Richard Wright (author)

Each of his grandfathers had taken part in the U.S. Civil War and gained freedom through service: his paternal grandfather, Nathan Wright, had served in the 28th United States Colored Troops; his maternal grandfather, Richard Wilson, escaped from slavery in the South to serve in the U.S. Navy as a Landsman in April 1865.

Richard's father left the family when Richard was six years old, and he did not see Richard for 25 years.

Richard Nathaniel Wright (September 4, 1908 – November 28, 1960) was an American author of novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction.

Richard Nathaniel Wright was born on September 4, 1908, at Rucker's Plantation, between the train town of Roxie and the larger river city of Natchez, Mississippi.

He was the son of Nathan Wright, a sharecropper, and Ella (Wilson), a schoolteacher.

His parents were born free after the Civil War; both sets of his grandparents had been born into slavery and freed as a result of the war.

In 1911 or 1912 Ella moved to Natchez, Mississippi, to be with her parents.

While living in his grandparents' home, he accidentally set the house on fire.

Wright's mother was so mad that she beat him until he was unconscious.

In 1915, Ella put her sons in Settlement House, a Methodist orphanage, for a short time.

He was enrolled at Howe Institute in Memphis from 1915 to 1916.

In 1916, his mother moved with Richard and his younger brother to live with her sister Maggie (Wilson) and Maggie's husband Silas Hoskins (born 1882) in Elaine, Arkansas.

This part of Arkansas was in the Mississippi Delta where former cotton plantations had been.

The Wrights were forced to flee after Silas Hoskins "disappeared," reportedly killed by a white man who coveted his successful saloon business.

After his mother became incapacitated by a stroke, Richard was separated from his younger brother and lived briefly with his uncle Clark Wilson and aunt Jodie in Greenwood, Mississippi.

At the age of 12, he had not yet had a single complete year of schooling.

Soon Richard with his younger brother and mother returned to the home of his maternal grandmother, which was now in the state capital, Jackson, Mississippi, where he lived from early 1920 until late 1925.

His grandparents, still mad at him for destroying their house, repeatedly beat Wright and his brother.

But while he lived there, he was finally able to attend school regularly.

He attended the local Seventh-day Adventist school from 1920 to 1921, with his aunt Addie as his teacher.

After a year, at the age of 13 he entered the Jim Hill public school in 1921, where he was promoted to sixth grade after only two weeks.

In his grandparents' Seventh-day Adventist home, Richard was miserable, largely because his controlling aunt and grandmother tried to force him to pray so he might build a relationship with God.

Wright later threatened to move out of his grandmother's home when she would not allow him to work on the Adventist Sabbath, