The Lynching

A portrayal of the unjust lynching of a Black man, McKay’s “The Lynching” is explicitly about the brutality and cruelty of racial violence. One aspect of that violence McKay chooses to highlight is the dehumanization of Black people at the hands of their white oppressors. The first half of the poem describes the moment the man dies and his “spirit” ascends to “high heaven,” and in these lines the man is described with personal pronouns. The poem refers to “his” spirit (Line 1), “his” father (Line 2), and the star that guided “him” (Line 6) and gave “him” (Line 7) up. These personal pronouns are a reminder that the deceased man was a person.

However, once God has “bidden him” (Line 3) to his bosom and the man’s spirit has ascended to heaven, the Black man is no longer described in personal or even human terms. While describing the star in the night sky during the execution, McKay observes that the star “hung pitifully o’er the swinging char” (Line 8). The previous description of the man’s spirit ascending “in smoke” (Line 1) and this description of his person as “char” imply the man was first hung and then set on fire by the mob.