harlem Shadows (New York: Harcourt
Brace, 1922), pp. 26, 29, Harlem Shadows is hereafter
designated as HS.
6 In 1946 McKay described Jekyll as "a very wonderful
man. A queer man. He was the most English Englishman I
ever met, and he hated the British Empire as no man ever
hated it. He had written a book about the West Indies,
Qfalter Jekyll, Jamaica Song and Story (London? D. Nutt,
1907EI out nobody In the islands knew about it. He was
rich, but never cared anything about money. He was a great
gentleman but he dressed as though he were a tramp. He was
a genius at the piano, but wouldn't have one in his house,"
Eddie Doherty, "Poet's Progress," Extension, 4l (September
1946), 5.
7
See Conroy, "Claude McKay," chapter 2,
o
Cooper suggests, however, that the relation between
class and race in Jamaica does explain partially McKay's
attraction to both black nationalism and the working class
struggle. Cooper, "Claude McKay," p. 80.
 124

9 Wagner comments (p. 219) that everything in these

poems comes from the people and takes root in the earth;
everything is authentically Negro.
10
For example, "Flame-Heart," HS, p. 9; "North and
South," HS, p. 17; "Home Thoughts," HS, p. 11; "The Spanish
Needle," HS, p. 24; "The Tropics in New York," HS, p. 8» "I
Shall Return," HS, p. 33.
11
See, for example, "Absence," HS, p. 64; "A Red
Flower," HS, p, 68i "To 0. E. A.," HS, p. 71f "Flower of
Love," HS, p. 75; "A Memory of June," HS, p. ?9.
12
Conroy, "Claude McKay," chapter 3.
13 Ibid., p. 108.
x
^ Cooper, "Claude McKay," p. 9,
x
$ Cooper, "Claude McKay," p, 33.
16
Claude McKay to Carl Cowl, July 28, 1947, and
September 8, 1947, McKay Papers, James Weldon Johnson
Collection,
17
McKay himself noted that A Long Way was the sequel
to "My Green Hills" but also observed that the two works
display different styles of writing. See McKay to Carl
Cowl, September 8, 1947, McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson
Collection,
18
Several letters which McKay received in the months
following publication of A Long Way from Home also commented
favorably upon the work. McKay's daughter, Hope, wrote that
she liked the autobiography better than any of the other
works. Ruth Hope McKay to McKay, August 12, 1937» McKay
Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection. J. E. Spingarn
disagreed with McKay's account of a discussion between the
two of them, but he greatly enjoyed the book. J. E. Spingarn
to McKay, February 24, 1937, McKay Letters, James Weldon
Johnson Collection, James Weldon Johnson noted that the book
would surely bring attacks from the Communists, even though
McKay's own knowledge of Russia and Communism was greater
than all of his attackers, James Weldon Johnson to McKay,
March 26, 1937» McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson
Collection, Edwin Rogers Embree praised both the style and
McKay's freedom from dogma, Edwin Rogers Embree to McKay,
March 8, 19371 McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection,
1
9 Alain Locke, "Jingo, Counter-Jingo and Us: Part I.
Retrospective View of the Literature of the Negro; 1937,"
Opportunity. 16 (1938), 7-llf 27.
 20
Alain Locke, "Spiritual Truancy," New Challenge.
2 (1937), 81-85.
21 Ibid., p. 83.
22
Ibid., p. 84.
23
Ibid.
2lx
Ibid., p. 85.
25 "Two Generations," rev. of A Long Way from Home.
Nation. 144 (1937), 414-415.
26
April 17, 1937, P. 21.
27
March 28, 1937, p. 14.
28
America. 57 (1937). 549.
29
H. L. Moon, Nsw. Republic. 90 (1937), 365.
30
Ibid.
31
New York Herald Tribune. March 14, 1937. p. 20.
3
Claude McKay, A Long Way from Home (New York: Lee
Furman, 1937). P» 28. Hereafter cited within the text,
abbreviated as ALW, and followed by the page reference.
33
Nathan Huggins in his recent book comments that
McKay found civilization to be "aggressive, materialistic,
and dehumanizing. . . . It excluded blacks while it crushed
their souls. Yet it was messianic and totally compelling."
Harlem Renaissance (New York: Oxford University Press,
1971). P« 176. Cooper noted that McKay "came to the con-
clusion that in Negro working people there existed an
uninhibited creativity and joy in life, which Europeans,
including Americans, had lost." "Claude McKay," p. 303.
3*1 For a more detailed account of McKay's months in
England see Wayne Cooper and Robert Reinders, "A Black
Briton Comes 'Home': Claude McKay in England, 1920," Race.
9, (1967), PP. 67-83.
*•> In the last section of the book McKay comments that
London "was not built to accommodate Negroes. I was very
happy when I could get out of it to go back to the Negro
pale of America" (ALW, p. 304).
3° McKay later refers to this letter in his own letter
written to Trotsky while McKay was in Russia. See "A Letter
of Claude McKay to C. Trotsky," Pravda. trans. Terry Fields,
No. 72, April 1, 1923, p. 3, col. 5-8.
 126

37
E. Sylvia Pankhurst to Lee Furman, May 22, 1937.
McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
38
The original essay, "He Who Gets Slapped," appeared
in TJie Liberator. 5 (May 1922), 2*1-25.
39 McKay had evidently suggested to his agent, Laurence
Roberts, that the title of the book should be Keep Going.
See Laurence Roberts to McKay, June 15, 1936, McKay Letters,
James Weldon Johnson Collection. Another considered title
was Shake That Thing. See William Bradley to McKay, undated,
McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
^° Eugene Gordon, "Negro Novelists and the Negro
Masses," New Masses. 8 (June 1933), 16-20.
1
The Fourth Congress of the Communist International
began on November 15, 1922, and lasted a month. Cooper,
"Claude McKay," p. 113.
1X9
^ Bronz notes that in Communism McKay hoped not for
"the maximum production of an industrial society for the
maximum happiness of all" but "racial equality and a return
to the soil." McKay thought Communism would free millions
of city-workers to go back to the soil. Bronz, pp. 76-77*
43 The collection of photos includes the photograph of
a painting of Pushkin which Yasinky Yeronlmarltch tore from
a volume of Pushkin and gave to McKay. See ALW, pp. 169-170.
^ Perhaps this line explains McKay's admiration for
"The Hound of Heaven"; the black man is pursued by a very
different sort of "hound."
**5 see Claude McKay to Carl Cowl, February 12, 19*17,
McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
46
McKay to Howard C. Anderson, December 3, 1940,
McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
**7 New Republic. 103 (1940), 732.
ho
*° See McKay's reply to Poston in "Claude McKay Replies
to Poston on Solution of Negro Problems," The New Leader.
December 7, 1940, p. 5.
^9 New York Times. November 24, 1940, p. 5.
50
33 (November 15, 1940), 108.
C1
16 (October 1940), 71.
 127

D
The original cover of Harlem: Negro Metropolis
carried a photograph of two Harlem dandies, Freeman Sawyer
and John A. Fortune. McKay had selected the photo from a
collection submitted by a Harlem photographer who claimed
he had received permission from the two young men to use
their photograph in any way he wished. When the book
appeared, however, the two young men brought suit against
Claude McKay and E. P. Dutton and Co. for $50,000 for
"defamation of character." All copies of the book were
removed from stores and a different cover substituted with
a photograph of Harlem. See E. P. Dutton to McKay,
November 12, 1940, McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson
Collection and Statement of Claude McKay, November 19, 19*10,
McKay Papers, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
*3 Claude McKay, Harlem: Negro Metropolis (New York:
E. P. Dutton and Co., 1940), p. 17. Hereafter cited within
the text, abbreviated as HNM, and followed by the page
references.
54 p o r McKay, "adjustment" means the recognition of
group characteristics and the growth of confidence in those
characteristics. The minority must fuse itself together
under a common leader with a strong concern for all parts of
the group. Then the group can retain its own identity within
the larger American framework.
55 Claude McKay, "Mystic Happiness in Harlem," The
American Mercury. 47 (1939), 444-450.
* In preparation for an earlier article, McKay inter-
viewed Father Divine to ask about social problems and racial
relations. Father Divine replied; "'I have no color con-
ception of myself. If I were representing race or creed or
color or nation, I would be limited in my conception of the
universal. I would not be as I am omnipotent.'" from "There
Goes God! The Story of Father Divine and His Angels,"
Nation. 140 (1935), 153. When asked about his plan for the
realization of peace and understanding between the masses
and the classes, Father Divine replied: "'I am representa-
tive of the universal through the co-operation of mind and
spirit in which is reality. I cannot deviate from that
fundamental. The masses and the classes must transcend the
average law and accept me. And governments will in time
come to recognize my law'" ("There Goes God," p. 153).
Glory Savior in Harlem Glory spoke these words: "'I have no
race and I know no color. . . . If I were sentimental to the
differential of the species in the conglomeration of human-
ity, I would be detrimental to the manifestation of glory.'"
Haylem Glorv. unpublished manuscript, McKay Papers, Schomburg
Collection, p. 129.
 128

*7 McKay also discusses the story of Faithful Mary in

an earlier article "Father Divine's Rebel Angel," The
American Mercury. 51 (19*10), 73-80.
5° See, for example, HNM, p. 92, which discusses
Garvey's positive effect on small businesses.
59 McKay was not always so sympathetic. See Claude
McKay, "Garvey as a Negro Moses," Thq Liberator. 5 (April
1922), 8-9, although McKay did note that the Negro World
was "the best edited colored weekly In New York" (p. 9 ) .
60
Hugglns notes (p. 22) that in Booker T. Washington's
words Garvey heard "self-help and racial independence, and
his mind transformed that into militancy and aggressive
black nationalism."
01
See Louis Jolyon West, "The Psychobiology of Racial
Violence," Mixed Bag: Artifacts from the Contemporary
Culture. ed. by Helene D. Hutchinson (Glenvlew: Scott
Foresman Co., 1970), pp. 162-171. West discusses the func-
tion of outsiders in our culture and suggests some reasons
why black people have become and remained the outsider or
Universal Stranger.
62
Garvey preached confidence and action rather than
the self doubt suggested by the black intellectuals.
Huggins, p. 44.
63
Edmund Cronon in Black Moses: The Storv of Marcus
Garvey a M th£ Universal Negro Improvement Association
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1955), PP« 80-83,
tells a slightly different story. The Yarmouth sailed to
the West Indies in late 1919 and arrived back in New York in
January, 1920. The voyage was both risky and ridiculous
because of the unseaworthiness of the ship and the inexpe-
rience of the crew. On January 17, 1920, the Yarmouth
loaded on a cargo of whiskey to take to Cuba. Eighty miles
out, the ship began sinking and the cargo was jettisoned.
In his book Cronon tells in detail the history of the Black
Star Line with its succession of worthless ships.
6^ See also the Invisible Man's problem with this
phrase, "social equality." Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
(New York: New American Library, 1952), p. 33* Cronon
(pp. 191-195) also discusses Garvey's views of racial purity.
°* Cooper suggests (pp. 80-83) that by 1922 McKay had
given up on Garvey because his program advocated capitalism
rather than class consciousness.
 129

In August of 1929, U'Theo McKay wrote to his brother

Claude of Garvey. U'Theo mentioned the big convention but
was more concerned about the harm Garvey was doing himself.
U'Theo concluded that because Garvey did not utilize his
opportunities well, the former leader had become an enemy.
U'Theo McKay to Claude McKay, August 2, 1929, McKay Letters,
James Weldon Johnson Collection.
67 For many intellectuals, Garvey's approach was sim-
plistic; he ignored the complexities which separate people—
a technique which, however, captured the masses. Huggins,
p. 44.
6° Bronz comments (p. 15), however, that Garvey's move-
ment attracted only lower-class Negroes, and none of the
Harlem Renaissance writers.
6
° Angelo Herndon's autobiography Let Me. Live (New York:
Random House, 1937) was published simultaneously with A Long
Way from Home. The two books frequently were reviewed in
adjoining columns.
70
Randolph in a letter to McKay praised McKay's ideas
on the black liberation movement. A. Phillip Randolph to
McKay, April 4, 1941, McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson
Collection.
71
' In a letter McKay stated that much of his disap-
pointment with the Communist Party grew from his hostility
to the Red Purges and his great suspicion of the Popular
Front. He said that an unscrupulous dictatorship could
never be trusted to lead a coalition of democratic forces.
McKay to Russell Gilmore, March 5, 19*11, McKay Letters,
James Weldon Johnson Collection.
72
McKay represented the Nation at the National Negro
Congress.
7
3 The white woman was Helen Boardman; McKay exchanged
letters with her in the summer of 1937* He tried to convince
her of the necessity for the group to remain black. When she
continued to seek admittance, McKay wrote a harsh indictment
of her and her philosophies. See the Boardman correspond-
ence in the McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
7
Throughout these essays McKay seems to believe
black people have brought many problems upon themselves.
Through separation of the masses from the elite, black people
have allowed themselves to be enslaved. Striving for white
standards and refusing criticism are other forms of enslave-
ment. In short, McKay believes that white society cannot
be blamed for all that befalls black people.
 7
* During the 1940's McKay, especially in his letters,
exhibited symptoms suggestive of the paranoid trend syndrome
including great self-reference, delusions of grandeur, and
persecution. See Benjamin B. Wolman, Handbook of Clinical
Psychology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965), pp. 1002-1006,
for further discussion of the paranoid trend symptoms.
Wolman even suggests that excessive religiosity is part of
the paranoid trend. The letters of McKay certainly do not
reveal enough information to identify McKay's paranoia as
of the hospitable variety including bizarre thinking and
communicating and hallucinations, but he was morose, suspi-
cious, resentful, and hostile. It is clear that stresses
and frustrations heightened during those later years. His
illnesses increased; the Communists attacked him; the black
intelligentsia ignored him; the white radicals were no
longer sympathetic; his writings were not recognized. In
order to adapt to those frustrations, McKay seemed to
create a private world in which he maintained his self by
insisting on persecution in one form or another. Since he
did not know why he was 111, poor, and rejected by many
around him, he created a reason. That known danger then
became more acceptable than the unknown. In his letters to
Carl Cowl during the 1940's, McKay wrote that he was spied
upon and that his mail was opened. He repeatedly cautioned
Cowl not to reveal information about proposed publications
because Communists, Catholics, and intellectuals were hostile
towards McKay. See the entire McKay correspondence to Carl
Cowl, especially those letters dated February 13, 1947.
March 13, 1947, May 16, 1947, November 1, 1947, February 13,
1948, McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
7o
Claude McKay, "Moroccan African Colonies Graveyard
of Spanish Government, Threaten French Liberty," The New
Leader. February 18, 1939, P. 2.
77
Claude McKay, "McKay on Spain," New York Amsterdam
News. February 25, 1939, p. 7«
78
Claude McKay, "Looking Forward," New York Amsterdam
News. April 22, 1939, p. 11.
"9 Claude McKay, "Looking Forward," New York Amsterdam
News. May 20, 1939, p. 13.
On
Claude McKay, "Once More the Germans Face Black
Troops, Opportunity. 17, (1939), 324-328.
81
The Versailles Treaty stipulated that the whole left
bank of the Rhine and a belt of land 50 kilometers broad on
the right bank should remain a demilitarized zone. French
troops, including Senegalese, West Indian, and Moroccan, were
involved in observing and preventing German rearmament. The
troops were withdrawn in 1930, just a few months before the
Nazi Party came to power. In March 1936, the German Army
marched Into the Rhineland, ostensibly in response to the
Franco-Soviet treaty ratified shortly before by France.
When Germany Invaded Poland In September, 1939, and left
only twenty-three divisions in the West, France quickly
mobilized its forces to move into the Rhineland. Gordon
Wright, France in Modern Times: 1760 to the Present
(New York: Rand McNally and Co., 1966), pp. *104-408, 496-
498. G[eorge] C £atlett] MCarshalJl, "World War II,"
Encvlopaedia Britannioa. 1968.
82
"Once More the Germans . . . ," p. 328.
8
3 This material was familiar to McKay because he had
considered it during his visits to London and the Soviet
Union.
o|i

"Once More the Germans . • . ," p. 327.

85
Ibid.
86
Ibid., p. 328.
87
Claude McKay, "Morocco: Nerve Center of Nations;
Colonial Power Politics," The New Leader. November 11, 1939,
p. 4.
88
Claude McKay, "Morocco—Duce Uses Anti-Semitism to
Win Moslems for Fascism," The New Leader. November 18, 1939,
pp. 4 and 6.
8
9 Claude McKay, "Nazi Control of France Threatens
Liberty of African Colonials," The New Leader. September 27,
1941, p. 5.
9° Claude McKay, "North African Triangle," Nation.
156 (May 1943), 663-665.
91
Ibid., p. 663.
9 2 Ibid., p. 664.
93 ibid.
9^ Ibid.
95 ibid., pp. 664-665.
96 ibid., p. 665.
9 7 Claude McKay, "For Group Survival," Jewish Frontier.
4 (October 1937), 19-26.
9 8 Ibid., p. 19.
 132

99 Claude McKay, "Author Assails Negro Congress for

Message Sent to Washington on Jews; Calls Body Organization
of Leaders; No Followers," New York Amsterdam News.
November 26, 1938, p. 11.
100
Ibid.
101
Claude McKay, "Claude McKay Says," New York
Amsterdam News. April 15, 1939, P» 11•
102 Claude McKay, "Looking Forward," New York
Amsterdam News. May 13, 1939, p. 13.
10
3 The comments about unity in this article comple-
ment those in A Long Way from Home, pp. 3**9-352.
x li
° ' Claude McKay, "Anti-Semite Propaganda Fails to
Attract Negroes," The New Leader. May 20, 1939, pp. 5-6.
10
5 Ibid., p. 6.
1Q
6 Claude McKay, "Looking Forward," New York
Amsterdam News, May 27, 1939, p. 13.
107
Claude McKay, "Lest We Forget," Jewish Frontier.
6 (January 1940), 9"H.
1° 8 ibid., p. 9.
10
9 ibid., p. 11.
110
Ibid., p. 11.
111
Claude McKay, "Negroes Are Anti-Nazi, But Fight
Anglo-Saxon Discrimination," The New Leader. October 25,
1941, p. 4.
112
Claude McKay, "Fear of 'Segregation' Furthers
Negro Disunity," The New Leader. November 15, 1941, p. 4.
113
Claude McKay, "'Segregation' in Harlem," Column
Review and Editorial Digest. 13 (1941), 5-7'.
ll1
* Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma; TJie. Negro
Problem and Modern Democracy (New York; Harper and Bros.,
1944), p7622.
xx
$ Claude McKay, "This Race Problem," March of
Progress. 9 (194-5)» 264-67.
1:L
° Ibid., p. 267.
117
Ibid.
 133

118
Claude McKay, "There Goes God! The Story of
Father Divine and His Angels," Nation. 1*10 (1935), 151-153;
condensed and reprinted in The Readers Digest. 26 (April
1935), 90-93.
119
Claude McKay, "Harlem Runs Wild," Nation. 140
(1935), 383.
120
Ibid.
121
Claude McKay, "Labor Steps Out in Harlem," Nation.
145 (1937), 399-402.
122
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., "Soap Box," New York
Amsterdam News. October 30, 1937, p. 13.
12
3 Claude McKay, "Claude McKay Versus Powell,"
New York Amsterdam News. November 6, 1937, P» 4.
12L
> Ibid.
12
5 Claude McKay, "McKay Says Schuyler Is Writing
'Nonsense,'" New York Amsterdam News. November 20, 1937, P«
20.
12
° Claude McKay, "Mystic Happiness in Harlem,"
American Mercury. 47 (1939), 444-450.
127 Claude McKay, "Father Divine's Rebel Angel,"
American Mej^uxz, 51 (1940), 73-80.
128
Claude McKay, "'New' Crime Wave Old Story to
Harlemites, Poverty Brings Prostitution, 'Mugging,'
Robberies," The New Leader. November 29, 194l, p. 4.
12
9 The three articles which discuss Communism in addi-
tion to racial Issues are: "Anti-Semite Propaganda Fails to
Attract Negroes," The New Leader. May 20, 1939, PP» 5"6;
"Looking Forward," New York Amsterdam News. May 13, 1939,
p. 13; "Claude McKay Says," New York Amsterdam News. April 15,
1939, P. 11.
1
30 Claude McKay, "Negro Author Sees Disaster if C. P.
Gains Control of Colored Workers," The New Leader. September
10, 1938, p. 15.
131 Claude McKay, "Claude McKay Author, Decries Inroads
Made by Communists," New York Amsterdam Newsf September 17,
1938, p. 3.
132
Claude McKay, "Where the News Ends," The New
Leader. June 10, 1939, p. 8.
 " 3 Ibid.
13
^ Claude McKay, "Pact Exploded Communist Propaganda
Among Negroes," The New Leader. September 23, 1939, PP. 4, 7
3
* This discussion of the National Negro Congress is
greatly expanded in Harlem: Negro Metropolis.
136
"Pact Exploded . . . ," p. 4.
137
Ibid., p. 7.
138
Claude McKay, "Heard on the Left," Tjje. Hew Leader.
August 30, 1941, p. 3.
x
39 Claude McKay, "A Job in London," Opportunity. 15
(1937), 72-75.
1
^° Claude McKay, "Letter," New York Amsterdam News.
July 23, 1938, p. 8.
11,1
Claude McKay, "A Little Lamb to Lead Them: A True
Narrative," 1 (March-April 1938), 107-108, 112.
^ 2 February 25, 1939, p. 7.
1/J,
3 TJis. lew Leader. September 23, 1939, PP. 4 , 7 .
144
Claude McKay, "Race and Color in East Asia,"
Opportunity. 17 (1939) r 228-230.
x
^5 Claude McKay, "Claude McKay Replies to Poston on
Solution of Negro Problems," The New Leader. December 7,
1940, p. 5.
x
^° Claude McKay, "Out of the War Years: Lincoln,
Apostle of a New America," The New Leader. February 13,
1943, P. 4.
147
Ibid., p. 4.
±l[Q
Claude McKay, "On Becoming a Roman Catholic," The
Epistle. 7, No. 2 (Spring 19*15), 43-45; reprinted in
Catholic Digest. 9 (July 1945), 43-45. Hereafter cited
within the text, abbreviated as "Becoming," and followed
by the page references.
149 For her account of their friendship, see Ellen
Tarry, The Third Door (New York; David McKay, Inc., 1955),
p. 127 passim.
 1
*'° In a letter to Max Eastman McKay states he joined
the Catholic Church because it had a spiritual message and
because it was the foe of Communism. McKay to Max Eastman,
September 16, 1946, McKay Letters, Schomburg Collection.
x x
$ A different view of Spain was noted by Richard
Wright on his visit to that country. Wright noted particu-
larly the psychological sufferings of the Spanish Protes-
tants. He compared the "needless, unnatural, and utterly
barbarous nature of the psychological suffering" with the
psychological sufferings of the American blacks. Cited by
Saunders Redding, "The Alien Land of Richard Wright," Soon.
One Morning: New Writing by American Negroes 1940-1962. ed.
by Herbert Hlll(New York: Knopf, 1968), p. 51.
lc,
2 McKay at one time wrote to James Weldon Johnson
that he was considering becoming a Moslem because of that
religion's blindness to color. McKay to James Weldon
Johnson, May 25, 1931, James Weldon Johnson Letters, James
Weldon Johnson Collection.
1
^3 Ellen Tarry in her description of McKay's funeral
commented: "Claude would have chuckled at the turn of
events which resulted in his having a New York funeral after
the solemn requiem Mass in Chicago at which Bishop Shell
presided and another Mass here at the Church of the
Crucifixion. Boyish mischief would have played around the
corners of his eyes and mouth and he would have sworn that
'the Reds' were responsible for his mortal remains arriving
in New York late—four hours after the Mass had been said
In absentia" (p. 269).
1
54 Claude McKay, "Why I Became a Catholic," Ebony.
1 (March 1946), p. 32.
x
55 ibid.
x
56 ibid.
x
57 ibid.
x
$ Claude McKay, "Right Turn to Catholicism," type-
written manuscript, Claude McKay Papers, Schomburg Collec-
tion. Hereafter cited within the text, abbreviated as
"Right Turn," and followed by the page references.
x
$9 In an interview with Eddie Doherty in 1946, McKay
said: "All my life I had studied books, languages, people,
ideas, philosophies, manners of living. All my life I had
longed for the great cities, the far off lands. All my life
I had wished for peace, a universal brotherhood, a land in
which all men were equal. And, of a sudden, I found all
these in the Church. Here were all the books—and the
answers to the problems in the books. Here was the one
great city I had not sought, the city of God. Here was the
strange land—strange, at lea&o to me—that was to be my
home. Here was the country of brotherly love where indeed
all men were equal! No one can guess what it meant to me to
discover all these things. No one can realize what it means
for an agnostic to find God. Not even the agnostic him-
self" (p. 46).
1
^° Shortly before his death McKay said: "So, you
see, it was like coming home to come into the Church, No,
not like coming home. It was really coming home, Into my
Father's house!" Doherty, p. 46.
 137

CHAPTER III.
Fiction

Between 1934-1948 McKay was writing not only expository

prose but also attempting to write fiction. The McKay Papers
in the James Weldon Johnson Collection contain three pieces
of fiction. "Dinner In Douarnenez" is a short story told in
first person by a young black man who is befriended by a
fisher family in Brittany. The father of the family had once
been friends with a young black man in Antilles; he treats
the narrator as his lost friend. "Miss Allah" is an incom-
plete but lengthy story set in Morocco. Miss Allah is a
young native man who has been educated by missionaries. Much
of the story, which traces his adventures after he leaves the
care of the mission, develops the exotic atmosphere of
Morocco. A third work entitled "New Novel" Is also found in
the James Weldon Johnson Collection. That work reappears in
a lengthier version in the Schomburg Collection entitled
"Romance in Marseilles." The novel's central character is
Lafala, an African who has lost his legs. Much of the novel
is set in Marseilles and Involves prostitutes and sailors,
characters similar to those in Banjo, with the exception that
no character like Ray appears.
Unfortunately, no dates can be established for the
writing of these stories. They may have been written while
 138

McKay was still abroad. The stories themselves contain no

references which would date them. Nor do the McKay Letters
contain enough information to validate the period of writing.
Harlem Glory, however, was certainly written after McKay
returned to the United States in 1934.
When McKay applied for a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1937,
he asked for support to complete a new novel about Harlem.
He insisted that no novel since his Home to Harlem in 1928
had successfully portrayed Harlem. Although McKay had
presented Harlem again in the first six stories of Gingertown
in 1932, it was certainly the Harlem he remembered from 1922,
the year he left America. After publication of Gingertown.
his friend Gladys Wilson wrote to him;
But Claude, when you write of Harlem, its street
scenes, cabarets, everyday common people, somehow
it doesn't click. Of course, you have been away
for ten years, and many changes have taken place.
You need to visit us, and see first hand, what
Harlem is now.
Particularly to hear the current slang. The
new idiom is so different that no young person
under thirty-five now living in Harlem uses 2or
ever has heard some of the phrases you use.
The new work entitled Harlem Glory was an attempt to capture
the changed Harlem of the 1930's, including numbers games,
Father Divine, exotic cults, and labor agitation. This
fragmentary manuscript, never published,3 displays similari-
ties with both Home to Harlem and the Harlem stories of
Gingertown. but important differences are also apparent.
The first part of the novel tells the story of Buster
South and Millinda Rose. Buster came to New York from the
South to find a better life through his wits and charm.
 139

