Black Boy
(Richard Wright)

Richard Wright was born to a tenant farmer and a teacher in Mississippi in 1908. He was an extremely rambunctious child that his parents had a hard time keeping control of. His father walked out on him, his younger brother, and his mother Ella when Richard was only five years old. Ella suffered a stroke and Richard was forced to take care of his mother, try to hold down a job, support his family, and move all over the country to get help from family members.

The family lived in the south during the time of the Jim Crow laws, which essentially made it impossible for a black person to achieve any success in life or a means to move onward and upward. Richard was exceptionally skilful in school, when he was permitted to attend, and began writing at a young age though no one understood why he enjoyed it. When Richard finally got to move to Chicago in his late-teens or early-twenties, he joined the Communist party and began writing for many political and Communist newspapers and also composed numerous essays.

In the 1930’s Wright published his highly successful novel “Native Son” and the autobiographical “Black Boy”. Eventually Wright left the Communist party, though he still respected any gathering of people that was passionate about their cause and intelligent. He moved to France where he became interested in Existentialism, existence, and philosophy more than ever before. He died in 1960, of a heart attack, never having published anything quite as moving and praised as “Native Son” and “Black Boy”.