It took the American democracy several years to enforce equality among whites and blacks. Several authors such as Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen confronted this situation of the incomplete American dream with literature that proposed the irony of its society. These works focused on the contradiction of the American dream and racial discrimination and injustice. Although their works did not change the conditions for African Americans, they did convey a both positive and powerful message.
In 1866, Civil Rights Bill declared that "all persons born in the U.S. were citizens, and that all citizens were entitled to full and equal benefit of the laws." It made racial discrimination illegal. However, white southern democrats did not agree with this bill, and they blamed African Americans for the fall in the economy otherwise known as the great depression. Because of this, numerous laws were passed called Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation. This segregation barred blacksfrom entire sectors of the economy and humiliated them at every turn. Even though African Americans were considered free, whites found another barrier to keep them unhappy.
Claude McKay, an African American writer, was considered by some as "the keystone of the new movement in racial poetic achievement." He was concerned with such political consequences and worked toward social change. His poems expressed the impatience of African Americans to become treated equally. In his poem entitled "America", he speaks of the contradictory lifestyle that Americans lived. He refers to America as hell, or a place like it. "I love this cultured hell that tests my youth." But even though he knows that his people are being oppressed daily in this "white" America, he still feels strong and determined. "Giving me strength erect against her hate." I believe he named this poem "America" to suggest the inconsistency of the American values and the actual American way.