Millinda is from Virginia. Educated to be a schoolteacher,

but unable to find a job in New York, she became a mani-
curist. Her beauty and charm attracted West Indian Ned Rose,
one of the biggest numbers bankers in Harlem. He divorced
his quiet West Indian wife to marry Millinda, and she became
a partner in the numbers game. After Millinda's marriage to
Ned, Buster came into her life as the "black Beau Brummell
of the fast set."^ The attraction between them was strong;
both had the skill to survive and to succeed.
Ned Rose was an unusual numbers banker. Unlike the
other flashy bankers, he lived quietly. He gave much money
away and helped to educate young blacks. He was shrewd
enough to avoid trouble; when white gangsters began to real-
ize the profit in the Harlem numbers game, Ned decided to
return to the West Indies. Millinda, who is left in charge,
manages well; she buys protection for Ned and he returns to
Harlem. They hope to tour Europe, but on the eve of their
trip, Ned is shot in the Submarine Bar. As a result of his
horrible death, Millinda sells the rest of the numbers
business and goes to Europe, taking Buster with her.
They establish an international group in Paris—Lotta
Sanders from Harlem; Madame Audace, a lady with international
connections; Miss Aschine Palma, a black from America; Baron
Belchite from Austria; Prince Kuokoh Fanti from West Africa;
and Princess Fanti, who is white and married to Fanti*s
brother. After Millinda's bank crashes and she discovers
that all her money is gone, she gives a party. Late in the
 1*10

evening the guests discover her in the bathroom—dead from

drinking poison.
Buster returns to Harlem but finds it changed. The
numbers game is based now on the race track rather than on
the stock market. The important people in Harlem are no
longer the numbers bankers, but the cultists. When he goes
to the King Kong Club, site of his early successes, the young
blacks there mock him. He is pulled from despondency by
Charlotte Pointer, who was Millinda's cook. She takes him
in* and gives a party to reintroduce him to Harlem society.
The party ends violently when Buster hits one of the guests,
Jerry Batty, for insulting Charlotte. After the party,
Buster moves to a relief camp. But he soon must leave after
an attempt to organize the men. The camp is run by "the
colonel," a super-patriotic, highly paternalistic boss, who
assumes Buster and his organizing friends are all Communists.
Upon his return to Harlem, Buster becomes involved with
the Glory Souls, led by the Glory Savior and the Glory Queen,
Because he is attracted to Oleander Powers, who formerly
lived with Charlotte, he is converted to please Oleander,
Buster is also made aware of a black unity movement in Harlem
led by Omar, the African. Buster finds himself In sympathy
with Omar's group but he can not leave the Glory Souls because
he will lose Oleander (now called Glory Chastity). As a side
interest, he also develops a relationship with the Glory Queen.
Strongly Impressed by Omar the organizer, Buster Joins
a picket line against a big grocery store on 125th street.
 1*11

Abdul, one of Omar's assistants, is knifed in the stomach;

the demonstration ends in a fracas with nothing accomplished.
Upon his return to the Glory Home, Buster meets again Marie
Audace and Lotta Sanders, who have come to view America;
their good friend Buster takes them to meet the Glory Savior.
The scene in Glory Savior's quarters ends rather abruptly; the
next scene moves to Abdul's funeral, which unites the cults
and the labor movement, for a short time at least.
The last chapter of the fragment takes place in Buster's
apartment. Buster has led the dancing at the evening service
and returned home exhausted. Because Glory Queen was so
aroused by the dancing, she followed him. Oleander comes in
the back door and surprises Buster and Glory Queen naked on
the couch. The chapter ends with Glory Queen convinced that
Buster has tried to trap her and she threatens to kill him.
McKay's earlier published novel, Home to Harlem, is also
a loosely structured novel, but it revolves around the
adventures of Jake, a spontaneous, handsome young man who,
above all, has a tremendous joy for life. Central to the
action are the characters Ray (who seems to speak for McKay),
an educated civilized man who longs for Jake's spontaneity,
and Felice, the object of Jake's romantic longings throughout
the book. The setting is Harlem in 1919 and the novel opens
with Jake returning to Harlem. He has deserted his regiment
in France because he was not allowed to fight and after
several months in London returns to Harlem working as a
stoker on a freighter. The first night in Harlem he meets
 142

Felice in a cabaret. The attraction is immediate and they

spend the night together;
Oh, to be in Harlem again after two years away.
The deep-dyed color, the thickness, the close-
ness of it. The noises of Harlem. The sugared
laughter. The honey-talk on Its streets. And
all night long, ragtime and "blues" playing some-
where, • . . singing somewhere, dancing somewhere!
Oh, the contagious fever of Harlem. Burning
everywhere In dark-eyed Harlem. . . . Burning low
In Jake's sweet blood, . . .
He woke up in the morning in a state of perfect
peace.0
But since Jake fails to get her name or address, he must
spend the remainder of the novel searching for her. During
the course of the novel he lives with Rose, a singer at the
Congo; visits the buffet flats of Madame Suarez and Madame
Lauras unknowingly scabs on the docks; works as third cook
on the Penn Railroad where he meets Ray, who is a waiters
finds Felice; and fights his friend Zeddy for Felice. The
novel ends with Felice and Jake united, leaving the city.
When Home to Harlem appeared in early 1928, the reviews
were mixed. DuBols could find little to praise In the novel.
He accused McKay of desiring "to cater to the prurient
demand on the part of white folk for a portrayal in Negroes
of that utter licentiousness which conventional civilization
holds back from enjoying—if enjoyment it can be called."7
Dewey Jones found McKay able to describe scenes and people
but criticizes nearly everything—the situation, use of
dialect, and the characters. He finds that the book "reeks
with the particular brand of filth that thrills adolescents
and shocks adults who have learned to think. Pimps, whores,
 143

chippies parade themselves along in a fashion never before

encountered in fiction. There is even the undercurrent of
contempt, expressed and implied, for everything that savors
of respectability."8
On the positive side, a few reviews are sufficient to
represent the praise which McKay received.9 The May issue
of Opportunity contained reviews by both Gwendolyn Bennett
and Herschel Brickell. Miss Bennett praised McKay's sensi-
tivity and his handling of the material.10 Brickell notes
the book's candor, its vivid color, and its fidelity to life.
He finds Jake's Americanism to be one of the finest qualities
in the book.11 Alain Locke noted particularly "the peculiar
and persistent quality of Negro peasant life transposed to
the city and the modern mode, but still vibrant with a clean
folksiness of the soil instead of the decadent muck of the
gutter."12
Several differences between Home to Harlem and Harlem
Glory are immediately apparent. One of the more striking is
the contrast between Jake and Buster. Unlike Buster, Jake
possesses a depth of character. He is a spontaneous, vital
man who relies greatly upon his sensual responses to char-
acter and situations.13 His motto is "Live easy" and he
does not allow himself to be caught by stifling civilization.
But despite the naturalness of his responses, he understands
himself well. He works for himself, always refusing to be a
"sweet man." He also refuses to gain from others' misfortune
as evidenced by his refusal to scab on the docks, once he
 144

understands the situation. Jake depends only upon himself;

in that respect he is an inner-directed character.1^1 He
motivates himself to act. He does not blame others or Fate
for his problems; he accepts a situation and makes the best
of it. His refusal to court luck is apparent in his response
to Felice's luck piece: he does not need it. In a sense
Jake is a rural character placed in an urban situation. His
is a peasant spirit, much akin to the Independent and spon-
taneous spirit apparent in the peasants of McKay's early
poems. He is full of health, vigor, and confidence. He
responds fully to urban Harlem In the same sense that the
peasants are unified with the soil,1^ but retains his own
identity based on personal values. He does not depend upon
the mechanicalness of the city, nor Is he caught in its
perplexities. He remains totally indifferent to the larger
society. That complexity creates a full character in Jake.
Buster is not a fully developed character. He is
Involved in many situations, but he has no vitality. Because
he lacks the sensual spontaneity of Jake, he cannot respond
naturally. Unlike Jake, Buster is outer-directed. Buster
cannot motivate himself; someone or something always comes
to his rescue. He needs ready-made organizations which will
be profitable to him. Buster has no qualms about being a
"sweet man"; he depends upon Millinda or Glory Queen to keep
him. Jake does not manipulate others; Buster does. He is a
con-man who uses a numbers game or a hypocritical religious
stance to survive. Perhaps it might be said that Buster is
 i45

an urban character In an urban setting. He has no spirit of

the Jamaican peasant, no vitality or spontaneity or resil-
iency. McKay seems to be creating a new character in
Buster—even his name indicates a street toughness, an
unconcern about the people around him.
Perhaps one of the reasons Buster's character remains
vague is that he has no foil to highlight his personality.
Jake has Ray, who provides the rational balance to Jake's
spontaneity. Throughout the long second section of Home to
Harlem. Ray illuminates Jake's character as he plays the
civilized man against the natural man. As a result of the
absence of a rational, speculative character in Harlem Glory,
the duality of black existence in a predominantly white
society remains untouched.
A second major difference between these two works is the
enactment of scenes. In Home to Harlem dialogue—the words
and the sounds of voices—plays an important role in giving
life to the episodes. In Harlem Glory the dialogue is
sparse. The sounds of voices and words remain unheard. The
result is that many scenes are described rather than enacted.
The descriptions in Harlem Glory are lively and the background
is created with McKay's usual concern for detail, but the
characters remain vague, the scenes, flat. In addition, the
situational manipulation of characters in Harlem Glorv is
awkward. McKay's attempt to unite the Buster and Millinda
segment with the Glory Souls segment by reintroducing Lotta
Sanders and Madame Audace at Glory Home Is unsuccessful. In
 146

Home to Harlem characters disappear and reappear with more

success. The final reintroduction of Felice at the end
unifies the work because Jake has been searching for her.
Felice frames the books no character or action serves that
purpose in Harlem Glory.
A third major difference lies In the completeness of
the two works. Home to Harlem Is loosely structured, but it
does conclude. Jake finds and wins Felice and they leave
the city searching for new adventures. Harlem Glory simply
ends—it does not conclude. Speculations about the incom-
pleteness of the work are unavoidable. Conceivably, the
imaginative spark was gone. Possibly, McKay could find no
further adventures for his hero. Perhaps such an urban
character was impossible for McKay to create. Or perhaps
McKay decided the material of the fragment was better suited
to essays. Through the late 1930's and early 1940's much of
the background of the fragment did appear in various places
as interesting essays about the atmosphere of Harlem.

But for all these differences, comparisons between the

two works are possible. Some of the major similarities
include use of music and dancing, aspects of violence, labor
problems, black-white relationships and the resulting
problems•
Perhaps one of the most obvious similarities between the
two works is their reliance upon music and dancing. In
Harlem Glory the songs are Glory Soul songs, but they are as
rhythmical and body-shaking as any in a cabaret. "The Glory
 147

Hymn" depends upon repetition of sound and a steady rhythm to

entice the listeners. McKay describes the song as "a lilting
little tune, designed to tickle the feet and sway the body"
(HG, p. 102). The first verse illustrates those qualities:
My savior he needs me,
My savior he leads me,
My savior he feeds me,
With glory and glory (HG, p. 102)
Interestingly, the "savior" in the song is uncapitalized.
Neither the singers nor the listeners know if the savior is
this world's Glory Savior or another world's Savior. "The
Glory Shake" has the same fervent religious quality:
All glory souls are happy,
Shake hands, shake hands,
Your savior is commanding,
Shake hands, all lands,
Oh shakem, shakem, shake • . . (HG, p. 153)
Another strong appeal of the Glory Souls is the fervent
and sensual dancing. One of the cult's tenets is no sex: the
dancing released some of the sexual tension. Following ritu-
alistic dancing like this, Glory Queen felt impelled to visit
Buster in his apartment:
. . . Buster whirled off into the Glory jig. Oleander
pirouetted around the altar and up to Buster. The
Glory Queen majestically capered up and swung between
them. Glory Savior heaped to join in nodding his
head, his elbows working, his thumb cockeds the candle
boys and girls started shivering in unison like leaves
agitated by the wind; all the Glory Souls wildly re-
sponded to the prompting of the platform with swaying
and swinging, singing, shrieking to the highest
transforming the vast pandemonium into a formidable
fantastic orgy of shaking feet. (HG, p. 104)
The majority of the references to music and dancing occur
in the second half of the work. When Buster returns to Harlem,
he goes to the King-Kong Club and there observes the teen-agers:
 148

A lad came from the rear room and put a coin

in the nickleodeon. As the music started he
held his leather coat behind with his left hand
and began a strange rearing prancing. . . . As
if she had broken out of some secret place a
stout little black girl shot wildly into the
room dancing around the group, bouncing with
elastic enthusiasm like a rubber ball among
the men. The nickel music spun roaring and
flashing like a bawdy dispute among them. The
pungent odor of reefers hung in the smoke like
heavy thunder in a storm. (HG, p. 50-52)
Buster soon became Involved with the Glory Soulers; then all
the music and dance is a part of their religious ecstasy.
One of the few references to music in the first half of
Harlem Glorv is "The Song of Harlem." The song itself has a
bittersweet quality. The first line indicates the surface
gaiety, "In Harlem you may find what joy you seek" but the
remainder of the song reminds the listener that although sor-
row lingers in the "broken lives of outcasts" (1.5), Harlem
still represents love and courage; " . . . brown madonnas kiss
their babies' feet" (1. 8) and "love and faith bind humble
families" (1. 16). In addition, the "souls of Harlem fare]
searching for the light" (1. 22). The story of the song also
is bittersweet. Since the song was not jazz or hot, white song
publishers refused It, saying that the song did not accurately
reflect Harlem. Finally, the song with its sweet melancholy
undertones was sold to a black orchestra and achieved great
success. The song publishers evidently did not realize that
Harlem was more than just surface gaiety and glamour.
In a sense this song adequately illuminates Harlem.
On the surface is cheerful merrymaking. But underneath is
 149

sorrow and love and loyalty. The song reminds the listener
that while sorrow dwells in broken lives of outcasts there
are also wholesome lives and quiet homes where "brown
madonnas kiss their babies' feet." Also implied is the
tension of living in a restricted area, tension which is
large and frequently explodes into violence. The song Is
reminiscent of Langston Hughes' collection of poetry The
Weary Blues, which also creates the double life of Harlem.10
In Home to Harlem music and dancing appear with even
more frequency than in Harlem Glory. The whole book Is set
against the background sounds of blues and jazz. In this
early work, the music often represents the whole primitive
atmosphere of the Harlem area. Ragtime, jazze and blues
float throughout the novel and mark the natural existence of
Jake and his friends. The dancing itself is the spontaneous
expression of these people. They are uninhibited about sex;
they are just as uninhibited about their dancing. The music
contains the primitive rhythm of jungle and ritual: "The
notes were naked acute alert. Like black youth burning naked
in the bush. . . . Simple-clear and quivering. Like a primi-
tive dance of war or of love . • . the marshaling of spears
or the sacred frenzy of a phallic celebration" (HH, pp. 196-
197). And to the music they dance: "An exercise of rhyth-
mical exactness for two. There was no motion she made that
he did not imitate. They reared and pranced together,
smacking palm against palm, working knee between knee,
grinning with real joy. They shimmied, breast to breast,
bent themselves far back and shimmied again" (HH, p. 93),
•

150

In both of these works dancing represents the spontaneous,

natural life. Dancing is, for Jake and his companions, a
means of expressing their joy in the pleasures of the world
or a means of forgetting the harsh realities of the world.
For the Glory Souls, who are overwhelmingly concerned with
salvation, dancing expresses their Joy in the pleasures of
that salvation or provides an acceptable but spontaneous
release for their sexual tensions. Even the rigors of sal-
vation cannot hide completely their vitality.
The violence which is masked by the songs and dancing
is apparent in both works, although not quite as obviously in
Harlem Glory. In this later work Ned Rose Is killed in
gangster fashion; Buster hits Jerry Batty at Charlotte's
party; Glory Queen treatens to kill Buster at the end of the
novel; and Abdul is killed In the riot at the picketing of the
grocery store. Although scenes of violence are not as numer-
ous as In Home to Harlem, the violent undertone is certainly
present. The atmosphere of Harlem may be different by the
1930's, but raw emotions still can easily flare into violence.
One difference between the two works is that in Home to
Harlem the violence is always directed towards other people.
In Harlem Glory. Millinda kills herself by drinking poison;
in that one scene, at least, violence is self-directed.

Home to Harlem displays even more clearly the constant

violent undertone to the Harlem gaiety. The book begins
just after World War I is over and the violence associated
with the war continues throughout the narrative. The actual
 151

scenes of violence are both Immediate and retrospective:

Jake recalls the riot In London which convinced him to leaves
Zeddy tells of his buddy killed by "raw cracker cussedness"
(HH, p. 22); and Ray narrates the story of violence in Hayti
which disrupted his family's life. The immediate scenes of
violence are many: the dancing at the cabaret is interrupted
by women fighting; a man is severely beaten at the docks when
the men are scabbing; the party at Gin-Head Susy's is
disrupted by fighting; Jake is provoked by Congo Rose into
slapping her; the two West Indian women fight; Jake and Zeddy
brawl over Felice. Nearly every cabaret scene with its
pleasures is ended with violence. The final comment which
the novel makes on violence is;
And the white visitors laugh. They see the grin
only. Here are none of the well-patterned, well-
made emotions of the respectable world. A laugh
might finish in a sob. A moan end In hilarity.
That gorilla type wriggling there with his hands
so strangely hugging his mate, may strangle her
tonight. But he has no thought of that now. He
loves the warm wriggle and is lost In it. Simple,
raw emotions and real. They may frighten and
repel refined souls, because they are too in-
tensely real, just as a simple savage stands
dismayed before nice emotions that he instantly
perceives are false. (HH, pp. 337-338)
The overtone of violence in Harlem seldom disappears. No
real pleasure oan exist in a ghetto filled with the stresses
of a harsh daily life.
Both works are also concerned with the black-white
relationships and the problems which ensue, although neither
work exhibits the concern which is found In the Harlem
stories of Gingertown. In Harlem Glorv the whites have
 152

always been present. Before Buster went to Europe the whites

"were members of the ultra-sophlsltlcated literati and the
bohemlan fringe of New York's intellegentsia" (HG, p. 12).
Then the whites In Harlem became the gangsters who realized
they could take Impressive profits from the numbers game.
Ifl Harlem Glory three white characters are created;
Madame Audace, Baron Belchite, and Baldwin Hatcher. Both
Madame Audace and the Baron are part of Millinda's inter-
national group in Paris. In that group dominated by blacks,
the whites seem to be accepted equally. At one point Lotta
Sanders tells Millinda that Baron Belchite loves her because
of her odor. Millinda tries to convince Lotta that she should
be flattered. Perhaps the same point that black people have
a kind of natural primitivism which white people seek is made
in both Home to Harlem and Banjo. Baldwin Hatcher is a white
journalist who first appears at Charlotte's party for Buster.
He had been a popular writer, then fell from that position
and rose again as a popular journalist. Through his help
Buster goes to the relief farm in order to leave the city
behind.

After Buster's return to Harlem, he goes to see Jerry

Batty, a former unimportant numbers man, but now rich and
powerful. Batty offers no job, only advice—play on white
people, get them back to Harlem. If Buster can do that, he
will once again be popular and prosperous. The implication
is clear; white people have the money. If Harlem is to
survive, it must be done with white money. In such a subtle
 153

way does McKay make clear the hazards of being black in a

white society.
White people are part of the Glory Souls. The Glory
Savior denies the distinctions of color, a technique which
may be practical idealism or practical accommodation. His
words when he meets Lotta Sanders and Madame Audace are:
"•I have no race and I know no color. . . . If I were senti-
mental to the differential of the species in the conglomer-
ation of humanity, I would be detrimental to the manifesta-
tion of glory'" (HG, p. 129).
White people are also the store owners in Harlem and
Omar attempts to exert economic pressures against them.
Black Harlemites spend their money in white owned and oper-
ated stores; Omar believes that black people should be
employed in those stores. But his picketing of the large
grocery stores on 125th street is unsuccessful. The episode
ends with the white store owners amusedly watching the pick-
eting and the ensuing fight. They refuse even to talk to the
delegation from the Yeomen of Labor. One of the merchants
comments: "'The white man don't have to do nothing about
niggers, excep'n' give them room to fight among themselves
and cut their own throats'" (HG, p. 131). The position of
white proprietorship is evident; the agitating blacks have
little power; therefore, no concern needs to be given to
their pleas.
In Home to Harlem the white characters play an even
smaller role. They are primarily pleasure seekers who come
to Harlem for the abandonment of the night-life. Some of the
 154

cabarets cater only to whites and Jake is disgusted with the

"'Ofay's mixing in'" (HH, p. 104). In some of the cabarets
the black patrons are forced to the rear of the room. Whites
also appear as members of the vice squad. Madame Suarez
takes in some congenial white men and they return her trust
by raiding her buffet flat. In contrast, the white policeman
at Madame Laura's Is easily bribed. White women appear as
prostitutes in some of the buffet flats. The steward on the
dining car is the only white character who plays even a
minor role.
Although neither work treats black-white relationships
as a major theme, the undercurrents of discrimination are
always present. Jake knows his color gives him the worst
job on the ship from Cardiff; the judge says that the white
prostitutes in Madame Suarez's buffet flat should be horse
whipped; Jake realizes that the labor unions are not color-
blind as they insist; and the white railroad provides inferior
quarters for the black crew. In Harlem Glorv Millinda
cannot find a Job as a schoolteacher; the white publishers
refuse "The Song of Harlem"; the white-owned stores refuse
to hire black clerks. The protest against this discrimina-
tion is not great in Home to Harlem: few direct comments are
made. The emphasis is upon color consciousness, which is a
much more subtle form of protest. In Harlem Glory the protest
is greater because of Omar, who makes direct attacks on the
discrimination of a racist society.
 155

The similarities of music and dancing, violence, and

black-white relationships between Home to Harlem and Harlem
Glorv are significant. Even though Harlem may have changed
in the years McKay was absent, these elements remained.
These similarities, however, suggest other apparent differ-
ences. One of the most obvious is that Home to Harlem
focuses on the "lower" life 17 of Harlem; in contrast, Harlem
Glory portrays characters who do not belong to the lower
life, yet neither do they belong to the elite. They are
somewhere in the middle and might be categorized as "mar-
ginal."18 That is, the characters in Harlem Glory are
mobile; they are attempting to move from the lower life into
a more comfortable and acceptable middle class life. They
are outer-directed because they are attempting to take on
the characteristics of the new group. They know they will
be accepted only if they conform to the new group's behaviors.
The people who profited from the numbers game became
this "marginal" group. The bankers dressed well and purchased
lavish houses; they became overly involved in maintaining
their position. The Glory Souls also attracted this group.
The example of respectability which the religious group
offered was especially appealing to its members. These were
people who believed cleanliness and accommodation might solve
the racial predicament. Kenneth Clark in his book Dark
Ghetto comments that "quasi religious cult groups . . . play
a cathartic role for the Negro. . . . provide an opportunity
for their followers to . . . seek release for emotions which
 156

cannot be expressed in overcrowded homes or on the job."19

Clark also comments that the self-esteem provided by these
church-cults also permits inadequacies upon the part of the
minister. The ministers are often indulged and allowed any
amount of personal freedom. Because the ministers are
highly successful, they provide vicarious satisfaction for
the congregation. Omar also attracted this marginal group
as do the Muslims today.20 Omar's unity groups include no
characters who resemble the characters in Jake's world.
In contrast, Home to Harlem involves itself with pimps,
prostitutes, longshoremen, and railroad workers, who gather
in the cabarets and buffet flats. The women Jake encounters
are generally portrayed as attractive women who love easily
and well. Jake, too, loves easily; he responds impulsively
to the women around him—Congo Rose, girls he meets casually
at cafes, or Felice. On the contrary, Ray does not possess
that spontaneity. He thinks and analyzes; he cannot respond
in a natural way to most of the women he meets. The pimps
also appear in Home to Harlem; for example, Jerco in the story
which Ray tells.

In Harlem Glory there are no buffet flats; the only

cabaret is the King-Kong Club, where Buster realizes that
his former glory and prestige have disappeared. The
Depression closed many of the cabarets; the people of Harlem
turned to cults for their Joy and Harlem Glorv reflects that
shift. Few women appear—Millinda, Oleander, and Glory Queen
are the only women who attract Buster. No pimps at all
appear in Harlem Glorv.
 157

Perhaps this movement away from the lower life was part
of McKay's problem: by moving away from the prostitutes and
railroad workers, he also moved away from his creative spark.
Certainly the periphery of the numbers game was lower class,
but he does not develop those characters. Perhaps he should
have focused on the numbers runners, the drug dealers, and
the prostitutes. Possibly the new picture of Harlem did not
work because McKay had ceased to be a writer of the people.
Like Jake, the characters in Home to Harlem might be clas-
sified as inner-directed. They motivate themselves. In
Harlem Glory the characters are outer-directed. They are
motivated by group leaders who apparently have power. In the
shift from inner-directed to outer-directed characters, the
fiction loses much of its power. Perhaps this change also
explains the fewer scenes of violence—this marginal group
is more concerned with conformity. The civilizing processes
would have made violence distasteful to them.

