RICHARD WRIGHT BIO

Richard Wright: A Brief Biography: The South and Chicago
A Student Project for Professor Reuben's ENGL 4110: American Short Story, Winter 2005
Prepared and Presented in Class by Kelli Rufer

Richard Nathaniel Wright was the eldest son of sharecropper Nathaniel Wright and schoolteacher Ella Wilson. He was born on September 4, 1908, on a cotton plantation near Natchez, Mississippi. Two years later, in 1910, Wright’s only sibling, Leon Alan, was born. Soon after, unable to support two children and a farm, the Wright’s moved to Natchez with Ella’s parents, the Wilson’s (Rowley, 4). It was here Wright experienced one of his earliest memories. After throwing broom bristles into the fireplace, curtains hanging nearby caught fire, setting the house ablaze (Fabre, 9). According to Wright’s account of the incident in his novel Black Boy, it was his mother, not his father, who beat him with a tree limb until he lost consciousness (Rowley, 5). The incident had a great effect on Wright. Michael Fabre writes, “It not only seriously inhibited his independent spirit but also caused him to doubt his relationship to his mother” (10). The stifling of individualism would prove to be a central theme in Wright’s work: “the search for that personal freedom which enables one to discover his own identity as a human being” (Stocking, 275).
In addition to being born into poverty Wright was exposed to the harsh implementation of Jim Crow laws by Southern whites. Wright was forced to comply with the dictation of “Jim Crow standards of conduct,” denied equal protection, and the acceptance of whites mistreating black women (Stocking, 276). This exposure would later surface in his writing and be the fuel that furthered powered his theme of individual freedom.
In 1911, the Wright’s moved their children to Memphis in search of better employment. Nathaniel worked as a night porter in a local drugstore and the boys were expected to keep complete silence during the day while he slept (Fabre, 11). Wright fell asleep to his parents arguing many nights, at first over his mother’s cooking, eventually over his father’s mistress (Rowley, 7). His father’s presence became scarce and in his absence Wright was expected to replace him. At the age of four he found himself the man of the house. Wright and Leon spent their time wandering the streets while their mother worked. Wright began school for the first time at Howe Institute at the age of seven. Shortly after, his father officially abandoned them in 1915. His mother took a job as a cook for a white family and her mother, Maggie Wilson, stayed for a short while, but eventually the money she had brought with her ran out. Wright’s mother fell ill and Wright and his brother briefly stayed in an orphanage (Rowley, 9).
In 1916 or 1917, Ella reunited with her boys to move to Elaine, Arkansas, to live with her sister Maggie and her husband Silas Hoskins. On the way to Arkansas their trip detoured to her parents home, who had recently moved to Jackson, Mississippi. Wright’s Grandmother Wilson had become a Seventh Day Adventist and a “religious fanatic” (Stocking, 276). With the help of a young female lodger at his grandparent’s home, Wright was introduced to his first story: Bluebeard and his seven wives. Wright was mesmerized, however his fascination soon ended when he was caught by his grandmother, who slapping him across the mouth, warned him he was going to hell for listening to “Devil’s stuff” (Fabre, 18). This was only a taste of the “repressive force” his grandmother would have on him later in his upbringing (Stocking, 276).
Upon arriving in Elaine, Wright immediately became aware of segregation. Hazel Rowley writes, “for the first time, he had become conscious of race” (11). Still, life was good for Wright in Elaine. He had food in his stomach and spent the summer catching bees between the slaps of his hands. Wright became close with his Uncle Silas who was a relatively prosperous builder and saloon-owner that “catered to the black workers at the local sawmill” (Rowley, 11). In 1916, at only eight years old, Wright experienced “white terror” first hand and was introduced to the act of lynching (Rowley, 12). His Uncle Silas was shot and killed by a white man who resented his successful business. At that time lynching was widely supported so no funeral was held and no arrests were made. Wright’s Aunt Maggie, his mother, and his brother escaped to West Helena, Arkansas in search of safety. Lynching would be a subject Wright would return to often in his writing. Later he would compile these stories of lynch violence in his novel Uncle Tom’s Children. Rowley writes, “The black rebel who is shot to death by a white mob in ‘Long Black Song’ is called Silas” (13).
While his mother worked to support the family Wright attended school. Soon his mother fell ill and after suffering a stroke she, and the two boys, moved back in with his Grandmother Wilson (Fabre, 31). For the next seven years Wright lived with his grandparents. He began school at the Seventh Day Adventist School in Jackson. Wright gradually became aware of the illiteracy and lack of education among African-Americans and was appalled (Rowley, 19). Following World War I racial rioting took place in many American cities. Wright became increasingly aware of southern racism and violence, brought into sharp focus when the brother of his high school friend was murdered by a white mob (Fabre, 58).
