This article discusses the theme of segregation, which was derived from the incorporation of institutionalized racism and existed among the Afro-Americans in the early nineteenth century. The hostile and negative feelings of the White racists towards the Blacks, who were treated ‘inferior,’ are focused on the oppressions and dehumanization experienced by the ‘colored people’ are explored in the light of Claude McKay’s and Gwendolyn Brooks’ poems. As Black creative writers, they view this iniquity as an abomination. They raised their voice for their discriminated race and created ‘Black Consciousness’ among them. And their poems taught them to raise their banner of victory from the dust.

Segregation generally is taken to mean the practice of forcibly separating people
based upon their race or ethnicity. However, under modern civil rights, the law force does not have anything to do with the legal definition of segregation. The African Americans have about four hundred years’ history in America. The peculiar kind of experience that they had in America has made them evolve into a community of their own. The Black community is described variously as Negroes, African Americans, Colored people, etc. More than 22 millions in number, the Black people in America comprise a considerably large chunk of the American population. They are people of African origin. The Negro or the Black American, as Richard Wright, the renowned African American novelist, has pointed out: “means something not racial or biological, but something purely social, something made in the United States” (Smith, 2006, p. 25).

The United Nations convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (1965) defines racial discrimination as: “any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedom in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life”. Ethnic minorities, indigenous and tribal people, people of different colors, and migrant workers are common victims of racial discrimination in employment and occupation.

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