Claude McKay was born in Jamaica on September 15 1889. His older brother educated him as he grew up. He moved to the United States to attend Tuskegee institute in Alabama. He was only there for a few months and then he left to study agriculture at Kansas State University. He found his true love in France and brought her back to the USA to get married. The Harlem renaissance was a racial movement for black writers. It was also a way to tell people that their should be equal rights. Claude McKay influenced the Harlem Renaissance through his literary works including “If We Must Die”, “One Year After”, and “Harlem Shadows.”
