If We Must Die


"If We Must Die" is a poem by Claude McKay published in the July 1919 issue of The Liberator. McKay wrote the poem as a response to mob attacks by white Americans upon African-American communities during Red Summer. The poem was reprinted in The Messenger and the Workers' Dreadnought later that year. The poem was also read to Congress that year by Henry Cabot Lodge, the Republican Senator from Massachusetts.

Critical response

considered the poem as embodying the essence of the New Negro movement as it was not aimed at arousing sympathy, but rather consisted of self-assertion.

Legacy

The poem was recited in the film August 28: A Day in the Life of a People, which debuted at the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2016.
The poem was recited by a leader of a black rebel group during Episode 3, Season 4 of The Man in the High Castle prior to a dangerous mission against an authoritarian regime.