Nation ‘If We Must Die’: 100 years after Red Summer, Claude McKay’s poem resonates anew April 10, 2019 Molly Vorwerck, Special to USA TODAY Comments Off on ‘If We Must Die’: 100 years after Red Summer, Claude McKay’s poem resonates anew Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay penned "If We Must Die" in response to white mob attacks on blacks in cities across the country in 1919.