Poet, novelist, and journalist Claude Mckay, was born in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica. Mckay Was the Youngest of eleven children.  He was a key player in the Harlem renaissance literary movement. At a early age Mckay was sent to live with his older brother who was a school teacher. According to the Claude Mckay biography page from poets.org states that “He was educated by his older brother, who possessed a library of English novels, poetry, and scientific texts” this would lay the foundation for a solid education (poets.org). After basic education, Mckay would enter a trade school, and also apprentice a cabinet maker. As Mckay is attending apprenticeships, his poems are gaining popularity. This popularity would attract the attention of Walter Jekyll. According to the Claude Mckay biography page from poetryfpundation.org states that “It was Jekyll who advised aspiring poet McKay to cease mimicking the English poets and begin producing verse in Jamaican dialect” (poetryfoundation.org). Mckay would later immigrate to the United States where he would enroll into the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Soon Mckay would experience the harsh realities of racism in the United States, which is apparent in much of his literary works. As the Racism in the south was too much to handle, Mckay would leave the Tuskegee institute for Kansas state university. Mckay would soon leave Kansas State and get married to Eulalie Lewars and move to London. While in London, Mckay would get himself in trouble with the authorities in London over having his writings published.  Thus resulting in having his room searched for contraband against the Crown of England. According to the Claude Mckay biography page from coloumbiagrangers.org states that “McKay then began a twelve-year sojourn through Europe, the Soviet Union, and Africa, a period marked by poverty and illness” (coloumbiagrangers.org). Mckay would never return to Jamaica, and eventually dying of heart failure in Chicago.