In 1925, Wright graduated the ninth grade at Smith-Robinson and was valedictorian of his class, however almost didn’t graduate. He was chosen to deliver the graduation ceremony speech, yet refused to deliver the speech the principal has prepared for him, insisting he deliver his own speech arguing it “a matter of principle” (Rowley, 36). Wright delivered his own speech. Fresh out of high school, Wright held a variety of jobs and dabbled in petty crime such as petty theft in order to obtain enough money to move. At the age of 17, Wright left Jackson, Mississippi, for Memphis, Tennessee in hopes to one day be able to send for his mother and brother (Rowley, 40). Wright was introduced to the writings of H.L. Mencken at the age of 18, who, according to Fred Stocking, “demonstrated for young Richard the amazing fact that unpopular ideas could find expression in print” (277). He couldn’t read enough and Mencken’s books inspired him to write (Rowley, 47). In the winter of 1926-27 his mother and brother finally arrived from Jackson. Together they dreamed of moving to the north where the hope of black freedom fueled their hearts (Rowley, 48).
In 1927, at the age of 19, Wright moved with his Aunt Maggie to the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. The following year he began working in the Chicago Post Office. He eventually saved enough money to move his mother and brother with him into a four-room apartment where he could write in relative comfort. Chicago was one of the most “residentially segregated cit[ies] in the nation” when Wright arrived there and he was further appalled at the injustice blacks incurred (Fabre, 74). One day while overhearing some white waitresses speak of their aspirations he was amazed at their shallowness. The realization was so devastatingly profound it caused Wright to have a revelation. According to Rowley it caused Wright to want “to make white readers understand that the differences between black and white folks were not about blood or color. He would try to show that ‘Negroes are Negroes because they are treated like Negroes’” (56-57). The injustice black Americans experienced by white Americans Wright witnessed would be a central subject in his future writing. After the Depression hit in 1929, Wright further felt the problems threatening blacks and “learned at first-hand both the humiliations of unemployment and the effects of poverty – more painful than anything he had known in the rural South” (Stocking, 277). During this time Wright wrote his first novel loosely based upon his mother’s life, however one day in despair at having no food he tore it up and burned it, as he did all his other writing in fear of people finding them (Rowley, 66).
In 1933, Wright joined the Chicago John Reed Club, “a national organization of proletarian artists and writers” with about 100 members (Rowley, 75). Wright wrote revolutionary poetry for Left Front, the club’s literary magazine. In February, 1934, Left Front published two of his poems, the Anvil published another two in April, and in June, Wright’s long poem “I Have Seen Black Hands” was published in the New Masses (Rowley, 77). For the first time, Wright’s literary skills were supported and encouraged. Wright’s membership in the John Reed Club introduced him to the Communist Party. According to Stocking, Wright was convinced society was at fault for advocating “freedom and equality of opportunity” without extending it to the whole population (277). Wright joined the Communist Party in belief that “not only the individual people but the very structure of society was responsible for the suffering around him” (Stocking, 277). He was hired to supervise a youth club organized to counter juvenile delinquency among African-Americans on the South Side. The following year he officially joined the Communist Party (Rowley, 80).
In 1935, Wright unsuccessfully tried to sell his first novel Lawd Today! but no publishers were biting. In 1937, he once again attempted publishing his novel. After failing again to publish, this time revised versions, of Lawd Today! he eventually abandoned the novel (Rowley, 103-4). During this time he developed a name among literary circles and was a member of many literary organizations, including the Illinois Writers’ Project. Wright published many poems in a number of literary magazines and was to chair a session in the second American Writers’ Congress taking place in New York in June 1937. Wright seized the opportunity to make a change in his life and decided to move to New York. Rowley writes, “Within a decade, he had transformed himself into a confident, educated man, a skilled writer, someone with something to say” and Wright head off to “broader horizons” (124).
Works Cited
Fabre, Michael. The Unfinished Quest of Richard Wright. NY: William Morrow & Co. Inc., 1973. 1-74.
Rowley, Hazel. Richard Wright: The Life and Times. NY: Henry Hold & Co., 2001. 1-124.
Stocking, Fred. “On Richard Wright and ‘Almos’ A Man’”. The American Short Story. Vol. 1. NY: Dell, 1977, 275-77.
Internet Presence
Out of approximately 1,670,000 sites Author Richard Wright
1. Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation. www.hurston-wright.org. Visited 1-14-05.
2. Richard Wright – A Webpage. home.gwu.edu/-cuff/wright. Visited 1-14-05.
3. Richard Wright Chronology. www.itvs.org/RichardWright/obron.html. Visited 1-14-05.
4. MWP: Richard Wright (1908-1960). www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-winters/dir/wright_richard/. Visited on 1-14-05.
5. Wright, Richard. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001. www.bartleby.com/65/wr/Wright-Ri.htm. Visited on 1-14-05.
6. The CLR James Institute presents: The Richard Wright Connection. www.clrjamesinstitute.org/wrightqu.html. Visited on 1-14-05.