Harlem Renaissance Poem

If We Must Die 
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back! 
-Claude McKay

This poem's focus, unlike most others, is actually very straight-forward considering the time period within which it was written. The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic period in America that saw the rise of African-American authors and painters into the common view of American culture. With this newfound attention, the question of civil rights became an even more prominent issue in the country. This poem is a product of the rise in popularity of this issue. The poem calls for African Americans to rise up against the anti-black sentiment in America and stand for the civil liberties they are entitled to in the country as members of the human race. The poem also states how ,when they die, they would rather have died fighting for their cause of liberty rather than in contempt of their current situation as a shunned minority, and that even when the odds are insurmountably against them they will continue to fight for their noble rights to basic human rights. However, it is interesting how Claude McKay depicts African Americans in America as hogs because of the parallels between a hog and slave's life. Both lived in constant filth, were bought and sold by landowners, and were sometimes even slaughtered or mutilated to prevent others from attempting to escape. With slaves all being free by the time of this poem, McKay is basically calling for other African Americans to use their newfound abilities as free men who are not beaten, mutilated, and treated like filth to end what remains of segregation and their undesirablility.