Two other obvious differences between the works are the

cults and militancy. Perhaps the cults of the 1930's grew
naturally from the cabarets of the 1920's. In both, the
emphasis is on music and dancing. The salvation differs,
though. For the Glory Souls salvation lies In faith and
forgetting the body and its tribulations. For those gathered
in the cabarets, salvation lies in freeing the body through
rhythm and liquour. For the people of the cults, faith is a
continuing commodity, not something to be purchased every
night; thus, the morrow is always much more painful for the
people of the cabarets than for the people of the cults.
 158

In chapter nine of Harlem Glory, entitled "Two Leaders,"

McKay describes the lure of cultlsm for Harlem. The attrac-
tion of these cults was a "magical appeal, the glamor, the
comfortable living it offered in a Harlem swamped by
Depression" (HG, p. 85). Harlem was devoted both to estab-
lished churches and cults, cults "founded upon a marriage of
primitive Christian mysticism and African black magic and
fetishism" (HG, p. 86). Although the cults varied slightly
from group to group, each depended upon "esoteric ritual,
litanies In jargon and strange languages and the burning of
colored candles and Incense" (HG, p. 86). The cults were
also related to the numbers game because cult leaders would,
as part of the ritual, reveal the magic numbers to the loyal
x
followers. One pointed comment which McKay makes is that
"if the numbers game is the greatest industrial phenomenon in
Harlem, cultlsm is the greatest spiritual phenomenon" (HG,
P. 85).
The cult most fully developed in Harlem Glory is the
Glory Souls. Robert Byrd, who later became the Glory Savior,
founded the Glory Souls. Originally the cult, named Helping
Hand, was a communal employment agency. The women lived
together and were employed as domestics. When Byrd discovered
that he had preaching talents, he connected religion with
Helping Hand, and the communal employment agency grew into a
cult preaching salvation of souls. The Glory Souls* philos-
ophy was based on certain laws: no sex, no mortality, no
race, no color, collective work, collective living, collec-
tive recreation, and complete faith in the Glory Savior.
The Glory Savior recognized the importance of pageantry to
satisfy his followers. The rituals of the Glory Souls are
described in detail: "a side door opened leading to the
platform and a splendidly tall, green-uniformed brown man
stepped up on the platform carrying a large yellow ball,
designated as the Glory Globe. Behind him came six little
light-brown and dark-brown girls dressed in blue-and-white
frocks and bearing candles. They were followed by Glory
Queen wearing a blue robe with silver train held up by two
pages" (HG, p. 101).
Rhythm is important to the cult. The hymns and dancing
previously discussed are rhythmical urgings. The sermons of
Glory Savior possess these same rhythmic aspects:
•I go down to the lowest In Harlem and I go up to
the highest in Harlem for I bring a message with
my mission which is maximum and millenium. Harlem
must cease from blackness of the body which is
consciousness coeval of the indulgence of the
flesh to become the reformed of transformation
into the national capital of Glory Homes. That Is
the combination of the culmination of my plan for
Harlem.
Harlem is a sex pool. We must clean it out
with ample sample and example of wholeful and
soulful living. That is the seeming and the
meaning, the mission and permission to Glory Souls.
. . . And today Glory Chastity 0?leander[ has
rewarded us in bringing us a new soul from the
upper realms of biggity and dickty iniquity of
Harlem. Glory Chastity recommending and I com-
mending, Glory Pilgrim Progress ["BusteFJ.'
(HG, p. 103)
The Glory Savior may call Harlem a "sex pool," but the
aspects of sexuality are certainly present in his cult. The
dancing of the Glory Souls is a pagan, sensual movement—
perhaps the antidote for the no-sex regulation.
 160

The sexuality is even more apparent at the last Glory

Souls meeting described In the text. At the meeting
Cleopatra Price, a woman convert, speaks of glory almost as
a sexual experience; "'Glory grabbed me and gripped me so
hard, I was paralyzed with sweet Joy, with glory inside of
me filling me up and glory all over me. Glory Jazzed me and
razzed me, Glory slammed me and Jammed me round and round
until I was glory crazy'" (HG, p. 151-152). For the Glory
Souls, the only sexual potency allowed Is within the frame-
work of salvation. They trade sexual potency for security.
The other leader described in chapter 9, "Two Leaders,"
is Luther Sharpage, Byrd's former partner who became Omar,
the African. The character of Omar appears to be based on
Sufi Abdul Hamid.22 McKay describes the Sufi as "a power-
fully built black man and he dressed himself in a bright-
colored cape, Russian long boots and Hindu-type turban"
(HNM, p. 185). In the photo of the Sufi which appears in
Harlem: Negro Metropolis, he is wearing a turban, a cape,
and boots. McKay describes Omar as wearing "a turban, a
belted leather coat, boots and spurs" (HG, p. 94). At one
time he appears in "Russian boots and American spurs, a
Chinese blue cape with Moroccan red lining, an English
officer's belt, with his head crowned by an Arabian white
turban" (HG, p. 108a). Omar is the founder of a "new reli-
gion and a new idea of labor for the colored masses . . . a
philosophical form of Islam • . • and the new conception of
labor for the colored masses was to be worked out in the
 161

Yeomen of Labor, which he had organized" (HG, p. 94). His

new religion was "suited to Negro needs" (HG, p. 94). Omar
believes black people should actively become a part of the
business world. He says: "'You are the only colored people
I know who are ashamed of exploiting yourself. In Africa
the Africans are not afraid of peddling. • • • But you
colored folks prefer to get down on your knees on a knee pad
behind closed doors In the white folks homes, instead of ped-
dling in the open'" (HG, p. 124). In addition, he advocated
closer unity of all colored people as a group, local autonomy
for reconstruction of the black community, equal employment,
and an adequate percentage of black workers at all levels.
Like the Sufi, Omar appealed to youth and angered the intel-
ligentsia. Omar also preaches the danger of the Glory Souls'
no sex policy. He contends that the race will be destroyed
by such abstinence. Moreover, he says: "'Colored folks are
collected in Glory Homes like the Communists in Russia. But
consider the cost my friend! . . . Have you ever figured out
the price that Harlem is paying for Glory Homes?'" (HG,
p. 111).
Through his actions, Omar antagonizes many groups in
Harlem—the churches, the Socialist and Communist organizers,
the educated blacks who hated anything that resembled segre-
gation. But Omar countered with the argument that since other
groups organize, blacks should also. White people will not
graciously accept black people but black Americans must be
defended.
 162

No character like Omar the African appears In Home tp.

Harlem. The emphasis on unity and militancy Is absent. Ray
might be faintly similar with his lectures on history and his
concern for black people as a group; but on the whole, unity
in Home to Harlem is not advocated through militancy but
through color consciousness. The emphasis on shades and
varieties of color Is not as apparent in Harlem Glorv. In
Home to Harlem McKay describes in minute detail the varying
hues of people in Harlem. Racial consciousness as seen in
Home to Harlem is an awareness of the characteristics of
blacks, both as individuals and as a group. The individual
characters have definite traits such as specific shades of
color? they do not resemble each other. They are black indi-
viduals. These black individuals combine to provide a unique
atmosphere which includes attitudes, language, food, activ-
ities—it could belong to no other racial group.
In all these descriptions or comments about racial
qualities in Home to Harlem. McKay is pointing towards a
unification of the race. Blacks have characteristics which
no other people have; these characteristics should bind the
entire group together, make it strong and viable. The group
should not immerse Itself in the general society, but should
retain its Individuality, just as each black character retains
his Individuality. Although in 1928 McKay was apparently not
yet using the word "adjustment," he was advocating that
philosophy.
Just as McKay sees clearly the division and unity of the
established churches and the cults, he also sees the division
 163

and unity of Omar and Glory Savior. In the fictional work,

Glory Savior and Omar had once been friends; Glory Savior's
first wife had run off with Omar. In Harlem: Negro
Metropolis there Is no such connection between Father Divine
and the Sufi. But in Harlem Glorv the narrator does make a
comment which is accurate about the existent Harlem of the
late 1930's; "Yet the two movements of Glory Savior and of
Omar respectively were like a two-faced mirror reflecting the
strange unfathomed mind of the colored minority. Expressed
in those movements were all its hidden confused reactions,
its hopes and fetich fears, its Uncle Tom traditions, its
desires, appetites, aspirations, Its latent strength and
obvious weakness" (HG, p. 97). The real Father Divine and
the real Sufi reflected the same reactions. Churches, cults,
integration, militancy—all were a part of the Harlem McKay
attempted to describe In Harlem Glorv.
In addition to the differences in the characters and the
variations in utilization of cults and militancy, several minor
differences between Home to Harlem and Harlem Glorv need to
be noted briefly. The numbers game assumes great importance
in the first part of Harlem Glory. The origins and mechanics
of the numbers game are explained in the chapter "Numbers
Magic." The numbers game is attractive because "The ignorant
masses were excited by the Idea of their big Negroes under-
standing the magic of Stock Exchange and working out a plan
in which all Harlem could participate" (HG, p. 8 ) . From the
numbers game grew the dream cults which translated dreams
 16*1

into numbers. Dream Books coding various symbols of dreams

appeared and were highly popular; conjure and voodoo men also
increased.
Criticism of the numbers game is apparent in McKay's
parallels with bootlegging. Both were a part of the general
defiance of laws in the decade following World War I. In
addition, the numbers game Increased the number of parasitic
Jobs available to the supporters.
The numbers game is unimportant in Home to Harlem.
Perhaps the significance in the difference lies once again in
the motivation of the characters. Jake and his friends make
their own luck; they do not rely on Chance. The characters
in Harlem Glory have a strong belief in luck; at least the
background of the numbers game implies that belief. Perhaps
McKay viewed the growth of the numbers game as one of the sig-
nificant differences between Harlem of the early 1920*s and
of the 1930's. With the depression came a strong sense of
futility and a belief not in personal achievement, but in
luck.
Another minor difference is the reliance in Harlem Glorv
upon political aspects of the 1930's. In a sense Jake's
adventures are timeless. His love for Harlem and his search
for Felice could have taken place outside the 1920's. His
style of life is not dependent upon the political or economic
conditions around him. But some of Harlem Glorv is timebound
because of references to the New Deal, Communism, and relief.

In the middle section of Harlem Glory. Buster goes to

Newfields, a relief camp,23 The degrading qualities of
 165

relief are shown clearly in the episode. The men at the camp
were an ethnic mixture but the supervisors of the departments
were drawn from various groups with the exception of
Aframerlcan. The men were paid $5*50 per week. Half of that
sum was deducted for maintenance; the remaining sum covered
clothing and miscellaneous items. The townspeople Intensely
disliked the men at the camp because they worked too cheaply,
William, one of the workers at the camp, and Buster attempted
to organize the men, but the first meeting was broken up by
the "Colonel," who was "a New Deal official who did not
believe in the New Deal, but the intricate play of politics
had carried him along on a progressive tide and made of a
reactionary an unconvinced new dealer. He really thought
that the power of the New Deal was founded upon the popular
resentment of a thirsty nation and once he said that its
symbol should be a foaming stein of beer" (HG, p. 77)• The
colonel is a super patriot, paternalistic in his attitude
towards his men. He breaks up the labor meeting which Buster
and William organize and speaks to the men himself, haranguing
against the reds. McKay makes no direct attack on the colo-
nel, but his whole stance seems ridiculous.
References to Communism appear twice in the work.
William the organizer at Newfields is accused by the "colonel"
of being a Communist. William has no further role in the
novel, but much later when Madame Audace reappears in the
story, she has been to Russia and is now an enthusiastic
fellow-traveler. She even compares the position of the
 166

Communists to the position of black people—both are victims

of prejudice and oppression. Again, no attack is made on
her or her statement. It seems that McKay expects the reader
to see the falsity of such statements.
In summary, Harlem Glory, the fragment written after
McKay's return to the United States, and Home to Harlem, the
highly successful novel written in the late 1920's, have
aspects In common. But the differences are perhaps even more
important. McKay creates a different atmosphere in his later
work. The Harlem of the 1930's with its cults and militancy
was far different from the Harlem of the 1920's and McKay
shows well those changes. McKay has also created a new char-
acter in Buster South, a man who lacks the peasant spirit of
Jake. Buster is a highly urbanized con-man who turns every
situation to his advantage. Part of the problem in discussing
Harlem Glory is its fragmentary nature. It is obviously
Incomplete; perhaps if McKay had completed the work, many of
the technical problems such as sparse character development
would have been eliminated.
McKay creates the atmosphere of Harlem a third time in
Gingertown. a collection of short stories published in 1932,
before McKay returned to Harlem. The first six stories are
set in Harlem; the last six are set in the West Indies
(Gingertown is in Jamaica), Marseilles, and North Africa.
The stories differ in plot and atmosphere; they vary from the
story of a black blues singer in Harlem married to a white
woman, to the description of an agricultural exposition in
 167

Jamaica, to the adventures of a little sheik in North Africa

who tries to work as a tourist guide. The volume of short
stories received only a few reviews. Most of the reviews
were positive; some agreed that the last six stories were
finer in style and characterization than the earlier stories.
The reviewer in the Nation commented upon the realism and
wide range of the stories. He also noted that the stories
become better as the reader progresses through the volume.24
The critic in the New York Times Book Review praises McKay's
ability for understatement which allows him to accept the
"black and white problem with a certain easy naturalness and
Is never discursive about It. In other words, he Is more of
a genuine artist than most of the new Negro novelists, and
if his work in most cases lacks flamboyant color it is prob-
ably vastly to his credit."2^ The New York Amsterdam News_
praises McKay's ability to create characters which are true
to life and stripped of all illusion. That reviewer also
finds the Jamaica stories more enjoyable and singles out as
26
best "The Strange Burial of Sue." Sterling Brown comments
once again upon the objectivity in the stories which creates
a "wry irony" and designates the Gingertown stories as better
than the Harlem stories. Brown notes that McKay has "brooded
over the follies and the devotions of humankind with pity and
7
understanding." Alain Locke in his annual review of lit-
erature in Opportunity lamented that McKay with his fine
talent should be in exile, for "even from memory and at a
distance, he draws more powerfully and poignantly than many
 168

who study the Harlem scene 'from life."' Locke responds

positively to the collection of short stories and notes par-
ticularly McKay's maturity and skill in creating "real flesh
and blood characterization and really human motivation" with
ironic overtones.
This discussion will consider only the first six stories
set in Harlem; "Brownskin Blues," "The Prince of Porto Rico,"
"Mattie and Her Sweetman," "Near-White," "Highball," and
"Truant," Several parallels are apparent between these
stories and Home to Harlem and Harlem Glorv: violence,
black-white relationships, and music and dancing. "Truant,"
which differs greatly from the other stories and bridges the
Harlem stories to the Gingertown stories, will be considered
at the end of this chapter.

McKay introduces violence in only one of these stories,

"The Prince of Porto £sic3 Rico." The story revolves around
the Prince, Manuel, a Puerto Rican who owns a tonsorial
parlor In Harlem. The Prince is a handsome man who dresses
well and likes "music and male friends and the diversion of
women." 9 A S a result, he is extremely attractive to women.
Like Jake, he does not force his attentions on women; instead,
they pursue him and are happy with only a few minutes of his
company. Tlllie Worms, whose husband works nights, Is a
patron of Bella's buffet flat. She had formerly been Involved
with Hank Forbes, but when the Prince appeared, she turned
her flirtations to this handsome man with his almond com-
plexion. Hank becomes jealous and informs Tillie's husband,
 169

Uriah. The husband returns home unexpectedly, hoping to

catch Tillie in an indiscretion. The Prince escapes to the
fire escape, but Uriah "saw Tillie, little creature of van-
ity, studying her frightened features in the mirror of her
dresser. Uriah gripped Tillie by the neck and banged her
head Into the mirror. The mirror shivered splinters on to
Tillie's face. She fell to the floor and groaned: 'Gawd!•
He lifted his foot to stamp on her bloody face—but he
checked himself" (Gt, p. 53). Then Uriah chases the Prince
down the street and shoots him in the back.
Again, both pleasure and violence are present. Bella's
buffet flat was alive with drinking, gambling, and loving.
But underneath the pleasure were the intrigues which Bella
encouraged because they brought her business. Bella is tough,
but not tough enough to prevent Hank from betraying Tillie.
Finally, the pleasure of Tillie and the Prince is broken by
Uriah's knocking on the door. The Harlem of this story seems
to be a sensual, carefree world, but the pleasure ends in
horror.
Violence does not appear In the rest of the stories.
The scenes of violence are fewer in Gingertown than in either
Home to Harlem or Harlem Glorv. Perhaps the reason is that
these stories are, for the most part, not concerned with
lower life characters.
The relationships between black people and white people
are given fuller development in these stories than in either
of the other two works. "Highball," which Is the finest
 170

narrative in this group, relates the story of Nation Roe, a

blues singer who was discovered in Baltimore and came to
New York to find success. Growing tired of his quiet
Baltimorean wife, he diyorced her to marry Myra, a loud white
woman. Myra is portrayed as a highball loving shrew who has
little sympathy for Nation, the artist, but much sympathy for
Myra, the sufferer. She is described as "rather a coarse-
fleshed woman, with freckled hands, beet-colored elbows,
dull-blue eyes, and lumpy hair the color of varnish" (Gt,
p. 106). But Nation "felt a mysterious charm in her sallow
complexion; he saw a golden foam in her lumpy corn-colored
hair" (Gt, p. 113). Nation's friends, both black and white,
dislike Myra, and Nation assumes that they condemn her
because she dared to marry a black man. Because Nation must
live sensitive to color, he assumes all people do. So he
interprets his friends' coolness to Myra as a social response
to their marriage. Nation as a black man knows he has broken
a fearsome social taboo by marrying Myra. The price exacted
by society for breaking that taboo may range from lynching
or a prison sentence to social condemnation, but the personal
price of anxiety and self-doubt is usually also paid.3° Thus
Nation, because he can never forget his racial status in
America, wrongly interprets the responses of his friends.

In her own way Myra Is fond of Nation. She tells her

friend Dinah; "'He's a good-natured old thing, though,
Dinah. Better than any hard-fisted brute of a white male.
. o . He pays the bills without asking any questions. And I
 171

do use up gallons of highball. He's all right as a reliable

stand-by, even If I've got to imagine sometimes he's somebody
else'" (Gt, pp. 130-131). But she also admits: "'I've got
to nag at him, and be discontented, you know, acting superior-
like. For he must never get it into his head that I'm like
any of the cheap nigger women he's been used to'" (Gt, p.
130). Myra's comments show well the ambivalence displayed
in these stories. For Myra, black people are things to be
used as "a reliable stand-by," but in both her fantasies and
her real life she prefers someone else. By degrading black
women, she also degrades Nation, although that understanding
is far beyond Myra. The white world despises and uses black
people; yet black people want to be white, as clearly evi-
denced in some of these stories. The color of skin Is
important because it leads to power, even power so minute as
that which Myra wields.
The story reaches Its climax on the night of the Stunts
Annual. The invitation committee refused to invite Myra,
although the excuse given to Nation was that no wives were
invited. When Nation notices other wives present, he Imme-
diately assumes that he has been Insulted. He leaves the
party to return to Myra. Nation's needs are simple; "In
his big body there was the sensitiveness of a child. He
wanted to live In simple peace, to sing his songs perfectly
at each performance, chum with his white friends, and go
home to the exotic bosom of his Myra, reeking of Luckystrike
and ginger ale highballs" (Gt, pp. 122-123). But Myra Is
 172

having her own party and through the door Nation hears a
toast: "'Here's to prune, prune, prune, our nation . . . al
prune'" (Gt, p. 136). Nation orders everyone out, Including
Myra. And the story ends with Nation's poignant realization:
"He had a sharp thought of George Lieberman and the friends
he had so grossly insulted. He remembered his first wife,
Ethel Roe. She could never have said 'prune' and made it
hurt him. He quivered. His heavy frame shook. He knelt
down against the liquor-stained piano and bellowed like a
wounded bull" (Gt, pp. 137-138).
For Nation the problems of color are constant. He knows
well the stigma when black men marry white women. And
because of his self-doubt and anxiety, he makes wrong judg-
ments. He underestimates his friends; he mistakes Myra's
acceptance of his money for love. The story emphasizes that
a black man has no freedom to make objective judgments.
Every thought and reaction is moderated by the inescapable
color. Even though Nation Roe is a highly successful singer,
he is still a black man. And for Nation, his image of him-
self will always be determined by white society's reaction
to that color adjective.
This story is excellent because of the complexity of
the characters, the suspense, and the Irony. Nation plays
many roles: uneducated man, singer, successful entertainer,
friend of white people, devoted husband, divorced husband,
life of the party, black man, and Insulted husband. He is
both natural and civilized. He takes the money of success,
 173

but his desires and responses remain simple. All of these

roles give his character depth and complexity. Myra and
George are also full characters. We see them acting but we
also see them through the mind of Nation.
The suspense Is sustained well throughout the story.
Nation is portrayed as a fine person, superior to Myra.
Myra will eventually betray Nation, but the actual occurrence
is subtle and unexpected. Myra calls Nation privately '"That
black fool'" (Gt, p. 106), but the final insult is not in
her mouth but In the words of one of her young male friends.
The insult is so casual and unexpected that its impact upon
the reader is much greater.
The irony in the story, which so many critics observed,
is portrayed beautifully. Nation's misunderstanding of his
friends' responses creates a dramatic situation. The reader
knows the truth about Myra, but Nation is blinded by his
love for her. Another irony lies in the character of George
Lieberman. George is a Jew who understands discrimination
but still cannot see the discrimination which Nation faces.
When the group suggests they go to the downtown theatres,
Nation has to remind them that he would be denied entrance.31
A final irony is George's role as an actor—he Is a highly
successful black-face actor. A Jew who pretends to be black
can always remove the black-face to return to the white
world. Nation, who is the real black face, cannot discard
his role so easily.
A second story which shows the relationship between
white and black is "Near-white." Angle Dove is light enough
 174

to pass, but she realizes that living in Harlem makes her

black. She is friendly with a young man who is also light
and she discovers the white world and is entranced with Its
pleasures, "the romance of a new world" (Gt, p. 79). She
later becomes Involved with a young white man who thinks she
is white. She loves John West because he is white and
because he takes her once again to the white world. But the
struggle of existing in two worlds becomes difficult and she
tries to talk to her mother, who is also light. Her mother
tells of Angle's family:
•There's a story about our family, how our women
resisted against the life that the slave-owners
tried to force upon them. And how they also
scorned the idea of marrying black plantation
hands. It's a long story. How we tried to make
the light-colored natives of Virginia stand
together. How we fought to marry among ourselves
. . . and succeeded. How we reared our children.
How the slave-owners pursued us. How the poor
white persecuted us. How the blacks reviled us.
It's a long story. • • • And today, white folks
treat us just the same as forty-five years gone
when they shot down my father. You know what
they say about us light-colored, what they write
about us. That we're degenerate, that we're
criminal—and their biggest barefaced lie, that
we can't propagate our own stock. They hate us
even more than they do the blacks. For they're
never sure about us, they can't place us.
And you say we can't hate the whites, because
we are not blacks! Why, we hate them more
because we are so close to them and yet so far
from them. We hate them more because we are
not black! (Gt, pp. 95-96)
But Angle does not share her mother's hatred of whites. She
Is convinced that the affection she and John have for each
other is stronger than color discrimination. So she hints
to John of her true origins. As they talk In general about
the racial problem, she finally says, "'Supposing it was you,
 176

and, like foam in the sea, a few octoroons" (Gt, p. 86). But
although she thinks of herself as light, she is still black.
And being black limits her. In a conversation John West says,
"'But this is a modern world, Angle. You don't have to marry
anyone you don't like. . . • You don't have to do anything
. . . nothing. . . . '" (Gt, p. 92). For John West, those
words are true, but Angle Dove is not free. She must do many
things. She may not float free as a butterfly. She knows
that to be black gives her a position of inferiority; to
fulfill the American dream requires a white skin.
Two other stories also present the desire for whiteness
which denies any positive qualities of blackness. In
"Brownskin Blues" Bess is convinced that a light skin is
best; "'We black gals get it full in the neck all the time
• • • all the time'" (Gt, p. 12). Bess is a coffee-colored
cabaret entertainer. She loves Rascoe, who loves a light
yellow woman. Bess cannot sing when her man and the light
woman come into the cabaret and so loses her Job. Bess in
turn is loved by Jack Newell, who is light, but she refuses
to live with him. Her first husband was light and she tells
Jack: "'And I done sweahs offen yeller niggers evah since,
nevah to fall foh one no more'" (Gt, p. 11). She goes to see
Rascoe but he rejects her: "'Dam' black sow! I'm sick o'
you. Leave me be. The sight o' you make me wanta puke'"
(Gt, p. 17). In her shame and despair, she tries to lighten
her skin. She mixes several lighteners together, puts them
on her face, and sniffs cocaine to relieve the pain. In her
cocaine dream she Is a primitive again;
 177

dancing upon a golden table. Barefooted, half

naked. Coral beads around her throat and small
red plates on her breasts and red bangles on her
arms, and round her waist a short hooped thing of
golden gauze. Black and white admirers threw
money at her feet until the floor was green with
dollars. She made a magnificent green mountain.
She danced that red "Wicked Wiggle." The piano
was a green elephant with the player on his back.
And a great green moon swam round and round Bess,
with the grinning drummer sitting on its rim and
tapping it with two red sticks. And suddenly an
immense jungle sprang up, of giant trees and
vines like ropes, golden fruit and leaves all
red. . . . A mighty red jungle of blazing trees.
Burning, blazing until they were reduced to a
mass of strange flowers with red lips and fiery
tongues singing all together a blues • . • blues
. . . blues • • . brownskin blues. (Gt, p. 23)

But only in a dream can blackness be accepted.

She awakens in the hospital with her face horribly
burned. Because of her disfigurement, she can work only as
a scrubwoman. Eventually, she learns that Rascoe has been
killed by the yellow woman's husband. When Jack comes to
see her again, he Is momentarily disconcerted by her disfig-
urement, but then manages to convince her that he loves her
not for her beauty or her color but for her self. When Bess
finally realizes that Jack is sincere, she accepts him and
realizes that all her emphasis on color has been useless.
Although Bess finally discovers that black can be beautiful,
the story clearly implies that a light skin Is far better
than a dark one.
In "Mattie and Her Sweetman," Mattie, an older ugly
black woman, Is attracted only to light men. The attraction
is complex; years ago she had a child by a white man. But
she killed the child, "being one black woman who did not feel
 178

proud of having a yellow pickaninny at any price" (Gt, p. 60).

When she came to Harlem, "having an irresistible penchant
for the yellow daddy-boys of the Black Belt, she had realized,
when she was much younger, that because she was ugly she
would have to pay for them" (Gt, p, 65), She Is currently
supporting Jay, a handsome but rude young man. Jay is proud
of his ability to live off women but must constantly prove
his superiority by insulting Mattie. When Jay totally
insults her, by calling her a "black woman" (Gt, p. 63) and
a "no-count black bitch" (Gt, p. 66), she locks him out: "She
remembered when she first left Dixie and 'went N'oth' to
Philadelphia, how she had liked a yellow man and he had
laughed in her ugly face and called her 'black giraffe.'
She had forgotten the incident, it was so long ago, but Jay
made her remember it now. She had hated that man deeply and
wanted to do him real hurt. And now she felt the same kind
of hatred for Jay" (Gt, p. 70). Again the implication is
present, that somehow a person with a lighter skin is more
valuable. Mattie thinks of herself as an ugly black woman.
Unable to support a white man, she considers a light-skinned
black man second best. Like Nation, Angle, and Bess, she too
is caught by the color of her skin and forced to judge her-
self and others by the value which white society places on
light skin.

The social issues in these stories are unmistakable.

