Clockwise: Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, W.E.B. Du Bois

When I think about Black History Month, I often gravitate towards the Harlem Renaissance period (1920s) and the gifted, brazen, racially conscious writers whose beautiful language will always leave an imprint on my mind.

I remember a book I read in college, Voices from the Harlem Renaissance, which features a selection of political writings from the period among other things. This book really made my soul come alive, and quite frankly, gave me a lot to chew on. Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, Richard Wright, Countee Cullen, James Weldon Johnson and so many others, are all writers from this period whose words will always cause me to ruminate for long periods.

I used to feel like my discovery of these marvelous authors came too late in life, but now I realize that this isn't true at all. I found their words at the perfect time, a time when I was ready to process and receive them. Honestly, their heavy language and beautiful prose helped to solidify my desire to write.

In honor of Black History Month, I am bowing all the way down to these great writers whose captivating, powerful words from the 1920s still carry a lot of weight today. With that said, it's time for me to get reacquainted with a few pieces from this book.

But first, I leave you with one of my favorites.

If We Must Die by Claude McKay

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 accursed 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 deathblow! 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!

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