One of his most popular books is his memoir Black Boy, which follows his life from 1912 to 1936, but he has more than 15 books to his name, including the Native Son, Uncle Tom’s children, White Man Listen and The Long Dream.
Richard Nathaniel Wright was born on September 4, 1908, on Rucker’s plantation. Lucky to be born free, Richard was able to get an education but had a few complications with school made it impossible for him to complete any grade until he was 13 years old.
At 15, Richard wrote his first short story ‘The Voodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre” which appeared in the local Black newspaper, Southern Register. This encouraged him to do more writing and become one of the most important voices in Africa American Literature
Richard’s literature shares the reality of the African Amercian experience through colourful writing. He is known as one of the very first African American writers to protest white treatment of blacks and is said to be the father of protest writing who gave other black writers the confidence to write about their realities and protest.
He was part of various Civil Rights movement and later after World War II settled in Paris where he died on this day in 1960.
Here are 6 of his quotes that touch on race and sum up various race issues that the world still faces today.