Black people must exist in a white world and that existence
always creates problems. Angle thinks of herself as a white
 179

speck in the sea of black. But for black people the reverse
is true. Even Harlem is a spot in the white sea and black
people as individuals are specks on the white foam. Being a
black speck in the white sea creates discontent and despair.
These stories with their concern for light skin mirror well
that despair.
Another similarity among these three works is found in
music and dancing. In "Brownskin Blues" Bess "caught up the
edges of her skirt with a swift gesture and danced , • .
tapped-danced . . . back-stepped . • • bent over, working
her knees making a miniature mountain . . . straightened up
and, hands behind her head, performed the "Wicked Wiggle"
• . • whirled round and round and stopped abruptly with her
hands on her hips" (Gt, pp. 4-5). The dance occurs again
during the cocaine dream which comes to Bess as she suffers
with the skin lighteners on her face. The first dance is
natural; Bess spontaneously responds to the music. The dance
in the cocaine dream, however, is even more primitive. But
once Bess disfigures her face with the lighteners, she does
not dance again. She had been caught by the demands of white
civilization.
Dancing in general occurs at Bella's buffet flat in
"The Prince of Porto Rico," but only one scene is detailed:
"The Prince danced with a limber black girl. The girl panted
and reared. She was extravagantly powdered and looked like
an iron-gray filly" (Gt, p. 43). The Prince and Tillie start
to dance but are interrupted by Uriah's untimely arrival
 180

home. The dancing exploding into violence recalls the

cabaret scenes In Home to Harlem in which the pleasure
becomes destruction.
Mattie in "Mattie and her Sweet Man" dances badly; Jay
dances well and this superiority is one of the reasons he
scorns her. A description of Jay's dancing is not given, but
his friends dance: "her pal jiggling with one of the choco-
late boys. The space was filled thick and warm with dancers
just shuffling round and round. Hot cheeks, yellow, chest-
nut, chocolate, each perspiring against each" (Gt, p. 61).
But this scene does not focus on the spontaneity of the
dancers. It creates no sensation of vitality as the earlier
ones do.
Angle and John also dance but in a far different manner
from the people who dance at the cabarets or buffet flats:
"They glided in among the crowd and Angle floated happily in
the arms of her strange companion. She surrendered to the
strong touch of him • • • She felt a terribly delicious
throbbing in her brain, and herself mounting upwards like a
feather, like a lovely dream, on waves upon waves of exal-
tation" (Gt, p. 85). In the other scenes the dancers
"wiggle," "work," "pant," "rear," "jiggle" or even just
"shuffle." But at least the dancers are active. John and
Angle "glide" and "float"; the whole episode is like a dream.
In Harlem Glory dancing released sexual tensions. In
Home to Harlem dancing Illuminates the sexual primitivism
which is so much a part of those characters. In Gingertown
 181

dancing underscores the sexual primitivism of Bess and the

Prince. Dancing also displays Angle's lack of primitivism
or spontaneity. She is the most trapped of all the char-
acters.
Songs also appear. Bess sings three times in her story,
always the same blues about a love which makes her sad. A
cabaret song runs through Mattie's mind as she makes her
decision about Jay; "I don't know what love is, but I know
what's a man!" (Gt, p. 70). The butterfly song floats
through "Near-white" although the words for the song do not
appear. And Nation's songs are very much a part of his
story: "He sang his own songs, blues that he made up himself
In bad grammar and false rhymes. Shrewd comments and side-
lights on American life from a Negro's point-of-view" (Gt,
p. 109). Nation's songs are part of his primitive and spon-
taneous character but they are also part of his success.

In all three works songs function as another means of

describing characters and actions. The appeal of the Glory
Souls Is made even clearer through their songs. The blues
which float through Home to Harlem reflect the tensions and
sorrow which underlie the joy. In Gingertown the songs
enhance the characters of Bess and Mattie and Angie and
Nation.
Some differences are apparent when comparing Gingertown
to Home to Harlem and Harlem Glorv. None of these stories is
concerned with cults or militancy or labor problems. The
reason is obvious: McKay was still away from the United
 182

States; thus, he was still creating the Harlem which he

remembered from the early twenties. Some of the stories
present a detailed description of skin colors, but the empha-
sis is not as sharp as in Home to Harlem. Also in these
stories there is none of the Joy of place which Jake experi-
ences. For the characters In Gingertown. Harlem is where
they live; they are little aware of the atmosphere of the
city. The emphasis on black-white relationships is much
greater in the stories than In either of the novels. White
people wander through these stories. The best tables in the
cabaret where Bess sings are reserved for white customers.
Angie Dove sits in white audiences and dances next to whites.
Nation Roe's audiences are predominantly white. Nation's
best friend is a white man who appears In black face. White
characters with fuller development appear in "Near-white"
and "Highball." Again, white people have a negative and a
positive connotation. The white world is both admired and
feared—emotional responses which occur in many of McKay's
works. But the attitudes of the white world towards black
people are very much a part of these characters. The essen-
tial point is that in these stories, the white world and Its
attitudes dominate the action.
In one sense Gingertown anticipates Harlem Glory because
not all the stories create the low life of Home to Harlem.
Bess sings In a cabaret; Mattie is a washerwoman to support
her sweet mens the Prince owns a tonsorial parlor; Barclay
in "Truant" is a dining car waiter like Jake. But Nation is
a highly successful artists he lives in Harlem, but most of
 183

his friends are white and live downtown. Angle lives in

Harlem, but evidently her stepfather is able to support her
generously. She goes to cabarets but knows none of the peo-
ple there. Manuel goes to a buffet flat, but pimps and
prostitutes do not have significant roles in these stories.
In the two stories most concerned with black-white relation-
ship, the atmosphere is far above the low life of Home to
Harlem.
These stories are fine examples of McKay's mature
style.32 A S a whole, they display a greater complexity.
Sentences are longer. Scenes are carefully constructed,
dramatized and not just described. In several of the sto-
ries, especially "Highball," suspense is impressively sus-
tained. The use of flashbacks substantially increases in
these storiess nearly every one has at least one glimpse
into past actions. Part of the excellence of these narra-
tives results from the shift from atmosphere to characters.
The characters are realistic and complex—acting, speaking,
reacting, and thinking. McKay does some experimentation with
point of view. Most of the stories are narrated from third
person point of view but occasional shifts into other char-
acters are allowed. These stories Indicate that McKay was
mastering his craft as he continued to write about his
memories of Harlem,

The portrayals of women are especially fine in these

stories; Mattie the old ugly washerwoman? Bess the vibrant
cabaret singer who wants to be lights Myra the shrew; Angie
 184

the beautiful young octoroon who desperately longs to be

part of the other world. Only the characters of Gin-head
Susy in Home to Harlem and Millinda in Harlem Glory match
these women of the short stories,
Millinda receives a rather full development—much more
complete than Felice or Congo Rose or Madame Laura in Home
to Harlem. Millinda manages her life well; she, like Buster,
has learned the technique of survival. She is educated to be
a teacher, but discrimination will not allow her a job in
New York City. She becomes a manicurist and her good-looking
vivaciousness attracts Ned Rose. She evidently has as much
business sense as Ned because he leaves her in charge when
he escapes the country for protection. Perhaps the one
unbelievable quality about Millinda is her quickness to commit
suicide when her money is gone. It seems that such a fighter
would not give in so easily, but perhaps she is tired. Or
perhaps McKay wished to create something unexpected about the
woman.
Gin-head Susy is also fully developed. She understands
herself well. An ugly woman, she knows, like Mattie, that
she likes yellow men. She also knows that men will not come
to her; she has to provide an Inducement. So she gives
parties with an unending supply of gin. Her self-knowledge
is shown In a conversation with Miss Curdy:
•Yes, mam, I done l'arned about mah own self
fust. Had no allusions about mahself. I
knowed that I was black and ugly and no-class
and unejucated. And I knowed that I was bohn
for love. . . . Mah mamma did useter warn me
about love. All what the white folks call white
 185

slavery theseadays. I donno ef theah's another

name for the nlgger-an'-white side ovit down home
in Dixie. Well, I soon found out it wasn't womens
alone in the business, sposlng themselves like
vigltable foh sale in the market. No, mam! I
done soon l'arned that the mens was most buyable
thimselves. . . . I know society, too, honey even
though I only knows it watching from the servant
window, And I know it ain't no different from
us. It's the same life even ef they drink cham-
pagne and we drink gin.' (HH, pp. 64-67)
Gin-head Susy does not make the conscious realizations about
color which Bess and Angie do, but her self-understanding is
as complete as any of these characters.
In Home to Harlem the women seem to be objects to dis-
play the sexuality of the men; at best, they seem to mirror
the behavior of the men in the novel. In Gingertown the
women become strong characters, engaged in discovering their
own roles.
The last of the six stories, "Truant," marks a transi-
tion from the Harlem stories to the remaining six stories
set in the West Indies, Marseilles, and Morocco. "Truant"
is the story of Barclay Oram, a railroad waiter. He Is mar-
ried and has a four-year old child. His responsibilities
weigh heavily upon him and he longs for a freer life. He
notes that he is a " . . . dutiful black boy among proud and
sure white men, so that he could himself be a man in Harlem
with purchasing power for wife, child, flat, movie, food,
liquor. . . . " (Gt, p. 143). On a lay-over in Washington
he stops at a bar and with heightened pleasure continues
drinking past his departure time. When he returns to Harlem,
his wife, Rhoda, does not berate him; instead she reminds him
 186

he must think of his family and his social position. That

phrase "social position" annoys him sharply. He dislikes
Rhoda (although he also loves her Intensely), his social
position, and his child. He wonders why he left his homeland:
Why was he, a West Indian peasant boy, held pris-
oner within the hugh granite-gray walls of New York?
Dreaming of tawny tasseled fields of sugar-cane, and
silver-gray John-tuhlts among clusters of green and
glossy-blue berries of pimento. The husbands and
fathers of his village were not mechanically-driVen
servant boys. They were hardy, independent tillers
of the soil or struggling artisans.
What enchantment had lured him away from the
green Intimate life that clustered round his vil-
lage—the simple African-transplanted life of the
West Indian hills? Why had he hankered for the
hard-slabbed streets, the vertical towers, the
gray complex life of this steel-tempered city?
Stone and steel! Stone and steel! mounting in
heaven-pursuing magnificence. Feet piled upon
feet, miles circling miles, of steel and stone.
A tree seemed absurd and a garden queer in this
iron-gray majesty of man's imagination. He was
a slave to it. A part of him was in love with
this piling grandeur. And that was why he was
slave to it. (Gt, p. 152-153)
As his melancholy increases, he thinks of his past: leaving
the villages entering Howard University; marrying Rhoda to
provide a home for their childj working for the railroad. In
many respects Barclay is much like Ray in Home to Harlem and
like McKay himself. Barclay is enchanted by educations he
even writes poetry. But throughout his life, he has not
forgotten his village. Although he hates the steel and con-
crete city, "a part of him was in love with this piling
grandeur. And that was why he was slave to it" (Gt, p. 153).
Barclay responds to both the urban and the rurals the city
complements his memories of the village. At the end of the
story he chooses to continue his truancy: "He thought he
 187

heard the child stir. He dared not look. He clicked the

door and stepped out. Where? Destination did not matter.
Maybe his true life lay in eternal inquietude" (Gt, p. 162).
Where he goes remains unclear. Perhaps he returns to his
homeland. Certainly, he chooses to leave his responsibilities
behind. As he listened to his child's breathing, he "won-
dered if it were breath of his breath. For he had often felt
to himself a breath of his own related to none. Suppose he
should start now on the trail again with that strange burning
thought. Related to none" (Gt, p. l6l). The implication Is
that he must be a vagabond. Again the parallel with Ray is
close. When Ray's girl friend suggests marriage, Ray decides
he must move on because she can give him only an instinctive
life; he would be "one of the contented hogs in the pigpen of
Harlem, getting ready to litter little black piggies" (HH,
p. 139). "Truant" may be close to McKay's own autobiography.
33
He married Eulalie Lewars in 1914-^ and their daughter Hope
was born in 1915* McKay himself says in A Long Way from Home
when his wife reappears in New York after an absence: "All
my planning was upset. I had married when I thought that a
domestic partnership was possible to my existence. But I
had wandered far and away until I had grown into a truant by
nature and undomesticated in the blood. There were conse-
quences of the moment that I could not face, I desired to
be footloose, and felt impelled to start going again" (ALW,
p, 150), That impulse to move on led McKay to Russia and to
a twelve year's absence from the United States. Barclay's
 188

reminiscences and his longing for freedom certainly seem

part of McKay's own thoughts.
The atmosphere in this story resembles that in the
earlier stories—dancing, music, entertainments, but
Barclay's longings are different. He is the only one who
chooses to leave Harlem behind in his search for "eternal
inquietude." Barclay's realizations about color are also
different from those of the other characters In these stories
from Gingertown. He has no concern about degrees of light-
ness or blackness. He knows that he is black and that black-
ness will always deny his manhood. He will always be a black
boy in a world of white men. In a sense Barclay's story
culminates all the others. They are concerned about color
relationships in a limited senses Barclay is concerned about
the full range and problems of discrimination.
"Truant" establishes the rural-urban conflict. Barclay
loves and hates the city. The two passionate feelings exist
together. Jake has no such feelings; neither does Buster.
But Ray does and Barclay does and so did McKay. For all three
the white Northern mechanical city civilizes but also stifles.
Only the black Southern primitive country can revitalize and
free.
After he came to America McKay never left for long the
theme of Harlem and his responses to it. His early poems
written in the United States such as "Harlem Dancer" and
"Harlem Shadows" involved aspects of Harlem. His first suc-
cessful novel captured much of the Joy of Harlem. In his
 189

only collection of short stories, half were set in Harlem,

After he returned to America, Harlem Glory attempted to
portray the new Harlem, Perhaps all of these fictionalized
attempts to portray Harlem culminated in Harlem: Negro
Metropolis, the collection of essays published In 1940. But
even at the time of his death in 1948, McKay still spoke of
Harlem In his letters and longed to return.^
The expository prose considered in Chapter II Indicates
that McKay was concerned with diverse Issues—international
problems, racial issues, labor problems, Communism, and
other aspects of Harlem. The fiction written following his
return to the United States shows an interest in some of
those same things. Harlem Glory indicates a continuing
concern for racial and labor problems and Communism. But
the focus is forcefully on Harlem Itself. In this unfinished
novel, McKay reveals his views of the black metropolis, views
which would be expanded and perfected in Harlem: Negro
Metropolis. Many of these attitudes will be considered one
final time in the next chapter on poetry.
 NOTES FOR CHAPTER III.
1
McKay to Mr. Henry Moe of the Guggenheim Foundation,
September 9, 1937, McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson
Collection.
2
Gladys Wilson to Claude McKay, March 23, 1932, McKay
Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
3
Harlem Glorv was, however, submitted to Harper's in
early 1939* Laurence Roberts to McKay, February 8, 1939,
McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
^ Claude McKay, Harlem Glory, unpublished manuscript,
McKay Papers, Schomburg Collection, p. 12. Hereafter cited
within the text, abbreviated as HG, and followed by the page
reference.
* In a similar manner Mary Rambo befriends the young
man in Invisible Man, Chapter 12.
6 Claude McKay, Home to Harlem (New York: Harper and
Bros., 1928), p. 15. Hereafter cited within the text,
abbreviated as HH, and followed by the page reference.
7
W. E. B. DuBols, "The Browsing Reader," Crisis. 35
(1928), 202.
8
Chicago Defender. March 17, 1928, Part I, p. 1.
9 Home to Harlem received the Harmon Award in 1929.
James Weldon Johnson represented McKay at the ceremonies.
McKay to James Weldon Johnson, February 1, 1929, McKay
Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
10
"The Ebony Flute," Opportunity. 6 (1928), 153.
11
Opportunity. 6 (1928), 151-152.
12
"1928; A Retrospective Review," Opportunity. 7
(1929), 8-11.
13
Bone notes that through Jake, McKay strikes at the
heart of the Protestant ethic. Robert Bone, The Negro Novel
In America (New Haveni Yale University Press, 1958), p, 68.
 191

1
For a discussion of this term see Julian Rotter,
"External Control and Internal Control," Psychology Today.
5 (June 1971). 37-42, 58-59.
x
$ See Wagner's discussion (p. 226) of the superiority
of the black peasant as a result of his affinity with the
soil.
1
^ Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues (New York: Knopf,
1926). Arthur Davis, "The Harlem of Langston Hughes'
Poetry," Phylon. 13 (1952), 276-83, notes that under the
laughter and the blare of the jazz bands is weariness and
despair.
17
Claude McKay himself categorized his Home to Harlem
as a portrayal of the lower life. See "Group Life and
Literature," typewritten manuscript, Claude McKay Papers,
James Weldon Johnson Collection. James Weldon Johnson,
"Negro Authors and White Publishers," Crisis. 36 (1929),
228-229, utilizes the same label.
18
English and English define "marginal man" as "a
person who is not a fully participating member of a groups
especially, one who stands on the boundary between two
groups, uncertain of his group membership." Horace English
and Ann English, A Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychological
and Psychoanalytical Terms: A Guide to Usage (New York:
Longman, Green and Co., 1958), p. 305. Kenneth Clark, Dark
Ghetto (New York: Harper and Row, I965), pp. 14-15, discusses
general characteristics of marginal people in the ghetto.
19
Clark, p. 174.
20
Clark, p. 216.
x
McKay seems to be fusing cultlsm with occultism in
this chapter. In Harlem: Negro Metropolis he distinguishes
carefully between them.
22
A parallel is also seen in the character of Ras in
Invisible Man. Ras the Exhorter became Ras the Destroyer In
the riot which ends the book and leads the Invisible Man to
his hole In the ground. Ras appears upon a black horse
"dressed in the costume of an Abyssinian chieftains a fur
cap upon his head, his arm bearing a shield, a cape made
of the skin of some wild animal around his shoulder."
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (New York: New American Library,
1-952), p. 481. Ras also urged the unity of all black
people in his role as the Exhorter.

3 In 1935 McKay also spent some time at a relief camp.

McKay to James Weldon Johnson, April 15, 1935, James Weldon
Johnson Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
 192

2
^ 125 (August 10, 1932), 130.
2
* April 13, 1932, p. 7.
26
March 23, 1932, pp. 8-9.
27
"A Poet and His Prose," Opportunity. 10 (1932), 256.
28
"Black Truth and Black Beauty: A Retrospective
Review of the Literature of the Negro for 1932," Opportunity.
11 (1933), 16.
2
9 Claude McKay, Gingertown (New York; Harper and
Brothers, 1932), p. 37. Hereafter cited within the text,
abbreviated as Gt, and followed by the page reference.
30
Clark, p. 69.
31 This episode is reminiscent of the one narrated by
McKay in his autobiography. McKay and his white friends are
forced to eat in the steamy kitchens of fine restaurants
because a black man cannot be served in the dining room.
ALW, pp. 134-135.
32 McKay himself thought the stories to be the best
examples of his prose style. McKay to Carl Cowl, July 28,
1947, McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
33
Marriage License, July 30, 1914, McKay Papers,
James Weldon Johnson Collection.
3
At the time of his death McKay was preparing to
return to Harlem. Ellen Tarry was helping to organize a
memorial tribute to James Johnson and McKay was to speak.
He was also going to meet his daughter for the first time.
One of the last letters he wrote was to Ellen Tarry,
expressing his pleasure in returning to Harlem. See the
Tarry file of correspondence, McKay Letters, James Weldon
Johnson Collection. See also Tarry, p. 268.
 193

CHAPTER IV.
Poetry

Poetry—the third category of McKay's writings between

1934-1948—will be more difficult to discuss than either the
fictional prose or the expository prose. The number of
unpublished poems is large. The McKay Papers in the James
Weldon Johnson Collection include a cycle of fifty-four
poems, primarily sonnets; a few of these sonnets were pub-
lished shortly before McKay's death. There are also groups
of poems entitled "Cities," "The Clinic," and "The Years
Between." In addition, the Johnson Collection possesses
folders of poems, on various subjects and in various stages
of completion. The McKay Papers in the Schomburg Collection
include the typed manuscript of "The Word and Poems Old and
New."1 The unpublished poems in both collections total about
one hundred twenty.

Dating of the poems is difficult because only a few

pieces of evidence concerning the poetry are available. In
a letter from McKay to Harold Jackman, dated January 14,
1927, McKay wrote that he had given up poetry for prose.
Three years later he wrote to James Weldon Johnson3 that he
had written no poetry for five years.^ Bronz in his work
comments that only a few poems remain for the years McKay
spent abroad and they are personal rather than racialj5 but
 194

during the period 1925-1930 several poems were published.

To further complicate the issue, Donald Brace of Harcourt
Brace wrote to McKay on July 12, 1934? evidently Harcourt
Brace was considering reprinting Harlem Shadows along with
some new poems, but the new poems are never Identified. On
October 26, 1943, McKay wrote to his literary agent, Carl
Cowl, that he was thinking of writing a long narrative poem
spoken by a Harlemite.7 Many of the Cycle poems are written
in first person and many of them are closely connected in
subject matter. The division in many cases into sonnets
seems stylistic, rather than thematic. So perhaps the Cycle,
or part of it, is the long narrative poem McKay mentioned.
A few other pieces of evidence remain. On July 13,
o

1944, Nation returned ten poems which are the first ten
poems of the Cycle sequence. Sister Mary ConrDy in her dis-
sertation mentions that thirteen sonnets were published after
McKay's conversion.9 Jean Wagner in his chapter on McKay
notes poems which were written late in McKay's career.
From these pieces of evidence, a selection of poems
for consideration in this chapter can be made. Evidently all
the poems in the Cycle were written following McKay's return
in 1934. Many of them refer to national and international
events. Ten were offered to the Nation in 19*1*15 others
appeared in Catholic Worker in 19*J5"46. In addition, a few
of the Cycle poems were included in "The Word and Poems Old
and New," which McKay hoped to publish. Thus, all fifty-four
of the Cycle poems will be considered in this section.
 195

The collection of poems McKay hoped to publish in 1947

included "Moscow," "Tetuan," "Barcelona," and "A Farewell to
Morocco." These four poems are part of the sequence
"Cities," which totals twenty poems. The collection included
"Petrograd: May Day, 1923," which was written in the early
1920's. But the collection also includes "Black Belt
Slummers," which Wagner says was not sold because of McKay's
deaths "Note of Harlem" which speaks of "coming back"; and
"Lenox Avenue," which refers to the Scottsboro incident.
Those three probably were written after 1934 and will be
considered here. Moreover, the manuscript of "Farewell to
Morocco" bears the handwritten inscription "on board the
Magallenes, Jan. 1934." Other poems which contain timely
references are "Harlem," "Tanger," and "New York." These
seven poems were most assuredly part of the last period of
McKay's careers they will be considered in this section.

Two other groups of poems remain: "The Clinic" and

"The Years Between." "The Clinic" poems will not be exam-
ined because three of them, "The Desolate City," "The Void,"
and "The Skeleton," were published in the mid-1920's. These
poems concern illness in a hospital; they might be the "per-
sonal" ones Bronz mentioned. Those publication dates and
other available information indicate that the whole series
was written in the 1920's. The other group—"The Years
Between"—presents the same problems. Some of the poems
were published earlier. No references to national or inter-
national events appear in the remaining poems. But two
 196

poems in that group—"Honeymoon" and "For a Leader"—were

published in Challenge in the mid-1930's. These two poems
will be considered in this sections but since no means of
date validation is available for the others, they will not
be discussed.
The poems which will be discussed in this section,
then, are the Cycle poems, all the religious poems, and any
others which can be dated as 1934 or later either through
reference to events or through letters or commentaries of
other McKay scholars.
The differences between these later poems and the ear-
lier ones are many. In the later poems selected for consid-
eration there is only one love poem, no poems about Jamaica
with its natural beauties, and few poems which express joy.
These poems of the last fourteen years are strongly racial,
frequently anti-Communist, largely urban and non-sexual.
Wagner mentions that although McKay is considered a writer
of Harlem, few of the published poems describe Harlem. These
later unpublished poems focus much more sharply on Harlem,
utilizing specific incidents and people. Some connections
can be made with the topics discussed in the earlier chap-
ters of this dissertation. The black-white relationships so
Important to the fiction of the third chapter reappear here.
But the emphasis on music and dancing, violence, cults, and
the numbers game is missing. The religious theme of Chapter
II reoccurs along with some focus on McKay himself, an empha-
sis on Harlem, his views of power, of the general racial
 197

issues, and of Communism. Missing is the emphasis on labor

movements, Garvey, mysticism, and international issues.
Missing also is the strong defiance evident in the protest
poems of the 1920's; the defiance has reduced itself to
bitterness.
These unpublished poems divide themselves naturally
into several categories. The first category will examine
poems which relate specifically to Harlem. The discussion
will be broadened near the end to Include two poems which
describe the atmosphere of North Africa. The second cate-
gory will present poems which display McKay's attitudes
towards America; immediately following, poems which comment
on McKay's attitudes towards white people will be considered.
Then poems which are ant1-integration will be examined, fol-
lowed by a group of anti-Communist poems. Poems which are
intensely personal in nature will be studied next; the last
section will inspect a large group of poems growing from
McKay's religious thought. Occasionally these later poems
will be related to earlier poems with a similar theme or
attitude. Unless noted, all poems will be discussed as they
appear in manuscript form. °
The Harlem section includes six poems directly related
to Harlem; the remaining three are more general. Two of the
poems in the Cycle continue topics previously developed in
Saxififfl' Negro Metropolis. "Oh how they wrapped them in a
maze of lies" (No. 45J 11 concerns once again the Sufi Abdul
Hamid. This time, because he is crucified, the Sufi is
 198

given a Jesus-like aspect. The Sufi had been attacked not

only by "wealthy and sinister whites" (1, 3) who control
newspapers, lawyers, and judges but also by his own people,
who were bribed by the whites to harry him to his grave.
For the poet, the reason for the Sufi's death is evident.
In the first stanza the Sufi urged blacks to fight, even
though they may lose round after round. In the second stanza
death comes because he affronts the white man—"Because you
cried, white man, you always rob / My people, give them now
a decent job" (11. 13-14). Because the Sufi confronted both
groups of people, he could not survive.
In the poem the anger towards white people is apparent:
they lie with "raucous cries" which "inflame the nation"?
they bribe the black writers and papers? finally they gang
together to push the Sufi to his grave because they have
grudges against him. But what is even more interesting is
the attitude towards black people which the poem expresses.
One of the things which McKay frequently notes in these later
works is the division between the black leaders and the black
masses, a separation supported by white people who profit
from a lack of unity.
This fragmentation might be even more visible if this
poem is compared with "If We Must Die," McKay's best known
poem.12 Throughout the earlier poem McKay speaks of "we"
who will fight, even though the cause appears lost. To die
fighting ensures that blood will not be shed in vain. The
Sufi urged black people also to fight rather than to retreat
 199

in despair: " . . . you D^e SufiH urged the Negroes to be

fighters, / Even though they lose all of a hundred rounds"
(11. 7-8). In "If We Must Die" the unity of the fighters is
apparent; they are united against "the common foe," who are
described as "monsters" or "mad dogs." But in the poem
about the Sufi the "mad dogs" are no longer the common foe;
rather the baying hounds have become "The Negro papers and
the Negro writers / They [/the wealthy and sinister whites^]
bought and set at your heels like hounds" (11. 5~6). The
black people are not only the fighters; they have become
also the foe. The open grave looms in both poems; the dif-
ference lies in the coheslveness of the fighters. In the
later poem the Sufi and his followers must battle both white
and black enemies.

