Richard Wright

Richard Nathaniel Wright was born in Roxie, near Natchez, in 1908. In his youth, he suffered poverty, racism, and being shuffled between an orphanage and the homes of relatives. In Jackson, he was valedictorian of his class at Smith Robertson Junior High School but dropped out of high school to go to work. The precocious Wright published his first story at sixteen, and in 1940 he achieved national fame with his best-selling novel, Native Son. Arguably one of the most important works of twentieth-century American literature, the novel was adapted for film and stage. Wright's work exposes the brutal reality of American racism. In his 1945 autobiography, Black Boy, he recounts his horrific years growing up in the South and declares: “This was the culture from which I sprang. This was the terror from which I fled,” In 1946, Wright escaped to France, living as an expatriate until his death in 1960.

Natchez, Mississippi · United States