Home to Harlem

First published in 1928, “Home to Harlem” is Claude McKay’s classic portrayal of African American society in New York City after World War One, during the height of the Harlem Renaissance. The story revolves around Jake Brown, an army deserter who has been living in London. When Jake hears news of a race riot in America he returns home to Harlem. On his first night back Jake falls in love with a sex worker and spends much of the rest of the novel in search of her. In a series of largely unconnected episodes, Claude McKay gives the reader a vivid picture of Jake and more broadly of African American life in Harlem just before prohibition. An instant commercial success when it was first published; “Home to Harlem” has been both praised and criticized for its gritty raw portrayal of African American life in New York City at the end of the 1910s. The novel remains to this day as one of McKay’s most important works.