Both poems are sonnets. Both of them are filled with

the sounds of the struggle for survival. Both rely on a
central metaphor which -presents the enemy as dogs. Perhaps
the essential difference lies in effective use of language.
The later poem does not use language to grip and Inspire the
listener. Nor does It offer a ringing challenge as does
"If We Must Die." The plea for struggle is not as effective
in "Oh how they wrapped them in a maze of lies."
The second poem which treats a topic developed earlier
is "Oh Marcus Garvey! They who hated you" (No. 50). Once
again McKay's admiration for the man is apparent. McKay
realizes that the leader cannot be categorized, but Garvey's
enemies have attempted to reduce him to a book which can be
 200

pushed into a classroom and then examined. But, the second

stanza goes on, Garvey flashes and stings and no embalming
can separate the hero from the people.
The poem does not match the greatness of the hero.
The language is trite; the first three lines provide a repre-
sentative example;
Oh Marcus Garvey! They who hated you
Like hell have now embalmed you in a book,
Your words that made them squirm from yellow to blue,
The figures of speech- lack effectiveness. Garvey may flash
and sting, but the poem does not, even though McKay is
mildly attacking the professors who accept the reduction of
Garvey because they least understand the greatness of the
leader and his permanent place with the people.
One other poem focusing specifically upon Harlem
appears in the Cycle, "In 'kingdom,' occult haunt and
cabaret" (No. 44). This poem, written in five stanzas with
alternate line rhyme, enumerates the escapes which Harlem
offers. Religion, especially, teaches of the grand escape
where everything will be forgiven. But the problem is that
these escapes through singing and dancing, confessing and
praying, convince those who observe that " . . . the Negro
feels no wrong, / Contented in his abject misery" (11. 15-
16). The conclusion of the poem Is that although slaves
have traditionally sung to hide their misery, " . . .
Harlem's voice may rise from suffering / To startle the
nation like a thunderclap" (11. 19-20). Like the narrator
in Paul Lawrence Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask," the people in
 201

the poem hide their misery. But in McKay's view, the hope
is that the singing voice will become a voice of rage, pro-
testing rather than accepting.
The other poems directly concerned with Harlem are
part of the collection entitled "Cities." "Black Belt
Slummers," 3 written in three eight-line stanzas with
ABBACDDC, EFFE etc. rhyme, portrays Harlem through the eyes
of visitors. In the first stanza the dilettante sees Harlem
as a savage, exotic place with "leopards loitering along the
street" (1. 6), "jungle maidens, sensuous and sweet, / . . .
in their sable glory" (1. 7-8). He is obsessed with the
colors and thinks he can mine the Black Belt for exotic
atmosphere for "a nice romantic story" (1. 5)• He desires
"to explore" rather than to enjoy or respond. In the second
stanza, an amateur, in contrast to the professional of the
first stanza, watches a kitchen girl scrub and carry dishes.
He is impressed with her queenllness and compares her to "a
fallen star" shining in "a great mound of junk" (11. 15-16).
In the third stanza a woman spectator is reminded of Uncle
Tom "Whose burdened body held a heart of gold, / H i s type
made our American Arcady" (11. 19-20). Each of the three
"slummers" commits the same error. Each sees a stereotype—
an exotic primitive, a Cinderella or a bewitched princess
who is searching for release, the old servant who faithfully
serves Ole Massa and the American dream. Through the ster-
eotypes, each spectator destroys the humanity of the people
he observes.
 202

The poet himself speaks in the last stanza when he

condemns all "Black Belt Slummers";
I like all things unlike myself and strange,
That's why I think they're agents of the devil,
Who want to bring all folk to the same level—
They love not beauty who desire such change.
(11. 21-24)
The spectators can see no differences in the black people
they observe—they truly cannot tell them apart. These peo-
ple cannot see the beauty which McKay recognizes—the beau-
tiful colors, the "sable glory" of the girls, the pride of
the kitchen girl. To see beauty is to respond to the differ-
ences in people, not to stereotypes.
"Lenox Avenue," the second poem about Harlem in
"Cities,"1^ is also written in three stanzas but each stanza
contains ten lines with ABABCDCDEE, FGFG etc. rhyme. The
poem is a description of the sights and sounds of Harlem.
In the first stanza a keen observer sees "colors of every
hue" (1. 3) as the carefree "young folk stroll by In con-
tagious mood" (1. 7) or watches a parade for the Scottsboro
boys march by. Heard are the many accents of the people
gathered in the street or In the pool-rooms or saloons. For
the poet these people represent the entire race as it "enacts
Its passionate play" (1. 4 ) . In the second stanza the
voices are not present, but "the language polyglott" (1. 14)
Is mechanically reproduced through the radio, and the sounds
are
• • • cloying chords and simple melodies,
Notes old and modern, classical and hot,
Duets and quintettes, choirs and symphonies,
(11. 11-13)
 203

While a voice sings a sentimental song " . . . Harlem sways

its body dark and warm, / Enthralled, enraptured by the
medley charm" (11. 19-20).
The third stanza compares the sights and sounds to a
vaudeville show with singing, dancing, and movement. The
poet ends the stanza by commenting on his own desire for
intoxication:
Intoxicate my senses with the street
To take the rhythm of Harlem's moving feet.
(11. 29-30)
The poem recreates the world which Jake finds when he returns
home to Harlem. The poet responds to the intoxicating sights
and sounds. There are no slummers looking on to spoil the
scene. But perhaps the realization is there that this joy,
too, is a mask to hide other emotions. The third stanza
refers to "vaudeville"; the sounds and sights are a show,
an act to entertain, to make the viewers forget their sorrow,
not to present true emotions or feelings. In the first
stanza the "mummers mass"; Lenox Avenue is "A Negro theater
by night and day" where "A race entire enacts its passionate
play." In the second stanza a voice "sings of the stars /
Into the microphone while others cheer" (11. 17-18). But
only one voice sings of the stars; the others applaud. The
unceasing vaudeville show appeals strongly to the poet. The
bittersweet quality entices and holds him. The youth act as.
if they know no caress the implication is that they do know
cares. Perhaps as in "In 'kingdom,' occult haunt and
cabaret" (No. 44) appearance and reality are very different.
 20*1

This poem also recalls the fiction with its gaiety masking
the unpleasant undertones.
McKay published this little poem in Almanac for

New Yorkers. 1 9 3 8 : ^

And all my senses seize the luring crowd,

Intoxicated with the common street,
The rare vernacular, laughter ringing loud,
The rhythmic movement of my people's feet.

The appearance of these original four lines in 1938, which

were expanded into the thirty lines of "Lenox Avenue," seems

to establish that the longer poem w a s written later.

Another poem which deals specifically with Harlem is

"Note of H a r l e m , " 1 0 written in seven four-line stanzas with
alternate line rhyme. The poet w h o has been in exile for
"long years" describes Harlem as "rich," "tender," and
"sweet." Although he feared to return, "Afraid that I could
never again recapture / These accents for which often I did
yearn" (11. 2 2 - 2 3 ) , h e discovers happiness. But more impor-
tantly he discovers "The joy of finding voice to sing again"
(1. 28).

The fifth stanza reads;

But oh! I was reluctant coming back,

I felt like one expelled from heaven to hell,
To the arena packed of white-and-black,
America's heart-breaking spectacle.

The poet's fears are needless; he rediscovers his creative

voice. But the ambivalent attitude towards America is char-

acteristic of McKay's poetry and prose. He loves the

sprawling country with its complexity and its powers simul-

taneously, he hates the racial oppression which the country

 205

forces upon its people. In this poem he describes America

as "hell" and "a heart-breaking spectacle," but the hell and
the spectacle also inspire his creativity.
"New York"17 also was probably written after McKay's
return. The poem, written in eight four-line stanzas with
alternate line rhyme, seems to reflect much of the despair
of the Depression. The poem begins in praise of New York, a
city with grandeur of steel and stone, where the white mind
is free. But, in the second stanza, the city also presents
evidence of the distress of its residents. The middle four
stanzas tell of the scramble "to sell at any price their
little things" (1. 11) in order to survive. But over all is
still the fantasy of Manhattan which creates the illusion of
power and beauty to hide the "dragon-clawed distress" (1. 8 ) .
The last two stanzas focus on the poets who also try to
sell their little things. Those poets who create thoughts
and dreams with rare and precious words fool themselves when
they deny the power of the city; they, too, scramble in the
marketplace and prostitute those dreams and thoughts.
This poem presents a pessimistic view of the city. The
illusion is golden and fantastic; the reality is "shattered
businesses" (1. 6 ) , trembling and terror, and the crush of
derelicts. Everything is "For Sale! For Sale!" (1. 17).
There Is no joy, no dancing, nothing to relieve the despair
which accompanies the realization that all things, no matter
how beautiful, must be sullied by the marketplace.
 206

"New York" resembles an earlier poem "When Dawn Comes

to the City," which also describes the city as dreary and
deadly. In the earlier poem, however, the contrast of
Jamaica is presented to highlight the indifferent mechanical
world. "New York" does not offer that rural-urban contrast.
McKay wrote not only about Harlem in the years after
he returned to the United States. At least two other poems
in the "Cities" collection seem to have been written in 1934
or after.19 The first to be considered is "Tanger,"20 con-
structed in three sonnets. The references to war and the
Intrigues over Morocco place it in the post-1934 period.
The first sonnet describes the unsettled conditions in
Morocco—the movements of war, and the religious hate between
Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans. Morocco has been deso-
lated by foreign powers and has become the football for
Europe's "little league" game (1. 11). In the second sonnet
Tanger is now manacled and can only watch the cargoes of
other countries go by. Tourists think Tanger survives In
the servile tourist guide? rather the real Tanger survives
in the "fierce fanatic pride" (1. 23) of a "rugged moun-
taineer" (1. 22). The third sonnet is addressed to Tanger.
This time the poet personally tells of the beauty he found
in the city which enriched his spirit. In the city he heard
the drum of Africa, felt the waves of time "from warm Sahara,
heart of dark Soudan" (1. 33), and "the human race / Within
the cradle Mediterranean" (11. 34-35). Although the city may
 207

be divided, the sources of human life are still apparent

within it.
The attraction which McKay felt for the city is evi-
dent. He responded to the city; he participated in the Joys
and activities of Tanger. That participation allowed him
the intensity which spills over into the poem.
"A Farewell to Morocco"21 is one of the most inter-
esting of McKay's poems of these last years. The poem is
evidence of the effect which places had upon McKay. He
always responded intensely to the cities he visited as the
poems in this collection indicate.
"Farewell to Morocco" is written in nine stanzas of
seven lines each. The first four lines of each stanza are
long, usually ten syllables, generally with four or five
accents per line. The last three lines of each stanza are
shorter, usually four, occasionally five, syllables, gener-
ally with two accents per line. The lines are basically
Iambic with occasional substitute feet to break the pattern.
No regular rhyme scheme occurs in the poem. Occasional
rhyming words such as "sweets-feet," "fast-last," "bees-
tree" appear. Some partial rhyme is created, such as
"hours-house." Alliteration is prominent in several lines
such as "myself is like a stone upon my spirit, / Reluctant,
passing from your sunny shore" (11. 3"4). The experimenta-
tion in this poem is impressive and the poem seems to work
well.
 208

The poem is divided into three parts. The first part,

stanzas 1 and 2, tells of the effect which Morocco had upon
the poet. The land was "wistful and heartrending" (1. l)s
it was also a land of life, "aglow / With magic light" (11.
6-7). The poet leaves the land reluctantly; his physical
leaving weighs upon his spirit which responded so completely
to the land. The second stanza tells that he was brought
under a spell "Willingly / Captive to be / Within your
sphere" (11. 12-1*1). He reacts completely to the mysterious
and magnetic atmosphere.
The middle four stanzas of the poem shift away from
the personal longing of the poet to a description of the
activities during Ramadan, when the poet will once again be
united with his friends, fasting and feasting and dancing.
His hungry spirit will be with them when the daily fast is
broken; he begs for "one tune / One kissing sip, / One
turn for me!" (11. 33~35); he will participate in the joy
of the night.
In these four stanzas the poet's thoughts, spirit,
senses, and joy go from him back to his friends. In stanza
seven the direction is reversed. When Habeeb plays on the
lute, "The charmed air / Will waft the sound / Across to me"
(11. 47-49). In this transitional stanza the fusion of the
poet and the source of his memories is complete. His spirit
joins with his friends? their music rejoins him.
The last two stanzas pledge the poet's fidelity to
those memories. He describes the music, the odor of the
 209

soil, the cooling water as "Haunting me always like a wonder

dream" (1. 53). In the last stanza the poet regrets that he
may never return to Morocco, but each January he will remem-
ber Ramadan, "Forgetting never / Its tokens / Unforgettable"
(11. 61-63).
This poem is the finest of the later poems; both the
images and the language are effective. The intensely sensual
appeals of the Images recall some of McKay's earlier poems
such as "Flame-Heart" and "The Tropics in New York," Of all
McKay's published poems, "Farewell to Morocco" is certainly
the most experimental. Perhaps the effect of Morocco upon
the poet was so different that he needed a new form to
describe it.
The poems just considered, for the most part, present
positive views of the cities described. The love of Harlem
is apparent even though the poet may lament the unfortunate
situations of the people. To move to a broader scene, McKay
also wrote about America, just as he had in his earlier
poems. The ambivalent attitude towards America is still
evident. In "Note of Harlem" McKay fears to return to cruel
America, and yet the country restores his creativity. McKay
admires and respects the power and complexity; at the same
time he hates the destructive oppressiveness. Fourteen poems
in the Cycle mirror McKay's discontent with America and its
failure to fulfill its own promise.

Two are adjacent. "America said; Now, we've left

Europe's soil" (No. 34) presents the promise of America in
 210

the first eight lines of the sonnet. America has left

Europe with "its deep national jealousies and hates, / With
its deep national prejudices and turmoil, / To build a
better home within our gates" (11. 2-4). But in this coun-
try only Europeans are equal. The second group of lines
comments that for all the good intentions, "Africans were
here as chattel slaves, / But never considered human flesh
and blood" (11. 9-10). Although the whites seek freedom for
themselves, the blacks were left "half-slaves, dumb and
blind" (1. 14).
The second poem "This is the New World that we left
the old" (No. 35) continues the idea that the settlers of
America were to leave behind ranks of distinction and all
forms of oppression to find freedom, freedom in a primitive
sense—"We turned to follow life the Indian way" (1. 4 ) .
Although few settlers followed "the Indian way," the phrase
seems to imply peace and productivity.
But the New World did not fulfill the promise. Instead,
" . . . the New World opened up its gates / As an outpost of
the Old World's feuds and hates" (11, 13-14). An interesting
point about this poem is that the condemnation is not just of
America but of Europe also. In earlier p^cms all hate was
directed at America and its oppressive habits. Now McKay
expands the focus to include countries where he found essen-
tially no oppression. Or perhaps he is subtly stating that
prejudice must be learned somewhere; America must have learned
from all the countries practicing colonial rivalries who
sent settlers to this new land.
A poem which counters the view presented in the previ-
ous poem is "Now I should like to ask for illustration" (No.
10). The poem asks why blacks should love whites but con-
cludes that absence of love does not necessarily mean hate.
The lines which are pertinent here appear in the sestet;
Now I do love the United States, so grand
In bigness, frankness and brutality,
Love it because this amazing land,
Is so free from the Old World's hypocrisy;
(11. 9-12)
McKay loves, among other things, the brutality. In "This is
the New World," (No. 35) he claims America has Inherited all
the evils from Europe; but in "Now I should like to ask" he
praises America for freeing itself from the hypocrisy of the
Old World.
A highly condemnatory view of America is found in
"Lord, let me not be silent while we fight" (No. 2 3 ) . 2 2
McKay says that not only have Germany and Japan established
Fascist governments, but the United States, too, keeps
fifteen million "Negroes on their knees" (1. 4) beneath the
"Fascist yoke" (1. 5). To condemn others, to see the mote
in another's eye rather than the beam in one's own, is
always easier, but McKay supports his attack with Jesus'
words;
• , • you whited sepulchre,
Pretending to be uncorrupt of sin,
While worm-infested, rotten stinking within! 3
 212

The poem presents no meliorating view of the United States:

the corruption in no way can be disguised or diverted; it
does not give strength or creativity.
A poem with a similar point of view is "These intel-
lectuals do not want to face" (No. 27). In this poem "The
Fascist white South rules this land again" (1. 5)i the South
once more controls the lives of all black people. The poem
ends sarcastically:
Oh go to Russia my lily-white friend
And leave the South our liberties to defend!
(11. 13-14)
The poet is once again stating forcefully that conditions
in the United States are worse than in Japan, Germany, or
Russia. Again, no balancing forces are present—the con-
demnation is complete.
America is also attacked in "Our boys and girls are
taught in Negro schools" (No. 6 ) . In this poem McKay berates
the schools which teach the American way of life. The poem
begins by saying "our boys and girls" (1. 1) are taught that
they are equal but they are also taught to despise their
family and heritage. As a result " . . . they are ready for
any crazy scheme, / That carries with it an offer of escape"
(11. 9-10). But the final couplet of the poem implies that
all people are educated in this fashion. So America is a
nation of people who are "educated semi-fools • • • ripe for
spurious words of charlatans" (11. 13-14). Perhaps this poem
is McKay's means of explaining some of the problems of the
nation—they are inevitable as a result of the American
 213

educational system. The majority of Americans are too

easily fooled.
"Oh can a Negro chant a hymn" (No. 40) is a muddled,
badly worked-out poem, but its six stanzas seem to be making
two points. The first is that the black soldier cannot feel
the same responses to the War as the white soldier does.
The democracy which the white soldier protects is unexper-
ienced by the black man; thus, the black soldier does not
feel pride and glory in winning battles. The second point
is that "We want to live as white men live" (1. 17), hut not
through self-deceit. Black people must be responsible to
themselves, not to white people. In time of war, rights
cannot be abrogated, even to defend the country. Black peo-
ple must insist on those rights. The poem is in prayer form
with three stanzas directly addressing God, but even that
unity does not create a focus for the poem.
"They have a colored actor in this land" (No. 15) pre-
sents the dilemma of a black American actor who is not
allowed to demonstrate his skill because he is black. He
cannot play the role of hero because " . . . as white folk
object to Negro love / From life or stage, our actor is
denied / That vehicle . . . " (11. 6-8). Even though the
critics praise him, the views which white Americans have of
black Americans cannot be changed so "The great actor stands
lonely in his height" (1, 13). America, the land of oppor-
tunity, denies this black actor his opportunity.
 214

"If I were white I'd be in Hollywood" (No. 17) restates

the same problem. Hollywood is only for white people. As a
result of being "color-barred," the poet understands that
those who are permitted to enter may play only stereotyped
roles? "insulting all fine instincts of my race" (1. 8).
Even in the movies black people must wait for "Cabin in the
Sky" while white people enjoy the present life. But it is
the black people who supply the "artificial mirth" (1. 12)
to enable the whites to enjoy that life. As a result of his
understanding of the black man's stereotyped role of buffoon,
the poet can say, "I hate what Hollywood means in every way"
(1. 14).
"Hollywood Is our first and greatest source" (No. 16)
stresses the importance of Hollywood in the establishment of
roles for all American people. Hollywood educates more thor-
oughly than the schools because "They sway the towns and far-
off country places / By the lure of the tinsel-plated
American type" (11. 5"6), types which, of course, are white.
Black characters only wipe the feet of these white characters.
But the essential portion of this poem is found in the
sestet. The poet insists on love for America: "We Negroes
love . . . / Its strength and bigness and cities where our
blood / Congeals on pavements whence the terror springs" (11.
10-12). Here again is the duality: the attraction and the
repulsion. The poem concludes with a restatement of the love
coupled with hope, and then "But we thrill not to it as the
whites are thrilled" (1. 14). The "tinsel-plated American
 215

type" (1. 6) can never be achieved by a black person. The

images which Hollywood creates do not complement the images
which a black person sees around him. So perhaps the love
which Aframericans feel for America is sound because it is
less based in fantasy. Black people see more than glitter—
they also see strength and bigness and terror.
The evils of America are presented one more time in
"Whichever way the whites may writhe and squirm" (No. 19),
which repeats the point that black men in America are as
oppressed as any group in Europe. McKay states that the
blacks are even more abject than the Jews5 no people can be
worse off than the black people who are "kept underfoot as
far down as a worm" (1. 3 ) . Those who Insist on the con-
trary use falsehoods to promote the "propaganda line" ( 1.
12).

Another attack on American Fascism appears In "Of

course, we have Democracy but it" (No. 29). Democracy in
America is Fascist Democracy where fifteen million blacks
. . . are not considered human,
By our rulers who control from birth to tomb,
Are not considered children born of woman
As whites who issue from their mothers womb!
(11. 5-8)
The only difference between European Fascism and American
Fascism is that color is the basis for the American version.
The poem concludes by noting that America must teach the
world Its better way:
So Europe we [America! must conquer, educate
The world by mark of color to separate.
 216

"And thus, I may be reaching those who mourn" (No. 20)

asks once again how black people can accept democracy which
oppresses and denies them. Only that black man who "sees
like 'white'" (1. 14) can accept that form of democracy.
The final poem in this group is "One-tenth of India
remains untouchable" (No. 42), which compares America to
India. In both countries one-tenth of the population remains
"outside the gates" (1. 4 ) . The difference is that India's
unclean are ostracized by their own color. In America "Our
untouchables are such an alien folk, / Hard to assimilate,
. . . " (11. 10-11). But despite these differences, both
nations have "a national taboo!" (1. 14).
The poem is not effective. The comparison with India's
rejected people might have been striking, but the poet
stopped before he found a strong metaphor and vital language
to draw the comparison.
The attitudes expressed in these poems reflect atti-
tudes McKay held throughout his life. While still in
Jamaica, he longed for America. But when he arrived, he
discovered that the country which he loved rejected him.
The contrasts of love and fear, attraction and repulsion
remained throughout his life as evidenced by these late poems.
A part of McKay's repulsion-attraction towards America
Is exemplified in his attitude towards the white people who
surround him. He hates the white people who assume roles
and who profess understanding of black people and their
problems. He especially dislikes those white people who
 217

determine the destinies of black people. McKay in his ear-

lier poems also condemned the white people. The difference
between these earlier and later poems lies in the focus and
result. In the earlier poems McKay hated primarily the greed
and exploitation which the white people represented. In
these later poems the attack seems to have shifted to the
people. As a result of the earlier hatred, the poet was in-
vigorated, and he recognized the creative interchange. The
increase in vitality does not occur in these later poems.
The condemnation of the white man is apparent in "The
white man is a tiger at my throat" (No. 36).?4 The poem
follows the sequence established in "America said . . . " (No.
3*1) and "This is the new world . . . " (No. 35). In those
two poems the hope of America was great, but oppression was
learned all too well from "the Old World's feuds and hates"
(No. 35, I* 14). In this strong poem McKay writes:
The white man is a tiger at my throat
Drinking my blood as my life ebbs away
While saying that his terribly striped coat
Is Democracy's and means the Light of Day.
(11. 1-4)
The hatred in this poem is not aimed towards America but
towards the white man who represents the evils of "race and
hate" (1. 11) and who will teach the American brand of
Fascism to the remainder of the world. ^ The poem concludes
"Oh Lord, my body and my heart too break, / The tiger in his
strength his thirst must slake" (11. 13-14). 26 The white man
will win, but in the first stanza McKay makes it evident that
although the white man possesses all the strength, the black
 218

poet will never yield. "If We Must Die" once again comes to
mind. In "The white man Is a tiger . . . " the fighter also
is doomed, not by mad dogs but by a tiger, yet "Never will I
yield" (1. 8 ) . The image of the tiger in this poem is as
compelling as the dogs in "If We Must Die." The tiger sucks
the victim's blood; at the same time he comforts the victim
with words of Democracy. McKay also sees the power of
America because it will build new worlds where "the Eagle
and the Dollar will command" (1. 12). The power of the
white man and America seems insurmountable.
A comparison with "America" ' is perhaps inevitable at
this point. The central image is once again a tiger. This
time the tiger is feminine and sucks the poet's breath rather
than his blood. But the poet says, "I love this cultured
hell that tests my youth!" (1. 4 ) . The difference between
the two poems is that in "The white man is a tiger at my
throat," the tiger gives nothing. The strength of the victim
never to yield seems to be inherent. But in "America"
Her vigor flows like tides into by blood,
Giving me strength erect against her hate.
(11. 5-6)
As the tiger sucks his breath, she also gives him vitality
and courage. A second difference is that in the earlier poem
America does not remain victorious; the poet watches "price-
less treasures sinking in the sand" (1. 1*4). But in the
later poem, the white man who is both a tiger and America is
victorious. The tiger will survive.
 219

At least a dozen other of these later poems might be

placed thematically into the anti-white category. "Oh
filthily they run the tenements" (No. 21) is a bitter attack
on landlords and merchants who believe "For black folk any
rotten stuff is good!" (1. 4 ) . They not only sell second-
rate merchandise but they use the black people as entertain-
ment; "From our sad lives they pluck the finest fruits / To
entertain their jaded appetites" (1. 8 ) . But the final
insult is that they send ideas of Marx to black people who
have no need for new escapes; the old escapes are still suf-
ficient. The point is obvious: white people use black peo-
ple in every way possible.
In "Big, little white man had his mind made up" (No.
30), McKay shows his contempt for the white man who denies
black men food, shelter, and employment. For the white man
life is easy because he has alternatives? the black man has
few choices. The sestet laments that black people treat
such big little men in their "den / Of iniquity" (11. 11-12)
as superior. Worse of all, black people "try to emulate
them at their tricks!" (1. 10). The poet's only response to
the big little white man is "supreme contempt!" (1. 14).
The plea in the poem also is that black people should not
emulate? they should establish their own standards and goals.
"The American white man is so vastly vain" (No. 46)
rebukes the white man who Is so "puffed up in conceit of
pride and virtue" (1. 2) that he thinks he is the supreme
creation of the world. Therefore, every other creature
 220

should be subservient to him. He especially wants those

whom he has hurt to be grateful for the attention. As McKay
delicately states:
He wants the Negro to soft-soap his back,
With 'Thank you, Massa, you are very kind,
After stretching me so taut upon the rack
To leave some strength to rub you down behind.
(11. 5-8)
The idea that victims should love their victimizers is clear
in this poem as it was also evident in "Now I should like to
ask" (No. 10), previously discussed. The final statement of
the poem is that the white man has found many people to sup-
port his vanity and to ensure him of his superiority;
ironically, the victims play that role—"He has many back
scratchers of the Negro race!" (1. 14).
"It was the white man's way to build together" (No. 48)
expresses the idea that the white man knows he can survive
only through group solidarity. The forests, prairies, and
Indians were conquered only through a communal effort.
McKay's final contention is that the white man used any means
to save his life and uniting with other white men (even new
immigrants quickly learned the technique) was one of those
expediencies. Left unsaid is a more subtle idea. Since the
white man knows that to unite is one technique to survive,
he will separate black people. As a result, separation has
been a successful technique from slave times until the pre-
sent. Divided men cannot be conquering men. The poem does
not bitterly attack; It does underline the Idea that In the
white man's treatment of black people, division is always
 221

encouraged. It also faintly laments that black people can

not or will not successfully unite.
Another comment on the role of whites Is found in "I
wonder who these wealthy whites are fooling" (No. 5 ) . McKay
assails those white leaders who urge with "smooth, infantile
drooling" (1. 3) the poor whites to "shoulder black men's
yoke" (1. 14) in order to advance the position of black peo-
ple in this country. McKay says that If he were a poor
white, he would not be deceived by that argument; he would
insist that the wealthy whites "be the defender, / Of decency
and progress—people's right" (11. 11-12). Let those with
"wealth and privilege and education" (1. 13) be concerned
with abstractions.

Implicit in the poem is one of McKay's favorite argu-

ments—black people must be responsible for black people.
White workers will not assume the task of striving to further
the position of black workers. Black people must not be
fooled by the urglngs of white leaders—they must not be
divided by white promises to work for black people.
"There is a new thing, pretty and dime-bright" (No. 9)
defends blacks against the attack that they are anti-white.
McKay concludes that "To make blacks anti-white and anti-
Semitic, / Is just a damnable oriental trick" (11. 13-14).
In the poet's view, to mistreat the black man, deny him, and
oppress him, and then insist he should love his oppressors is
to "rob the Negro of all human pity / And multiply his harsh
humiliation" (11. 11-12). A black man may not be anti-white,
but there is no reason he should love white people. ° He
should be allowed the alternatives of Indifference, or dis-
like or hate, or love. For the white man to deny those
alternatives is to reduce further the humanness of the black
29
7
man.
"I feel quite proud of my black African face" (No. 8)
is a sonnet expressing several ideas. The first four lines
show the poet's pride in his blackness and his joy in the
diversity of mankind. For him diversity is much finer than
reduction of all people to types or roles. The second four
lines lament that his people do not accept criticism of
themselves, but always choose to shift the blame elsewhere.
The last six lines confirm that perhaps the majority wishes
the minority to be weak and foolish so it will remain
enslaved. The final couplet possesses more force than the
remainder of the poem:
The Great White Lord after work and play and dining,
Must need his clown to entertain with whining.
(11. 13-14)
McKay in this poem does not place all the blame on the white
people. He feels black people are also to blame because
they allow themselves to be clowns.
The poem is poorly organized. The images are not
effective. But it is one of the earliest statements of
ideas which will concern McKay throughout the Cycle—pride
in his blackness, need for group criticism, role of whites
in America, willingness of blacks to be enslaved.
 223

Those white people who profess understanding of blacks

are described in the six stanza poem "In Black Harlem they
held a little meeting" (No. 39). The poem describes an anti-
Fascist meeting at which a white woman rose and urged that
black people align themselves with Jews. She further urged
the status-quo and closed her speech with the words:
You are our best of Christians and so must
When slapped on one cheek, turn the other cheek.
(11. 11-12)
McKay comments that she suggested " . . . a blueprint per-
fect in its way / For Negroes wartime thinking and behaving"
(11. 19-20). But she is white, not black, and even though
black people commended her words, she only thinks she has the
right to offer solutions to the problems of black people.
In the poem McKay not only berates her but also the black
people who allow her to speak and then politely applaud,
which reinforces her behavior.
30
"It is the Negro's tragedy I feel" (No. 3 7 r attacks
again those white people who proclaim understanding of black
people and situations. The poet says that he can feel the
Negro's tragedy and the Negro's pain because he is black.
No white man can penetrate blackness, or write a black man's
book, or tell "what colored people think and brook" (1. 12).
The poem ends with the statement that whites do think and
write for the Indian "thrust aside / From the wide field
where white men whoop and ride" (11. 13-14). McKay is not
about to allow himself to be thrust aside.
 224

The poem states as strongly as any the feeling that

white men must not be allowed to assume that they have under-
standing when they can not. The feeling is also present
that white men will think they understand blackness if they
are allowed such thoughts. For McKay, he must keep reminding
the white man that such knowledge is impossible.
"Were I a poor white I would surely throw" (No. 38) Is
a poem written in six four-line stanzas with XAXA, XBXB, etc.
rhyme. The first quatrain is subjunctive? the speaker says
that if he were white, he would fully support the labor move-
ment. The second stanza continues with the realization that
since he is black, the white labor movement will not improve
his lot but only suppress him even more. The third stanza
notes that every black recognizes racism, which in Europe
is known as Fascism. The fourth stanza stresses that racism
and Fascism exist not only in the Souths the Northern labor
unions are also just for white workers. But, the fifth
stanza comments, some labor unions do admit black men but
the black workers are controlled automatons. The last stanza
says that neither New York nor Washington would believe that
White Labor's as a Fascist union pointed,
Straight at the Negro's cranium like a gun.
(11. 23-24)
The point in the poem is one which McKay makes fre-
quently. Black people cannot depend upon white people to
organize for them. The impetus must come from black people
themselves. Black people need always be suspicious of those
groups which are integrated: in the background is a white
 225

man controlling the movement of the black zombies who become

part of the integrated organizations.
"The millionaire from Boston likes to write" (No. 2)
indicts a white liberal who has "a Negro friend and thinks
therefore, / Himself an authority on the Negro race" (11. 5"
6). Anyone who disagrees with him is immediately condemned
as stupid. In addition he was a Socialist but turned away
during World War II because he did not approve of the
Socialist position. The millionaire from Boston seems a
rather foolish person who views the remainder of the world
as stereotypes.
The last poem in this category shows a little different
attitude towards white people. The poem "I could not hate
the Germans or the Jews"3 is basically a religious poem,
perhaps one written after McKay's conversion. The poem ends
with McKay's comment that all men are sinners; he wonders why
he has not been "hurled / Down through hell's shafts of
splintered glass to die" (11. 11-12). But the lines of con-
cern at this point close the first stanza:
I hate not white men, but I hate their greed,
Their lives like thousands of congested maggots,
Which in the honey vats of life must feed,
Which dark men to make sweet must burn like faggots.
(11. 5-8)
Here is a statement close to those in the earlier McKay
poems. He does not hate the men themselves but the evil
which motivates them. The image is compelling: the lives of
white men are like maggots feeding on the carcass of black
men. The parasitic relationship is horrible but accurate.
 226

But here only the detrimental part of this relationship is

present; missing is the vigor which the poet gains from
recognizing the relationship. Perhaps one reason these
later poems are not as effective is that little strength is
gained from the hatred exhibited towards America and white
people.
Another topic which interested McKay during this period
was Integration. McKay strongly believed that Integration
was not the answer to racial problems, and he felt that too
often the intellectuals accepted integration, a solution
which betrayed the masses of black people. J. W. Johnson,
a friend of McKay's throughout both the 20's and the 30's,
was one of those who supported integration but who also
believed schools and businesses should be strengthened as a
means of obtaining integration.33 But McKay would not com-
mit himself to such a position. He firmly believed black
unity would solve more problems than token integration.
"Where the Bostonian lives, I'm not aware" (No. 3)
mildly continues McKay's anti-white sentiments. The Bostonian
lives at the Astor or the Waldorf, "But Harlem's out of
bounds, dismal and grim" (1. 4 ) . This Bostonian advocates
integration with vigor and McKay says:
It is this thing that offers us no hope,
That understanding whites with blacks unite
To make the slogan of the Negro group.
(11. 10-12)
The phrase "understanding whites" is ironical, because the
understanding is abstract, derived only from books. The
 227

Bostonian never ventures into Harlem to discover the real

solutions to problems. For McKay people who advocate inte-
gration are no friendsj they simply offer dogma with no
comprehension.
"And no white liberal is the Negro's friend" (No. 49J3^
continues the attack on integration, McKay begins the poem
by stating that no friend would offer to share the burden of
discrimination through advocating Integration. The reason
for McKay's position is apparent in this poem. Black people
are segregated "throughout the entire nation, / Where white
men grimly hold authority" (11. 7-8); cries against segre-
gation will change no facts. In the sestet McKay continues:
Must fifteen million blacks be satisfied,
When one of them can enter as guest,
In a white house, with all the others denied
The right to have a place of decent rest?
In a country where segregation is the rule, one integrated
black man will in no way help the other fifteen million.
The poem concludes that Segregation is not the problem; "The
Negroes need salvation from within" (1. 14). And probably
for McKay that salvation would be a unity of all black people,
the improvement of conditions for all.
Implicit in this poem is an attack on the intelligentsia
because, for the most part, they are the ones who promote
integration. They would be invited to the white liberal's
white house. They would believe that the token acceptance
would be sufficient and fifteen million blacks should applaud.
But for McKay, no man—whatever his color—is the black man's
friend, if he advocates integration.
 228

"In Southern states distinctions that they draw" (No.

4) presents another view of integration-segregation. The
poem begins with the comment that in the South distinctions
are "clear like star-shine in the firmament" (1. 2), but in
the North where equality is praised, the distinctions are
blurred and people become confused. As a result the leaders
insist that segregation is the problem. But, McKay asks,
what good does Integration do? When blacks move into an
area, whites "flee as from the devil" (1. 6 ) , rents go up,
property prices go down, "And soon the street becomes a
Negro dump" (1. 10). Integration is not the answer, although
black leaders and white liberals wail for it. Whites will
never allow integration? why should black people waste energy
working for It? McKay hints that those hurt by integration
are the black people, not the white people. For that reason
black people should cease to demand that false solution.

"Tuskegee is disliked by Negro snobs" (No. 7) attacks

the black elite, the black intelligentsia who insist on inte-
gration. McKay in the poem establishes three varieties of
colleges. The college with black students and faculty is
disliked by the black snobs because it can have no quality.
Black schools with white teachers are judged by the snobs to
be better because they reach the "heights of scholarship"
(1. 8 ) , But best of all are colleges with both black and
white students: "That is the perfect system to defend, / As
a symbol that EQUALITY is here!" (11. 11-12). In the last
two lines of the poem McKay longs for a Mencken "To blast
 229

the smugness of the black elite" (1. 14). McKay's point is

easily visible: the elite advocate integration. They choose
equality over unity and as a result achieve little. The last
two lines indicate McKay's role in the 1940's. In his ear-
lier poems he would have led the attack. Now he points out
the need for attack and longs for a spokesman. The poem
itself might have been an assault, but it points rather than
needles.
"The smugness of the black elite" is attacked further
in "Oh, how exasperating are the antics" (No. 32) and in
"The Negro critic has his special way:" (No. 33). The first
of the two poems contends that the black leaders hope to
reach the white man's steeple by insisting that the masses
are Imprisoned, an assertion which does keep them imprisoned.
McKay hopes that some day the people will rebel against those
leaders and then those false imprisoners "From out the white
man's steeple may fall dead" (1. 14). By implication this
poem includes all black people who strive to achieve white
standards, but it is often the leaders who are prone to this
failing. The second poem "The Negro critic has his special
way" (No. 33) attacks the critics who use "white appraisal"
(1. 2) to rate works by black authors. McKay Insists that
such critics shirk their responsibility to black people and
black writers. The poem as a whole does not work well; the
sestet, especially, is confusing with references to the black
critic, a white friend, and Horace Greeley. But McKay's own
feeling that he has been unjustly criticized is evident.
 230

"In Ethiopia there are black Jews" (No. 52) mocks those
black intellectuals who argue for a coalition of minority
groups because they believe "Jews have Negro ancestry" (1.
11). The proof they offer Is the black Jews who live in
Ethiopia. Their contention, at least in McKay's perspective,
is that from that "Black tribe of Israel on the African
range!" (1. 8) have descended all Jews. McKay's last jibe
at them is in the form of an analogy*
What fools! Some say from apes descended man,
Which makes not man a monkey in God's plan.
(11. 13-14)
But the analogy is less effective than it might be. The
negative in the last line detracts, but it is certain that
if men are not apes, then also Jews are not blacks. The real
attack needs to be superimposed on the poem. Once again
McKay is arguing that black people need to unify themselves
and need to accept themselves before they can begin the
struggle. The dilemma cannot be shifted onto another group.
These last five poems indicate McKay's continuing dis-
like for the Intelligentsia. In the last chapter of Harlem:
Negro Metropolis he unfavorably compared the intelligentsia
with the masses? these poems continue that hostility. Many
of McKay's anti-intelligentsia feelings seem to be directed
at black intellectuals, especially those involved with
writing. At various times in his life McKay refused associ-
ation with thinkers and writers. While living abroad McKay
deliberately alienated himself? in France and Morocco, he
chose to live with the common uneducated people. In Paris he
also removed himself from the Intellectuals, both black and
white on the Left Bank, and, as Stephen Bronz says, "denied
himself what might have been useful intellectual stimula-
tion. " 3 5 Towards the end of his life McKay felt the black
writers ignored him. When Charles Johnson was inaugurated
as president of Fisk on Nov. 7, 1947, evidently many of the
black intellectuals were invited to the ceremonies. But
McKay was not. When Arna Bontemps wrote an article for the
Saturday Review on the Harlem poets, McKay was, so he
insists, not mentioned.-*36
His feelings of hostility towards the black writers
and intellectuals were part of his general hostility towards
the intelligentsia. McKay was always suspicious of those
who became political, social, or religious leaders. They
could never, in his eyes, fully represent the masses of
black people.
That suspicion appears in "They hate me, black and
white, for I am never" (No. 47) which admonishes those "who
imagine they can save their soul / By thinking white and
hating black . • ." (1. 9-10). They do not think, as McKay
does, of the common black people. They do not realize "That
American Negroes must be saved as one / . . . The better
Negroes cannot rise alone" (11. 7-8). But McKay understands
and reiterates that black people must be raised together or
they will all be oppressed together.
Black pride should unite all black people. One poem,
"The New York critics say, when Shakespere wrote" (No. 14),
 232

is essentially a poem of black pride and black heritage.

The poem begins with the comment that Othello is more
believable to the mind of the white man if he is Arab rather
than black. The poem moves from the comment that in Europe
"Moor" means African black to note that the greatest sultan
of Africa was black. He ruled over North Africa and Spain
and his wife Lalla Chella,37 a European, left Western Civili-
zation "to share his powerful throne" (1. 12). The poem
suggests that Othello's heritage may be changed to conform
with popular opinion, but mighty representatives of black
history will remain.
Many of the poems during this period present, as his
articles do, his anti-Communist thought. McKay was fre-
quently harrassed by the Communists in various ways; his only
retaliation was through his writings.
"Black intellectuals deep dive for the bait" (No. 22)
begins with the intellectuals who are easily fooled. But
most of the poem concentrates upon those who preach Marxism
and the Class Struggle. McKay complains that while black
people seek answers in the Class Struggle, the organizers in
summer "are making hay / Upon our woes, in winter burning
coal" (11. 5~6). The promoters are safe; the problems belong
to black people. They suffer while the organizers, under-
standing little of the real struggle, offer trite slogans
about the Class Struggle as solution to all problems. The
attack on the Communists is presented through a rather ludi-
crous image:
 233

. • . their grip is on the Negro's throat,

For they are sitting safely in the boat
Which they employ the Negro sea to raid
(11. 9-12)
The Communists not only float in a black sea, they also
attempt to throttle that sea as they float upon it. Con-
fusion is also apparent between Moses and Marx. Black peo-
ple respond to both, Interchangeably. Perhaps the confusion
in the poem mirrors the confusion in the people described.
Again, only black people can solve their own problems.
No satisfactory solutions will come from outside advisors,
who simply float over the problems, rather than immerse
themselves.
In "No lady of the land will praise my book" (No. 4l)
the poet comments that because his writings are not "party
stuff" (1. 5) they are ignored by critics and advertisers
and readers. Instead of writing party propaganda about
Aframerleans,
. . . I show the Negro stripped of tricks,
As classic as a piece of African art,
Without the frills and mask of politics,
But a human being cast to play a part.
(11. 9-12)
The ordinary reader never hears of the poet's work. McKay's
work is too simple, lacking in propaganda adornment, to
please the Communists.
This poem contains one of the few references to Africa
in the Cycle. The comparison between "the Negro stripped of
tricks" and the African sculpture is effective. The line "a
human being cast to play a part" creates a different
 23*1

impression, though. It Is almost as if there are some

t r i c k s — t h e black man is not entirely stripped because the
role which is satisfactory to the white world is still
apparent.

The last two lines of the sestet detract, however,

from the effectiveness of the first four lines. "A human
being standing at the bar / Of life with face turned upward
to a star" is trite both in meaning and image.
In "Thus I'm boycotted by the Communists" (No. 13)
McKay says he is boycotted and censored by the Communists,
never appearing In their lists of American black writers.
Because he dared to criticize the Communists, his writings
are suppressed like Trotsky's in Russia. In addition, black
intellectuals do not defend him because they "lack / The
courage to oppose any group of whites" (11. 1 0 - 1 1 ) . He ends
the poem by asking which side he should be on. The whites
attack him and blacks do not defend him. He is left with no
support. This poem is one of the most bitter in the Cycle.
McKay cannot easily accept conforming roles which would give
him some security; as a black man in a white society, McKay
still does not belong.

"And, also Negro writers are being made" (No. 53) traces
the influences which the Communists have upon Aframerlcan
writers. McKay describes the Communists who establish and
support black writers as "the new miracle men" (1. 3) who
fit Pegasus with phony wings. But, McKay insists, the
writers prostitute themselves and as a result they become
 235

cheap whores to the Communists, who kick them aside when the
Party changes political positions.
McKay compares the black writers to the Gaderene swine
"Gone wild and crazy from the unholy ghosts, / And chasing
thither, thither In hot prime, / Scattering everywhere their
stench and slime" (11, 12-14), For McKay these "Communist
dominated Satan's hosts" (1. 10) deserve no sympathy and no
consideration.
The poem states unequivocally McKay's dislike for his
fellow writers. Because they ignored him or attacked him, he
is attacking in return. His comparison of the writers to
the crazed Gaderene swine is most effective. In this maddened
condition, they cannot be taken seriously.
"The Communists know how Negro life's restricted" (No.
12) berates the Communists who attempt to control the black
people in various ways—propaganda, welfare, and politics.
The Communists pretend to understand the plight of the
"afflicted" (1. 3 ) , but they are working for "plums [that]
are big and sweet" (1. 7 ) . McKay suggests that because black
people have been "for so long plaything / Of elephant and
ass lithe Republican and Democratic Parties]," the Communist
Party will easily control the leaders and thus the people.
The poem ends with the comment that the ways of the Communist
Party should arouse both Republicans and Democrats. But left
unstated is the thought that neither party is concerned enough
with the black citizen to become alarmed. Indicted with the
Communists is America which cares so little for Its black
 236

citizens. The Communists would not be so effective if other

agencies aided the afflicted.
"The Russian advocates drive high-powered cars" (No.
28) attacks the intellectuals in general who change sides
with facility. These Russian supporters drive "high-powered
cars" (1. 1) to "great skyscraper offices" (1. 2) where they
write the praises of Russia. McKay sees unmistakably,
though, that if the need arose, they would just as quickly
side with the fascists. But whatever their philosophical
position, these advocates would always regard the black man
as inferior. McKay ends the poem with the image of these
facile pragmatlsts driving their high-powered cars "Over the
Negro's bruised and broken body!" (1. 1*1). The black man
never reaches the skyscraper? he Is always at the bottom, in
the rubble which supports the building.

The dislike of those who waver is apparent in the poem.

The poem, however, loses effectiveness because of vagueness,
the forced rhyme scheme, and the distortion of lines such as
"With their philosophy of new line and shoddy" (1. 13).
"Oh, science keeps marching on from Time to Time" (No.
24) comments that although science and religion progress and
new inventions appear, human misery still exists. Even
though Karl Marx died sixty years ago, the Class Struggle
"like a universal nursery rhyme" (1. 3) is still proposed as
the answer to all misery. Obviously, those who espouse the
philosophy of Marxism are childish and unable to analyze the
problem carefully. Later in the poem McKay refers to the
 237

class war as "mystical" (1. 10) but the adjective seems

inappropriate; the fight of the masses will certainly be
other than mystical. Although the poem lacks a tight unity
between octave and sestet which would more forcefully make
the point that Marxism has not yet solved the problem of
human misery, the poem ends with the same comment McKay fre-
quently makes in these poems: the masses will fight the
battle of the classes.
"Of all the sects I hate the Communists" (No. 26)
attacks the Communists because they "harvest the misery of
mankind to build / A new religion" (11. 2-3). They also use
Science for the benefit of the rich and the disadvantage of
the poor, which displeases not only McKay but God as well.
The attack strengthens in the sestet when McKay calls the
Communists "blind leaders of the blind" (1. 9) who manipulate
God, politics, and mankind. The hatred is strong in this
poem. He particularly hates the evil which the Communists
perpetrate through deceiving mankind. But for McKay the
greatest criminals of all are "the abdicated intellectuals"
(1. 13). The intellectuals, he feels, have betrayed the
masses by working only for themselves. Again the idea of
unity is apparent—the intellectuals and the masses must
survive together.

"Men always fight by nations, tribes or groups" (No.

25) displays more humor than do some of the other poems.
The first four lines of the poem state that the Russian
Revolution was accomplished by the masses who had learned
 238

the Ideals from their leaders and who always do the fighting.
But McKay decides that if he must choose between the old
bandits and the new gangsters, he will choose the old and
familiar. With rather gross humor, McKay prefers the "old
men full of vice" (1. 9) to "proletarians spitting in my
face, / And scratching in their armpits full of lice" (11.
10-11). Lice to an observer might seem preferable to vice,
but earlier in the poem the real source of McKay's antipathy
is clear: these new gangsters promise "All things to all
men which they can't bestow" (1. 8). McKay would be satisfied
with a form of government which performs adequately for his
people. The new system advocated by the proletarians of the
Russian Revolution is not better; therefore, the status quo
should be maintained.
The poems provide another dimension to McKay's attacks
upon the Communists. In these works he indicates that he
still condemns them for fooling the people. They pretend to
offer solutions which serve only bo divide black people.
Unity is necessary to cope with problems; the Communists
recognize that unity would eliminate the need for them. So
they work to preserve the divisions among black people.
Although McKay may earlier have had much sympathy for the
ideals of the Russian Revolution, he continued In the 1940's
to insist on his independence from any political movement.
One group of poems written in these later years can be
described only as personal. The comment upon the poet him-
self as he grows older or upon things close to him.
 239

"A Song of the Moon" is a highly descriptive poem writ-

ten while McKay was a member of the Federal Writer's Project
38
and published in the Project's American Stuff in 1937.
The poem describes the moon shining on the city's concrete,
steel, and stone, upon a million gray homes, upon the clothes
lines of the tenements. The poet says the moon works no
magic in a city where electric lights surpass its glow. So
he urges the moon to shine upon "the laughing faces / Of
happy flowers that bloom a thousand hues" (11. 13-1*1). The
flowers love the moon and await her presence while the city
is indifferent. The eager expectation of the flowers cap-
tures the joy of the poet himself.
Although the poem does not mention Jamaica, the beauti-
ful atmosphere of the island is evoked in the descriptions
of the rural scenes. Also present is the dislike of the city
which is cold and hard, unappreciative of the beauty of the
moon. The people of the city are probably as gray and monot-
onous as the buildings in which they live. In contrast the
flowers are happy and distinguished from each other by their
varied hues. The city breaks the moonlight; the flowers
await it. The city is most unpleasant in every aspect. There
are no people—only buildings and clothes like ghosts on the
clothes lines. The moon does not belong in the city; nothing
there greets her light.
The entire poem works well. The rhyme scheme is not
intrusive nor does it create distorted grammatical patterns.
The images presented by the poem are concrete and vivid. The
 240

figures of speech work well—moonlight breaks, clothes like

ghosts, the moon as a sad lady with trailing robes, the
flowers on tiptoe laughing and drinking.
Some half dozen of the cycle poems fall into a "per-
sonal" category. They depict McKay concerned with himself
and his intense personal responses. The Cycle begins with a
"title poem," "These poems distilled from my experience."
In the first eight lines the poet explains that these poems
tell of his feelings and of the "vicious and the tense /
Conditions which have hedged my bitter way / Of life . . . . "
(11. 3-5). !n his poems he says "I stripped down harshly to
the naked core / Of hatred based on the essential wrong" (11.
7-8). As a result of the vicious and tense conditions, he
is filled with hate not for America or white people or intel-
lectuals, but for the wrongs of discrimination and oppression
which they represent. This poem thus prepares for the
attacks in the later poems. The sestet presents the Idea,
developed earlier in A Long Way from Home, that McKay is an
independent man, bound by no dogma or no person. In the
final couplet he is rather Whitmanesque:
For I, a poet, can soar with undipped wings,
From earth to heaven, while chanting of all things.
(11. 13-14)
In the Cycle he does chant of many things, but unfortunately
only seldom does he "soar with undipped wings."
The first poem of the Cycle, "Now, really I have never
cared a damn" (No. 1 ) , is also a personal poem. McKay says
he does not care if he is accused of being on the wrong side
 241

or of being stupid. He can claim only his mind, and as long

as it Is intact, he cares about nothing else. The poem is
not as effective as the previous one. The verbs are not
strong; the figures of speech do not allow him to soar.
Moreover, the idea communicated is vague.
"When I go out into the crowded street" (No. 18) insists
that the speaker does not bear the honor of the entire race
upon his shoulders? therefore, he does not care to know which
of the people he meets are anti-black. He says he occasion-
ally prefers to be only a human being, returning smile for
smile without questioning the motives of those he meets.
This poem is one of the few in the Cycle which is not
directly attacking something. If this poem contains an
implied attack, It is upon those who do go looking for
insults, those who feel that they do represent the black
world. It remains a personal poem in which the poet desires
to be a human being, not a symbol of all black people.
"They say in Harlem that I'a pretty washed up" (No. 11)
compares the poet to an old car wrecked on a pile with many
others. The anonymous, mysterious "they" also attribute the
poet's wreckage to his defying the Communists when he replied
to their propaganda. At that point he supposedly lost his
way and the smash-up came because of his defiance. But even
though "They say the Reds have power in every place" (1. 9)
the poet will not ask them for forgiveness. He would rather
"clean the sewers of New York" (1. 12) than "be a Harlem
commissar" (1. 14).
 243

Two other poems belong in the category of personal

poems. "Honeymoon" Is the only love poem found In these
later poems.39 The passion of the poem recalls the earlier
love poems as the speaker begs his loved one:
Sweet, be your body a rare figured rug
Upon which I may lay myself full length,
And drink your warm breath as a potent drug,
To make me amorous and increase my strength.
(11. 1-4)
For the couple, love fulfills all needs; their companionship
deadens physical hunger and thirst. The final four lines
shift the image. Originally, he asks her to be a "rare
figured rug"? finally he says:
My soul's a laden boat propelled by love
And these uplifted days a heaving ocean
Whereon we drift foam-sprinkled, shot with zest,
Desiring not to reach a port of rest.
(11. 11-14)
The passion in this poem seems to be natural and spontaneous.
Neither the rhyme scheme nor the lines are distorted to ful-
fill the requirements of the pattern. "Honeymoon" and "A
Song of the Moon" indicate that McKay in the 1930's could
still create poetry with expressive language and full, vivid
images.
The second poem which belongs in the personal category
is "For a Leader." This poem is constructed in six four-
line stanzas. The first two stanzas directly address the
leader in highly complimentary phrases: "You are a torch-
light of humanity" (1. 1) which attempts to awaken others or
"A nerve pulsating of the eternal Heart / That makes the
miracle of the human form" (11. 7-8). The next two stanzas
 244

compare the poet and the leader. The poet chooses experience,
joy, and passion? he desires to be "lover and iconoclast" (1.
16). In contrast, the leader must choose duty which con-
sumes his life. In the last two stanzas the poet gives all
his songs to the leader with the hope that one song will
"reach your senses In a lonely hour" (1. 24). The poet rec-
ognizes the differences between the two men, but the last
stanza indicates that the poet wishes to share some of his
sensual experiences with the man who must of necessity remain
alone. Throughout the poem the leader remains unidentified,
but the sympathy and affection of the poet are evident.
The last group of poems to be considered is also
intensely personal. These poems grew from McKay's religious
speculations which resulted In his conversion to Catholicism
in 1944.
Several hypotheses for McKay's sudden religious bent
can be proposed. A cynic might suggest that McKay was a
pragmatist who always capitalized on fads. He wrote protest
poetry in the early 1920's? he wrote a novel about an exotic
primitive when it was fashionable to do so? he wrote timely
articles at the end of the 1930's. His religious conversion
might be part of the search for a new gimmick to make him
popular once again.
Another reason might be his search for security. Dur-
ing the 1930's it became increasingly clear he could return
to none of the groups he had previously known: white intel-
lectuals, black intellectuals, common people, or radicals.
 245

Unlike Jake, McKay could not go home. So he found a new

home. Related to security is stability? McKay also searched
for a means to moderate the chaos he discovered around him.
The central characters in the fictional works also seem to
search for stability against a background of confusion and
disorder. In one of the articles McKay comments that the
Catholic Church brings stability to a disordered world.*x
The instability of McKay's world was clear; he was 111? he
had difficulty selling his works? he was a black man in a
white society? he was condemned by both Communists and non-
Communists. At least the Church provided some form of con-
stancy.
There is no evidence that McKay's conversion was not
sincere. His letters and articles reiterate that the Church
provided a focus for his life, a refuge for a man who had
sought sanctity since his coming to America in 1912. These
eighteen poems grew from his religious faith.
The only poem in the Cycle which definitely can be
placed in the religious category is "When the dictators set
them up as gods" (No. 51). 42 When the poet sees men who
attempt to solve the problems of the world, he thinks of
Jesus "who was scourged with rods. / And died that human
beings might be free / Of men who posed as gods to rule man-
kind" (11. 3~5). Jesus knew the blind could not lead the
blind and "boldly the flag of Christian life unfurled" (1,
8). In the sestet Jesus is once more portrayed as the
Master who "Proclaimed the gospel militant and true" (1. 12)
 246

and who then died to break the control of men who would be
gods. In recognition of the Jesus who suffered and died to
free men of false leaders, McKay writes, "My pagan life of
arrogance and dross, / I lay down humbly at the foot of your
cross" (11. 13-14).
This view of men as false gods conforms to McKay's
attitude towards all political organizations. He chose to
remain independent and frequently scoffed at men and groups
who pretended answers to serious problems. He always refused
to commit himself wholly to any dogma or creed until he found
the Catholic church.
The version of the poem which was published in 1945
contained some changes which greatly improve the lines. The
second version moves from past tense to present tense? there-
fore, the two parallel "I think" clauses become active and
more effective. The logical structure of the poem remains
the same but the participation of the reader is greater.
Line 8 in the second version becomes "Boldly the flag of
love His life unfurled." The image of Christ's life unfurled
as the flag of love Is effective. The structure of the
sestet remains the same—the poet begins by directly address-
ing "my Lord and Master" but then withholds until the final
couplet the reason for his address. In this way the couplet
becomes an Integral part of the poem rather than just as
addendum. Finally, the last line of the poem Is tightened
and strengthened to read "I lay down all and humbly at your
cross."
 247

The remainder of the religious poems were not included

in the Cycle. "The Pagan Isms"^3 attempts to justify McKay's
conversion. The octave explains that most of his life was
dedicated to the pagan Isms which were betrayed and torn
because "they were built on nothing more than hate!" (1. 4 ) .
In these lines McKay seems to regret the hate which con-
trolled so much of his life. He longs for a new faith even
though the old enthusiasms "Haunt me awake and haunt me when
I sleep" (1. 8). The sestet concludes that he goes to God
where no man can betray or "violate or circumvent His plan"
(1. 14). Above all, McKay seeks peace in his religion. The
poet says "I will release" my heart and He will lead me. The
peace has not yet been manifested, but the poet longs for
"the perfect way / Of life" (11. 12-13).
"The Word" is the first poem in the typewritten manu-
script of "The Word and Poems Old and New."^ A complicated
poem, the central meaning is the concept that the Word is
God but God is also the Word. God gives words to man and
"The Word of Man becomes the Sovereign Lord / Of Earth, of
Sea and of Heaven for all time" (11. 3-4). "Becomes" in
line 3 functions on a dual level: the word "becomes" God,
that is, it is transformed into God; at the same time the
word magnifies or praises God. The second four lines suggest
that God invents all words which are, as a result, free and
exuberent. So man is allowed to use words which God invented;
man does not create words. The,sestet expresses the idea
that man has used wrongly the words which should magnify God;
 2*18

"We have betrayed, ignobly crucified" (1, 1 2 ) . The poem ends

with a couplet urging "Oh spread Thy words like green fields,

watered, fresh." The second line of the couplet changes

slightly the first line of the poem to read: "The word is

God and the Word is made flesh!" (1. 1 4 ) . The use of "green

fields" In the couplet is interesting considering McKay was

probably also at the time working on "My Green Hills of

Jamaica." Here, the word of God is associated with the

pleasant memories of Jamaica and in that way becomes signif-

icant for McKay. To spread words like green fields is an

effective way to make God manifest.

McKay as a writer was greatly concerned with words, and

he includes himself in those who have used words for betrayal.

But, even so, God is "Lord of my word." Despite the betrayals

through the use of words, God, who is not stinting with his

gifts, will spread his words like fresh luxuriant fields.

This poem might be compared with "0 Word I Love to

Sing," which appeared in Harlem Shadows. -* In the earlier

poem words do not praise God or make him manifest. There,

words are tender and fragile, unable to "render / My hatred

for the foe of me and mine" (11. 11-12). They do not possess

the strength to reveal adequately the poet's emotions. But

in the later poem, hate has disappeared. Words have regained

their force and are adequate to reveal God because he is the

Word.

Before Selected Poems appeared in 1953 there was much

editorial discussion over whether "The Word" should be

 249

46
included. Cedric Dover and Max Eastman (editors of the
volume) had written comments on the galleys; both agreed the
poem was poor but that the last two lines should appear on
the title page.
7
The poem "Faith" speaks of McKay's new life. He says
that he does not need "the peace that passeth all under-
standing" (1. 1 ) . All he asks is the voice of faith in his
heart so that he can hold onto his faith in God. No matter
what others say, he realizes faith is a solitary endeavor.
The end of the poem establishes his belief that "Faith is
Knowledge" (1. 12) and so Truth is "Alive like flowers upon
the spring-time bough" (1. 14).
The poem Itself is a weak illustration of his faith.
To express his thoughts he uses such cliches as "Scrambling
like kids where angels fear to tread" (1. 10). The last line
of the poem is the most effective. The jaded poet who has
seen Truth used in the service of many political and social
groups realizes that Truth is still alive. Perhaps that is
the most significant line of the poem—he has found some-
thing he still can believe in.
"I Turn to God" appears in two manuscript versions.^8
Both poems present the general meaning that only God can give
the poet sufficient strength to battle the "enemies of
decency and truth" (1. 12) who are equipped "With devastating
weapons, clothed in mail / And arrogance and think they can't
be whipped!" (11. 10-11). The poem also expresses regret
that he did not find God sooner. ^ He says, ". . . if I had
 250

only trod / In my youth's prime the straighter way of life"

(1, 5"6), then he would now have the appropriate weapons for
the strife. But he now calls on God to give him strength to
fight those who have "bamboozled simple men" (1. 13).
"The New Day"5° is also part of the manuscript of "The
Word." The poem is one of hope that the promise of universal
peace may some day be achieved. "Because a golden child to
us is born," the poet hopes that "all men black and brown and
white, / Together work and play in harmony" (11. 9-10). But
the last two lines show also that the poet recognizes the
difficulty of his hope; "His power through the world must
penetrate, / Till it is cleansed of cruelty and hate" (11.
13-14). The poem is strongly optimistic that somehow good
will overthrow evil.
"Middle Ages"-' begins by establishing the darkness of
both the poet and period: "The Middle Ages which they say
were dark / Like me, were lit up with thy grace, Oh Lord"
(11. 1-2). Then the poem goes on to describe the music of
the Middle Ages which praises God and the men of the period
who interpreted their creeds, whether Mohammedan or Christian
or Jew. Next, the poem describes the Church as a magnificent
tree "rooted In faith supreme, / Its glory and its strength
protecting all" (11. 9"10). The Church also shows perfection
to Earths that is, heaven, which is "the Brotherhood of Man
without the Fall!" (1. 12). But the closing couplet confuses
the meaning of the poem; "hermits and princes, men with
wisdom's rods / With which they walked abroad and talked to
 251

gods" (11. 13-14). Evidently McKay sees the superiority of

the Catholic Church, but he is also willing to allow the
existence of other gods and faiths.*2
Perhaps the most important part of this poem is not the
belief in Christianity but the contrast between the modern
age and the middle ages. The middle ages were "lit up with
thy grace," "rare with music," "Cpossessed] the richness of
their creeds"} the illuminating Church had glory and
strength; men walked with "wisdom's rods." The modern age
is lit up with electricity? the music is amplified? creeds
have disappeared? only man-made objects have glory and
strength? all of wisdom's rods have disappeared. For the
poet the Middle Ages was a period of great faith and wisdom.
Unlike the modern age, men were close to gods and willing to
accept faith in them»

The tone of nostalgia is unmistakable in the poem.

McKay did not live in the Middle Ages, but he is sure they
must have been better.*3 The analogy between the poet and
the Middle Ages is important, too. Both were dark but both
possessed rare gifts. Perhaps McKay may be asking for rec-
ognition of the black man's gifts; he might also be lamenting
the passing of his own gifts. Perhaps he realized his own
finer work belonged to the past.
"The Wise Men of the East,"*'' although placed in the
religious category, also makes a powerful comment on black
people. In the poem one of the wise men, Balthazar, was
black. His appearance at the birth of the Christ Child
 252

symbolizes that 2000 years ago "all men equal were at least"
(1. 3 ) . The octave of the poem ends with the Idea that the
"disciple of our Lord" (1. 6) was drawn to a black man and
"Bestowed on him the message of the Word" (1. 8).-^ Long
before Rome became Christianized, the poem continues, a great
Black Empire (Ethiopia) had become a Christian nation. But
these moments of glory have disappeared, for McKay writes in
the final couplet;
From the high place where erstwhile they grew drunk
With power, oh God, how gutter-low have black men sunk!
(11. 13-14)
No longer are black people considered worthy of the Word; no
longer are they equal with other men; no longer is a black
nation powerful. And McKay chooses to place the blame on the
black people themselves. Instead of proving themselves worthy
of being the chosen people,* instead of managing their
power, they allowed themselves to decay and to sink "gutter-
low."
This poem might be compared with "Africa," which
appeared in Harlem Shadows and later in Selected Poems.-"
This poem presents a similar view, not of the fall of
Ethiopia, but of Africa. Africa was the site of creation;
the sciences began there; the great monuments were built
there. But the poet continues:
. . • Yet all things were in vain!
Honor and Glory, Arrogance and Fame!
They went. The darkness swallowed thee again.
Thou art the harlot, now thy time is done,
Of all the mighty nations of the sun. (11. 10-14)
 253

The powerful people have been reduced to harlots, sold into

slavery. But the poet does not blame the black people for
the darkness in this earlier poem as he does in the later
one. The view of Africa which McKay had throughout his
poetry was not admirations Jean Wagner in his chapter on
McKay notes that McKay wrote only some half-dozen poems
about Africa and none of them glorify the continent.
Nine other unpublished poems of a religious nature are
found in the folder "Various drafts" in the James Weldon
Johnson Collection. "I do not go to church in search of
God" expresses two ideas Joined seemingly with no reason.
The octave proposes that the poet does not go to Church or
priest to find God, but rather to find the greatest disci-
pline, that which "makes the body subject to the spirit!"
(1. 8 ) , The sestet defines God as Love, life, spirit and
concludes with the formula
. . . they who worship him
Seeking his loving-kindness and his ruth,
Must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
(11. 12-14)
Perhaps the unity of the two halves can be found. If God
must be worshipped in spirit, then surely that spirit must
be disciplined as the first lines suggest.
In "Saint Meinrad"-5 the first quatrain describes the
beauty of Saint Meinrad, a Benedictine abbey in Indiana.
The stanza, however, is most confusing since she both "sets
her lovely self, and stands" (1. 2) and she "spills / The
richness flowing from her active hands" (11. 3-4). The
 254

second quatrain relates how people come there to hear the

story of Jesus, The sestet establishes that beautiful Saint
Meinrad has been provided to persuade man "To turn from
mundane v?ays and seek new birth" (1, 11). St. Meinrad, in
the eyes of the poet, was chosen by God to "propagate His
everlasting Word" (1, 14).
"Oh shall those Holy Ages come again"^9 i s similar to
the poem "Middle Ages," previously discussed. In the first
quatrain the poet laments that the Holy Ages when man's
"spirit life . . • signaled him to glory like a star" (11.
2-4) are past. The second quatrain restates the poet's views
of this modern age: glory has departed; nations are jealous;
scientists, not wise men, guide the people? men only think
they are free. Nothing in the modern age compares with ear-
lier times. Not even scientific advances are more significant
than the earlier spiritual life. The sestet comments that
man, if he is to control his destiny, must accept discipline
and responsibility; however, modern man is afraid of both.
The poem ends with a couplet which appears to be tacked on;
"So science, not religion it comes from, / Which gives us
cravens the Atomic Bomb" (11. 13-14). Perhaps, though, the
shift is not so sudden. If the modern age espouses all the
wrong values, It is not so strange that it will also devise
a destructive instrument like the atomic bomb. McKay's con-
cern with the atomic bomb is apparent in one other poem, "I
would not hate the Germans or the Jews," discussed previously.
These three lines appear in the sestet:
 255

I have been spared and not obscenely hurled

Down through hell's shafts of splintered glass to die,
Like many dust-burned by war's blasting wind!
(11. 11-13)
These later poems indicate that McKay was appalled by the
slaughter of the war. That concern for the devastation
which man controls is attached to the religious poetry.
McKay evidently believed that only a strong faith could
redeem man from his terrible actions.
"Lord of the Infinite, proclaim the Peace"^° presents
McKay's dismay at the suffering of the war. The first quat-
rain urged God to "announce that wars must cease" (1. 3 ) .
The poet insists that man will not listen without the "magic
of Thine ancient thundering" (1. 4 ) . The second quatrain
emphasizes that the Church must lead the way to the fold
where the lost ones will find "warmth and love and soothing
sleep!" (1. 8 ) . The first four lines of the sestet portray
an accurate picture of the world of the mid-19*!0's:
Half of the precious earth is scorched and dreary,
The people stumble in the darkness, blind,
And theory-ridden men are weary, weary,
And in the night no ray of hope can find.
(11. 9-12)
Again the modern age is presented as a period of dark pessi-
mism. Even the thinkers are weary and have no answers. The
final couplet presents the realization that if mankind is to
survive, he must return to the eternal truths of the past.
The modern age has no eternal truths, just as it has no
light.
 256

"The Japanese struck without declaring war" 61 is both

religious and political. The first eight lines express the
idea that the war reminds people of the necessity of the
"labor of the backward races," The democracies are supported
by men who work like slaves for a cent a day. Because Japan
attacked, no longer are the products of that forced labor
available. The sestet expresses the idea that when Labor
can separate itself from Capital, then the International may
occur. For McKay the International consists of those who
"live by truth and think of others" (1. 12) and also of those
who think of God and fight "Under the banner of the Eternal
Light" (1. 14).
62
"Some Negroes say that Jesus Christ was swart,"
speculates that the Jews rejected Jesus because of his dark-
ness. The poem also suggests that Moses had a dark wife, a
relationship which upset the other Israelites. As proof of
"Jesus' strange originality" (1. 8) the poem suggests that
the Black Mother and Child appear in monasteries and churches
in Europe. The sestet, however, stresses that Jesus* color
is of little importance "before the grand religion, / That
he gave Mankind as the perfect Light" (11. 10-11). The last
two lines suggest that if Jesus were black, then perhaps
Africa gave to the white world a religion far better than
those who practice it or attempt to understand it. The irony
of the whole color issue is apparent throughout the poem.
White Christians assume that Jesus is white, but perhaps
darkest Africa did produce a black Jesus who brought the
 257

"perfect Light," As a result white Christians can never

fully comprehend the religion which they practice.
"The world was called forth by the word of God"°3 con-
cludes with the couplet "Oh thou art manifested in all
things, / Fixed, creeping, walking, those that fly with
wings" (11. 12-14), The early lines of the poem establish
that God created all things, including man and pain. Only
God knows the plan of creation and He understands far more
than the mind of man can. Even man's praise of God is
feeble because of man's vanity and man's tendency to "rant
and preach" (1, 12). But still all these things, both per-
fect and imperfect, are part of God.
"The Catholic Church"0^ expresses the idea that the
Church was established by Jesus, who died that wars should
cease and who "from the Pagan moulded Christian man" (1, 2 ) .
The second quatrain states that soldiers and children have
only one essential need: a world filled with faith and love.
The sestet addresses the Church and stresses that only the
Church can reintroduce man to God. The final couplet
The stars still lean out of the heaven aglow,
As the Star glowed a thousand years ago! (11. 13-14)
expresses the idea that the world perhaps has not changed so
much. The stars still glow symbolizing the possibility that
the world can return to Jesus. But the Catholic Church has
"the only key, / . . . that can bring men back to God" (11.
9-10).
 258

"The whites admit that Negroes have religion * is an

attack upon white Christianity. The first quatrain expresses
the idea that the whites admit that black people have the
authentic Christian religion. The second two quatrains com-
pare the blacks' religion, which is "a real part of Negro
life," and whites' religion, which is evident only on Sunday.
White folk "ostentatiously parade / To the grey-stoned-cold-
white church" (11. 9-10) where they "command God's aid" (1.
11), The poem ends with the comment that Jesus would be
lonely in that church "And desire to tumble down those soul-
less stones, / Useless and nude of life as piled-up bones"
(11, 13-14). The religion of these white people is as cold
as their church because the correct attitudes are absent.
They are proud? they command when they should ask? they do
not communicate with Jesus because he is not an Integral
part of their lives. They forget that the edifice of a
church does not guarantee religious understanding.
The last poem to be considered in this section is
66
"Truth." ° Throughout the poem the poet is searching for
truth. In the initial quatrain the poet realizes that if he
cannot find Truth in the Church, then it will be "Forever
lost . . • Like dinosaurs within their ancient bed" (11. 3-
4). In the second quatrain he confesses that he has not
found it in Unbelief or science or Revolution. The last
line expresses doubt as the poet wonders if he can find it as
he kneels In the Church. The sestet asks for a definition of
Truth. Just as Pilate asked when "Thou were manifest" (1.
10), so the poet now asks the same question and then
 260

the poems are lessened in quality because they are so regu-

lar. McKay had mastered the sonnet form, but he kept prac-
ticing the same exercises.
These later poems seem somehow to be narrow in their
perspective. They present a particular man in a particular
time and place? often nothing in the poem raises it above
that level. In addition there frequently is too little dis-
tance between poet and poem. The narrator is McKay, not a
persona. The poems cry for understatement, a refined irony
to give them a muscular thoughness. Perhaps the central
flaw is that the poet does not chant or soar as he suggested
in the "Title Poem" of the Cycle. He babbles and limps,
only Infrequently capturing the reader in the lines.
Perhaps to judge these poems at all is unfair to McKay.
He had not submitted the majority of these poems for publi-
cation. Had he not died suddenly, he might have revised or
discarded some of them. Perhaps the importance of these
poems lies not in their literary merit but in the understand-
ing which they give of the last years of McKay's life. He
still continued to think about the world; he still continued
to record those thoughts in artistic forms.
The range of ideas in these later poems is impressive;
the poems give adequate evidence that McKay was still aware
of the world around him which oppressed and frustrated him.
Although these poems do not emphasize racial consciousness—
the awareness of the characteristics of black people, both as
individuals and as a group—as effectively as earlier poems
 261

such as "Harlem Shadows" and "Harlem Dancer" do, clearly

McKay saw the need for black people to assert and to unify
themselves. He understood well the forces in the world
around him such as the enforced divisiveness of black people.
He continued to analyze the world and to seek answers. He
was also exploring new concepts as illustrated by his late
conversion.
He knew well how to write poetry, continuing to prac-
tice his craft until his death. That he wrote at all is
amazing. He was ill, impoverished, ignored. Yet he observed
with passion and recorded the struggles of black people. As
a poet, he sought answers to his problems as a black man in
this world.
 262

NOTES FOR CHAPTER IV.

1
This collection of poems had been submitted for pub-
lication. Among the McKay Letters in the James Weldon
Johnson Collection is a receipt for "The Word and Poems Old
and New" from Houghton-Mifflin, dated August 29, 1947.
2
Harold Jackman Letters, James Weldon Johnson
Collection.
3 September 29, 1930, James Weldon Johnson Letters,
James Weldon Johnson Collection.
But to refute his own comments McKay said in A Long
Way from Home (p. 229), "And in ten years C1923-1933] I
wrote five books and many poems. Perhaps too many!"
* Bronz, p. 80. Sister Conroy notes that McKay pub-
lished only eighteen poems between 1922-1934, "Claude McKay,"
p. 28.
" McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
7
McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
8
McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
9 Conroy, "Claude McKay," p. 125, One of the sonnets,
however, "St. Isaac's Church, Petrograd," was written much
earlier.
10
In his prose works McKay used the terms "Aframerican,"
"Negro," and "black" almost interchangeably. In the poetry
he seldom uses "Aframerican," but "Negro" and "black" appear
almost equally. In many poems both words will appear; in
some cases the choice seems to be determined by the syllable
requirements of the lines. In a few of the poems McKay also
chooses the word "colored."
11
The entire Cycle manuscript is found in the McKay
Papers, James Weldon Johnson Collection. The Cycle Includes
a title poem and 53 numbered poems. Each poem will be
designated by its first line and by the number of its place-
ment within the Cycle. Hereafter all poems will be identi-
fied in the text and all quotations will be followed by line
references.
 263

12
Harlem Shadows. p. 53. Also published in Selected
Poems, p. 36.
3
McKay Papers, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
"Black Belt Slummers" was also published as an unedited poem
in the appendix of Jean Wagner's Les poetes nSgres des
Etats-Unls. p. 582.
x
* McKay Papers, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
Also published by Wagner as an unedited poem, p. 583.
•*•* Federal Writers Project, Almanac for New Yorkers.
1938 (New York: Modern Age Books, Inc., 1938), P« 109.
lo
Found in the folder "Cities," McKay Papers, James
Weldon Johnson Collection. Published by Wagner as an
unedited poem, p. 582.
17
"Cities," McKay Papers, James Weldon Johnson
Collection.
18
Harlem Shadows, p. 60. Also published in Selected
Poems, pp. 62-63.
1
9 The poems in the folder "Cities" are: "Cities,"
"Barcelona," "Tetuan," "Moscow," "Petrograd: May Day: 1923,"
"London," "Xauen," "Cadiz," "Farewell to Morocco," "Fez,"
"Marrekesh," "England," "Paris," "Berlin," "Lenox Avenue,"
"New York," "Tanger," "Harlem," "Black Belt Slummers," and
"Note of Harlem," "Moscow," "Petrograds" "Farewell to
Morocco," "Barcelona," and "Tetuan" were eventually published.
Thirteen of the group are in the traditional sonnet form.
Seven experiment with stanza length, but only "Farewell to
Morocco" does any experimentation with rhyme patterns.
20
McKay Papers, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
21
"Cities," McKay Papers, James Weldon Johnson
Collection. Published in Selected Poems, pp. 88-90. The
published version incorporates some minor changes.
22
Published in Catholic Worker as "Look Within," 11
(January 1945), 2.
2
3 Before publication in Catholic Worker. McKay made a
few minor changes in the poem. The most significant change
occurred in the last line with the substitution of "through"
for "stinking." The line is far less effective with the
removal of the stronger word.
2lx
Entitled "Tiger" when published in Catholic Worker.
12 (January 1964), 3, and in Selected Poems. p. 47.
 264

2
-5 The sequence is confusing here. In "This is the
new world" (No. 35), McKay wrote that America has learned
these evils from Europe? now in this poem he writes that
America will teach these evils to Europe. "Of course, we
have Democracy" (No. 29) also establishes America as teacher.
20
This poem too underwent a few changes between manu-
script and publication. In the version which appeared in
Catholic Worker, lines 3-4 read;
And muttering his terribly striped coat
Is Freedom's and portends the Light of Day.
In Selected Poems the last two lines of the poem were
clarified with the addition of a few punctuation marks. In
that version the last two lines read;
Oh Lord! My body, and my heart too, break—
The tiger in his strength his thirst must slake!
27
Harlem Shadows. p. 6, and also published in
Selected Poems, p. 59*
28
Malcolm X made a similar comment. In reconstructing
a news interview in the Autobiography of Malcolm X_, he made
this statement; "'For the white man to ask the black man if
he hates him is ^just like the rapist asking the raped, or
the wolf asking the sheep, "do you hate me?" The white man
is in no moral position to accuse anyone else of hate!'"
(New York; Grove Press, 1965), p. 2*11.
29
In "A Negro to His Critics," New York Herald
Tribune. March 6, 1932, p. 1, 6, McKay Insists that bitter-
ness is a part of black people and black writers should be
allowed to express that bitterness.
3° Published in Catholic Worker. 12 (July 1945), 4;
also in Selected Poems, p. 50*
3 1 Before publishing the poem in Catholic Worker. McKay
made some interesting, although not particularly effective,
changes. Line 5 became "Only a thorn-crowned Negro and no
white." Somehow the attempt to align black people and the
suffering Jesus is not as effective as the original "For I
am one—A Negro and no white." Much of the personal chagrin
of the line disappears with the change. In the second ver-
sion the Indian disappears altogether and the focus returns
to the poet:
Though many think the story can be told
Of what the Negro people ought to brook.
Our statesmen roam the world to set things right.
This Negro laughs, and prays to God for Light!
(11. 11-14)
The awkwardness of the rhyming word "brook" still remains.
But the most interesting change of all occurred in the prep-
aration of Selected Poems for print. One of the effective
 265

lines in the poem is "So what I write is shot out of my

blood" (1. 9) which creates the feeling of the surge of his
poetry. He cannot contain his responses to the world in
which he lives; he must write. In the final published ver-
sion the line reads "So what I write is urged out of my
blood." Somehow the vital force Is lost in the substitution
of that one word. But this change was not made by McKay.
Hope McKay in a letter to Carl Cowl, August 24, 1952, McKay
Papers, Schomburg Collection, suggested the change be made.
32 Found in the folder "Various drafts," McKay Papers,
James Weldon Johnson Collection.
33 In Negro Americans. What Now? (New York: The Viking
Press, 1938), p. 17, Johnson wrote; "The strength and
experience we gain from tour own Institutions] should be
applied to the objective of entering into not staying out of
body politic."
3
^ Published with extensive revisions in Catholic
Worker. 12 (October 1945), 4-5, and in Selected Poems, p. 51.
3
*" Bronz, p. 83.
36
McKay to Carl Cowl, October 1, 1947, October 17,
1947, January 13, 1948, McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson
Collection. McKay's paranoid symptoms are visible here in
this episode. Bontemps' articles, "The Harlem Renaissance,"
Saturday Review. March 22, 1947, pp. 12-13, 44, is a review
of On. These I Stand by Countee Cullen (New York: Harper and
Brothers, 1947) and of Fields of Wonder by Langston Hughes
(New York: Alfred Knopf, 1947). Bontemps makes no attempt
to consider any of the other poets of the Harlem Renaissance.
Perhaps McKay was angered that Hughes received favorable
mention. Hughes and McKay were friends in the 1920's;
Hughes wrote lavish praise of Home to Harlem to the absent
McKay. See Hughes to McKay, March 5, 1928, McKay Letters,
James Weldon Johnson Collection. But the friendship did not
continue into the 1930's, McKay felt that Hughes was too
easily fooled by Communist dogma; perhaps, too, McKay was
jealous of Hughes continued publishing success. McKay
seemed to feel that Hughes' success was part of the persecu-
tion of himself. See McKay to Carl Cowl, January 14, 1948,
McKay Letters, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
37
The history of Lalla Chella (also Shellah) was
familiar to McKay. An unpublished manuscript in the McKay
Papers in the James Weldon Johnson Collection describes the
shrine of Lalla Shellah and the day of celebration in her
honor. McKay admits in the essay that the identity of the
Black Sultan is in doubt but it probably was Moulay Yacoub
(also known as Yacoub El Mansour), who reigned in the 12th
century. "Lalla Shellah," unpublished manuscript, McKay
Papers, James Weldon Johnson Collection.
 266

38
(New York: Viking Press, 1937), p. 238. Also pub-
lished with some minor variations in Selected Poems, p. 69.
39 Found in the folder "The Years Between," McKay
Papers, James Weldon Johnson Collection. Published in
Challenge. 1 (January 1936), 18.
^° Found in the folder "The Years Between," McKay
Papers, James Weldon Johnson Collection. Published in
Challenge. 1 (September 1934), 5.
111
Claude McKay, "Why I Became a Catholic," Ebony. I
(March 1946), 32.
^2 This poem was published in Catholic Worker. 12
(October 1945), 4-5, under the title "Christ among the
Dictators."
^3 Published in Catholic Worker. 12 (July 1945), 4, as
"Around Me Roar and Crash the Pagan Isms"; submitted as part
of the manuscript of "The Word and Poems Old and New"; pub-
lished in Sele°ted Poems, p. 49* This discussion of the
poem will refer to the version published in Selected Poems.
^4 McKay Papers, Schomburg Collection. The poem was
published in Catholic Worker. 14 (July 1947) 2, with a few
minor revisions.
45 P. 63. Also published in Selected Poems, p. 43.
46 Galleys for Selected Poems. McKay Papers, James
Weldon Johnson Collection.
47 "The Word and Poems Old and New," Schomburg Collec-
tion; published in Catholic Worker. 12 (January 1946), 3.
IIO
^ One version is in the folder "Various drafts,"
McKay Papers, James Weldon Johnson Collection. The other is
in the manuscript of "The Word and Poems Old and New," McKay
Papers, Schomburg Collection. Evidently the version in
"Various drafts" was an earlier attempt. This discussion
will refer to the poem as it appears in "The Word." The poem
was published in Catholic Worker. 12 (July 1945), 4.
49 Several of these religious poems express regret for
a truant and pagan youth. Regret for past actions evidently
was not part of McKay's thought until his conversion.
50 Published In XhS. Interracial Review. 19 (March 19*l6),
37.
5 1 In folder "Various drafts" in James Weldon Johnson
Collection; published in Catholic Worker. 13 (May 1946), 5,
 267

* The moderate attitude of this poem Is not consonant

with McKay's attacks on Protestantism in his articles on his
conversion.
* 3 Bronz notes (p. 79) that McKay's nostalgia was
always great. Even when in Russia, McKay was more inspired
by Russia's exotic past than by the proletarian present.
54 Found in the folder "Various drafts" In McKay
Papers, James Weldon Johnson Collection; published in
Catholic Worker. 12 (October 1945), 4-5; also in Selected
Poems, p. 48. Before publication in Catholic Worker the
poem underwent some revisions. For the most part the changes
seem to smooth out the lines by removing extra unstressed
syllables.
55 Wagner, p. 263, comments that this quatrain Is a
reference to Acts 8:26-39, which tells how an angel was sent
to arouse the apostle Philip so that he could meet Queen
Candace of Ethiopia in order to explain a Biblical text to
her and then to baptize her.
56 Wagner, p. 263.
57 Harlem Shadows. p. 35, and Selected Poems. p, 48.
5 8 Found in "Various drafts," McKay Papers, James
Weldon Johnson Collection.
59 Found in "Various drafts," McKay Papers, James
Weldon Johnson Collection.
60 Found in "Various drafts," McKay Papers, James
Weldon Johnson Collection.
ol
Found in "Various drafts," McKay Papers, James
Weldon Johnson Collection.
62 Found in "Various drafts," McKay Papers, James
Weldon Johnson Collection.
63 Found in "Various drafts," McKay Papers, James
Weldon Johnson Collection.
6^ Found in "Various drafts," McKay Papers, James
Weldon Johnson Collection.
°5 Found in "Various drafts," McKay Papers, James
Weldon Johnson Collection.
 268

00
"Truth" does not appear in any of the McKay Papers
in the James Weldon Johnson Collection, but it does appear
in the manuscript of "The Word and Poems Old and New" in the
Schomburg Collection. It was published in Catholic Worker.
12 (January 1946), 3, and in Selected Poems, p. 46.
 269

CHAPTER V.
Conclusion

McKay during the last fourteen years of his life (1934

1948) remained an active thinker and writer. During this
period he continued to write poetry and fiction, forms of
literature which had previously brought him much success.
He also returned to expository prose, which he had written
in the early 1920's. At no other time in his life had he
attempted to practice simultaneously all three divisions of
his craft. Interestingly, the expository prose was the most
successful In this last period. He published a collection
of essays and his autobiography, both very different from
his previous work and yet both excellent in their own ways.
But he could not create fiction and poetry which equaled
their expository prose counterpart.
McKay both began and ended his writing career with
poetry. Some of the later poems such as "Farewell to
Morocco" and "Honeymoon" equal the poems which McKay pro-
duced in the earlier years. Much of this later poetry, how-
ever, as evidenced by many of the poems just examined, is
inept. Many of the same themes of the earlier poems includ-
ing protest against racial injustice, and hatred and love of
America are present, but their working out through images,
figures of speech, and artistic patterns is ineffective.
 270

These later poems do not portray the beauty and serenity of

Jamaica; they do not proclaim the passion of a lover; they
do not strongly and effectively display the anger against
the evils of discrimination? they do not present a fighter
who grows in strength as he overcomes the hatred leveled
against him. But these later poems do provide a closer look
at Harlem, the symbolic homeland. They also illuminate
McKay's anti-integration and anti-Communist biases. Many of
the poems in the Cycle forcefully support McKay's national-
istic views that racial pride and racial values are essential
to survival in a hostile system. These later poems also
reflect a most significant change in McKay's life—his reli-
gious conversion.
The later fiction also does not equal the excellence
of the earlier fiction. Home to Harlem and Gingertown
depicted Harlem as McKay remembered it from 1922. But the
scenes are vivid and exciting, and the characters either
understand themselves or gain that understanding. Both of
the works display concern for the problems of blackness in a
white society. When McKay returned to Harlem in 1934, he
attempted to portray the changed Harlem. In this new novel
of Harlem, Harlem Glorv. several similarities with the ear-
lier two works are apparent—use of music and dancing,
aspects of violence, labor problems, and black-white rela-
tionships. Harlem Glorv also creates scenes which are vivid
and enticing—the episodes with the Glory Souls are the
finest examples. But the characters are not vibrant and
 271

full. Buster South is an outer-directed urban man with none

of the strengths and understandings of Jake or Ray or Nation
Roe. He is little interested in his role in American soci-
ety. On the positive side, however, the fiction exhibits
McKay's Involvement with racial and labor problems and
creates Harlem of the 1930*s with its reliance upon the
spectacular cults and the speculative numbers game.
The expository prose, in contrast to the fiction and
poetry, is as estimable as the essays McKay wrote in the
early twenties before he left America on his twelve-year
trek through Europe and North Africa. By the time he returned
in 1934, his Interests had considerably expanded and varied
from religion to racial and labor problems in Harlem to
international situations in Morocco. The two published
books, which contrast sharply with the earlier published
works, substantiate those changing, growing interests. A
Long Way from Home is a charming book filled with reminis-
cences of the years 1919-1935, highlighted with biting com-
ments on people and scenes. The personality of Claude McKay,
the optimistic, rebellious vagabond, is visible throughout.
Harlem; Negro Metropolis presents the diverse aspects of
Harlem of 19*10—numbers games, cults, and nationalism. The
fine sections on Father Divine and Garvey illustrate well
McKay's ability to present situations and to analyze their
effects. The numerous articles written during these later
years further exemplify McKay's wide interests in racial,
international, and spiritual matters. The two major published
 272

works and the articles indicate that McKay seems to have

found an analytical voice to describe the world.
* All of the works in the last period have several char-
acteristics in common with each other and with the earlier
works. McKay's independent and rebellious spirit is apparent
in these works but his compassion and humanity are as well.
His interest in the dignity of black people and his sensitive
identification with their problems is evidenced in all the
works as he urged blacks to unify in order to survive.
Finally, nostalgia and alienation also are apparent through-
out all these works.
These later works, as he inspects his self and the
world around him, reveal three levels of the writer; the
personal self, the ethnic self, and the universal self.1 The
personal self, revealed through responses which could belong
to no other man but Claude McKay, are apparent through his
opinions about world and national matters, his concern with
his physical well-being, his anger at being ignored, his ire
at being criticized. His sense of alienation and nostalgia
are part of that personal self.
From the time McKay left Jamaica until his death, he
seemed to be seeking a home. He could not return to Jamaica,
yet he could find no home in Harlem or Paris or North Africa.
He remained always the stranger. His life was filled with
contrasts which increased his alienation. He was a sensitive
educated poet in the Constabulary; he was a black man in the
midst of white liberals; he was an educated man working as a
 273

railroad waiter. Even in Europe he was an outsider. He pre-

fered to ignore the intellectuals because while others went
to seek a new tradition, he went to seek a colorless society.
His novels of black characters offended the black elite and
his black railroad buddies did not know that he was a writer.
He wandered for more than a decade, still finding no sanctu-
ary. When he returned to America, he found the situation
little different than in 1922? he was essentially still a
stranger to all groups. He advocated black unity in a per-
iod when integration was popular among black intellectuals.
He spoke out against the weakness of white culture at a time
when many black people imitated those weaknesses. He was
optimistic in the pessimistic late 1930's and early 1940's.
He converted to Catholicism, to the amusement of many of his
old friends. His personal self In this later period is
apparent fully in the religious poems which illustrate his
struggle towards salvation and peace.
Nostalgia, the remembering of things from the past,
grows from this alienation. Perhaps nostalgia is the one
theme which best ties together all of McKay's works. The
first two volumes of poetry, Songs of Jamaica and Constab
Ballads. are nostalgic In portrayals of country life and
people. While in America McKay wrote poetry protesting the
sufferings of black people, but he also wrote lyrics
recalling the beauties of Jamaica, In the years abroad he
wrote a novel and six stories remembering Harlem and a novel
and four stories re-viewing Jamaica. Upon his return to the
 274

United States, McKay wrote his autobiography reminiscing

about his life between 1919-1935. One of the finest sections
in Harlem: Negro Metropolis looks at the Garvey era of
twenty years earlier. A few of the later poems insist that
past times must be better than the present? "My Green Hills
of Jamaica" returns wholeheartedly to nostalgia. McKay, it
might be said, is a writer who relied fully upon his memo-
ries of past years. That insistence upon the golden past is
one of the most attractive qualities of his work.
The ethnic self, revealed not just through McKay's con-
cern with his own blackness but also through his unity with
the masses of black people, their particular qualities and
their cultural past, is closely aligned with the manifesta-
tions of the personal self. Throughout his life McKay
searched for his role as a black man In a white society. His
twelve years of roaming through Europe and Africa illustrate
the physical search. His writings, both imaginative and
expository, represent the symbolic search for his Identity.
His final search for a spiritual role resulted in his con-
version to Catholicism. His ethnic self is revealed in his
pride in blackness, his sensitivity to the prbblems of black
people, his desire that black people should unite. His con-
cern for and understanding of Harlem is essential because
Harlem is the symbolic homeland for black Americans. He
reveals his own blackness as he develops characters who are
black individuals with strength and freedom which white char-
acters do not possess or as he analyzes the effectiveness of
 275

black leaders. His joy in skin colors and music and dancing
is part of that ethnic self, also, just as is his realization
that black people must create their own world rather than
join the white world. One of the ironies visible through an
examination of McKay's ethnic self is the obvious fact that
he died twenty-five years too soon. He was unpopular with
black leaders and the intelligentsia because he advocated
black pride and black unity. He insisted that the ethnic
individuality of black people should be recognized and pre-
served. Today black people more readily accept their ethnic
differences—they have the pride in blackness which McKay
advocated.
The universal self, the revelation of those things
shared with all men, also is apparent through McKay's works.
There is a sense of kinship of a man, regardless of color,
speaking to other men, regardless of color. One aspect of
the universal self is revealed in his constant humanity which
urged him to protest against oppression of any sort—religious,
racial, intellectual. This humanity refused to allow him to
join political groups, and it also enforced his contempt for
all tyrannies—any infringement of rights angered him. The
universal self is also evident in his rebellious spirit, his
desire to avoid all restrictions, all categories. But para-
doxically, at the same time he sought a stability which led
him to a religious sanctuary.

These three levels indicate the complexity of McKay

during the last few years of his life. His independence was
 276

equaled by his compassion and sensitivity. He was Intensely

concerned for the dignity of black people? as a result, his
racial pride was strong and he urged black people to unite.
He could be gentle and jovial; he could also be irascible
and belligerent, especially with his close friends. During
the 1940's he was painfully ill much of the time and his
poverty was great. He became paranoid, convinced that every-
one was attacking him, even his friends. He felt that the
Inability to find personal success resulted from the pres-
sures exerted by the Communist Party against him. During
those last years he was a writer who remembered his own suc-
cesses and longed to repeat them.
Perhaps the most significant thing is that despite his
illness and poverty, he remained aware of his world, continued
to respond to it, and recorded those responses. Certainly,
his last poems and fiction are inept compared to the earlier
works, but he did not stop writing. He continued to practice
his craft. Throughout his life he remained the rebel, the
truant, the vagabond. He refused the ease of conformity,
allowed no dogma to rule him. His conversion to Catholicism
followed many years of examination and thought. He was the
eternal quester, always seeking to inspect himself and the
world, hoping to find a place for that self in this world.
Neither McKay nor his writings can be easily catego-
rized. His thought, his poetry and fiction, his books and
essays, his commitments to racial and religious ideas indi-
cate that he was a man "who was bitter because he loved, who
 277

was both right and wrong because he hated the things that
destroyed love, who tried to give back to others a little of
what he had got from them and the continuous adventure of
being a black man in a white society" ("Boyhood," p. 145).
 NOTES FOR CHAPTER V.

1
I am Indebted to Abraham Chapman, "The Harlem
Renaissance in Literary History," CLA Journal• 11 (1967),
38-58, for suggesting these categories.
 279

APPENDIX
Summary and Discussion of the Articles
Appearing in Pravda and Izvestiia. 1922-1923.

The first article in a Russian newspaper discussing

McKay appeared in Izvestiia on November 18, 1922, p. 3,
headlined "The Race Question in Americas a Conversation with
Com. Claude McKay," The article Introduces McKay as a Negro
poet and journalist who studied in America and is now in
Russia, seeking help in the study of the Negro question. The
writer of the article, identified as "Ber. V.," comments that
the condition of the colored peoples in America is no worse
than the condition of the Jews in former Czarlst Russia. The
conversation between McKay and the interviewer began with a
question about the inequality in the United States. McKay's
reply was that inequality Is everywhere: "in the university
a white student does not tolerate a black student next to him
at a lectures the negro children are not admitted into white
schoolss the teachers of the colored children are boycotted,
with no social life, and they employ forced heroics to avoid
complete alienation." McKay further states that education
for black children depends almost entirely upon white phi-
lanthropists, especially capitalists who thus gain sympathy
from the black masses. McKay went on to comment that public
support of black schools in the South is extremely low?
does he note the accuracy of the reporting of his words.
Certainly in the double translation—English into Russian
and back into English—much of McKay's meaning may have been
lost.
The second article appeared in Pravda. on November 26,
1922, p. 2, headlined "Speech by C. Comrade;] McKay." This
is his speech in its entirety:
Negroes Instinctively feel that the path to
their freedom lies through Moscow. Negroes find
it desirable to enter the Red army and the Red
navy, in order to symbolize their bond with the
Russian Revolution.
Comrades, I would be better prepared to deliver
a speech in front of a crowd assembled to lynch me
than In front of such an imposing assembly, (laughter)
I am not an orator; I am a writer, a poet. But I
am able to speak when the question of my race is
concerned. How a race—these "water carriers and
wood cutters" of mankind, is a race of workers. I
hope that the resolutions of the Comintern con-
cerning the negro questions have tremendous sig-
nificance.
The Bourgeosie used the negroes for the fight
for the revolutionary movement. In the time of
the world war England had separate troops of
negroes, who were actually a part of the American
army. And France at the present moment organizes
an army of 300,000 negro men for its own imperial-
istic purposes. The capitalists know that negroes
are brave In war, and they desire to use their
military capabilities.
The plight of the negroes in America is dreadful,
particularly in the south. There they have separa-
tion laws, forbidding joint meetings of white and
blacks. This, by the way, appears as serious fuel
for revolutionary propaganda. If a white
Communist agitator demonstrates in the South, he
is perhaps tracked down by a revengeful official
and the agitator straightaway threatened with
lynching. Here is why in the State of Virginia,
for example, they have an organization called the
Workers Party to which whites and negroes belong.
The members of the party CHleglble word] organize
meetings individually and only once a month do
they hold a common meeting [Illegible word] illegal
principles. These rules have existed for fifty-
five years, and to struggle with them is difficult
enough.
 282

One of the first manifestations of the

Comintern regarding the negro question was to
call for greater interest among radical negroes.
From a little body the radical movement began
successfully to evolve, and in 1920 American
activity even forced the question of the causes
of the spreading revolutionary movement among
negroes.
An orator quotes the words of Karl Marx
in his correspondence with the Chicago Tribune.
concerning the revolutionary significance of
the negro question In the time of the war
between the north and the south in North America.
The hope is expressed the negro finds his path
to Moscow. The symbolic bond between the
oppressed negro race and revolutionary Moscow
works toward this end. This Is what the negroes
find who voluntarily enter into the most con-
venient ranks of the worthy world army—the
ranks of the Red army and the Red navy.
Wayne Cooper, "Claude McKay," p. 117, reproduces a part of
McKay's speech from Protokoll des Vlerten Kongresses der
Kommunlstschen Internationale (Hamburg: C. Hoym Nachf,
1923), pp. 692-701. That translation includes a paragraph
concerning the racial prejudice of the American Communists.
Perhaps the Pravda version deliberately left out that passage.
The article does not make clear to whom the speech was deliv-
ered, but perhaps to the entire Congress at the time when
the photograph of McKay behind a speaker's lectern was made.
Several photographs made while McKay was in Russia appear in
his article "Soviet Russia and the Negro," Crisis. 27 (1923
and 1924), 61-65 and 114-118. This speech was not typical
of McKay's activities while in Russia; for the most part he
did not, as Bronz, p. 78, notes, engage in political activ-
ities, but personal activities.
On the same day, November 26, 1922, an article also
appeared In Izvestiia. p. 2, headlined "The Negro Question."
 283

The first part of the article does not deal directly with
McKay, but the second part introduces McKay and summarizes
the speech which was given in Pravda.
The fourth article appeared in Pravda. January 6, 1923,
p. 2, headlined "Claude McKay—Negro Poet." The article iden-
tifies McKay as a delegate of the Fourth Congress of the
Comintern (although he was an unofficial delegate) and then
gives a brief biographical sketch of the poet. The article
tells of Jamaica "rich with sunlight, sounds, colors and
feeling"; of McKay's realization as a teen-ager of "the
slavery, in which his people had been In the past, and were
now in in the present"; of his mother's family who would
commit suicide if they were sold separately; of his early
poems after his arrival in America where he "became a true
poet and joined his fate with the fate of his countrymen—
the worker-negroes of the northern United States."
The biographical portion of the article ends with these
two paragraphs;
Comrade McKay now is organizing as a member of
the American Workers Party ajoined to the Comintern,
and is developing Communist propaganda among the
negroes. Until recently he collaborated on the
organ of the American revolutionary-spirited
intelligentsia (liberator).
During his stay in Russia Com. McKay's Inten-
tion is to use his trip in order to familiarize
himself with Soviet conditions and the Soviet way
of life, and to write for the American negroes of
the small difficulties of the Russian revolution.
The article ends by quoting three poems: "If We Must Die,"
"Exhortation-Summer of 1919," and "On Broadway."
The fifth article appeared on February 15, 1923, Jointly
in Pravda. p. 1, and in Izvestiia. p. 3, headlined "Answers
 284

to Com. Claude McKay." This article is Trotsky's answers to

McKay's questions. Trotsky was then Commissar of War. In
"The Magic Pilgrimage" McKay says of Trotsky: "When Trotsky,
the chief of all the Bolshevik fighting forces talked to me
about Negroes he spoke wisely. Trotsky was human and uni-
versal in his outlook. He thought of Negroes as people like
any other people who were unfortunately behind in tho march
of civilization" (ALW, p. 182). Also in "The Magic
Pilgrimage" McKay implies that his comments and Trotsky's
replies were published together. McKay's letter to Trotsky,
however, was not published until April 1, 1923, although it
was dated February 20, 1923.
Trotsky's reply is divided into five sections. His
comments range from the need to awaken black people to the
fact that they are enslaving themselves as they help French
imperialism enslave Europe to the need for young self-
sacrificing negroes to elevate the material levels of the
masses and to unite their fate with the underground of the
world and with the fate of the international working class,
He stresses that "The education of black propagandists is
urgent and is extremely important to the revolutionary
problem."
Trotsky's final point Is the need in North America for
the masses to struggle against the capitalistic system, for
from the "consciousness of the charmed masses appears the
awakening of human dignity and revolutionary protest in the
workers of American capital." To this end is needed the
 285

political education of negro revolutionaries. But, he

comments, the solution lies not in black chauvinism as an
answer to white chauvinism, but in the spirit of solidarity
of every exploited group. Trotsky offers no suggestions for
"expedient organizational forms fo^ the movement of the North
American negroes" because he says that he is not "closely
enough acquainted with the concrete conditions and possi-
bilities."
The sixth article which appeared in Izvestiia on
March 23, 1923, p. 3, is short, simply a note from the
Petrograd correspondent that McKay had appeared at a theatre
to read his poems. The correspondent comments that the poems
"about the oppression and exploitation of the black race are
produced with great sensitivity ..."
The last article, McKay's letter to Trotsky, appeared
in Pravda. April 1, 1923, p. 3, headlined "A Letter of
Claude McKay to C. Comrade} Trotsky." The letter begins with
a comment about black troops in Europe, and then recalls
McKay's stay in London where he observed the discriminations
against black soldiers. He recalls the attacks which the
Dally Herald made on black troops in Germany and the letter
which he wrote which resulted in his working for the Worker's
Dreadnought. An interesting result of the conflict over the
black troops was the union of black intelligentsia and black
radicals against the workers. McKay says that in such a union,
the black masses see the hypocrisy of the capitalistic world.
The Negro question becomes, thus, separated from the problems
 286

of the working class and a weapon for the capitalists.

Because the black masses are against the working class, the
organized workers and Communists cannot side with them.
McKay concludes by pointing out the need for black
leaders in the Communist spirit, a need which the white
comrades should acknowledge. The Red army is effective
because the men understand the ideals for which they fight.
McKay seems to imply that the black army also needs that
understanding to make it respected and strong.
In "The Magic Pilgrimage" McKay recounts his feelings
about May Day in Petrograd which resulted in the poem
"Petrograd: May Day, 1923," which was published In the
Russian newspapers. However, through July, 1923, the poem
had not appeared in the microfilms of th~se newspapers pro-
duced by Harvard University,
 287

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 288

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 291

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 292

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 293

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 295

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 296

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t
 301

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 VITA

Phyllis Martin Lang was born October 31, 1938, in

Elgin, Nebraskao She was graduated from Elgin High School
in 1956 and entered Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln,
Nebraska, where she took her A.B. with Distinction in i960.
She attended the University of Nebraska from 1960-1962,
receiving the M.A. in June, 1962. Since the fall of 1962
she has been Instructor, then Assistant Professor of English
at MacMurray College, Jacksonville, Illinois. She began
Ph.D. studies at the UnlTersIty of Illinois in the summer of
1967.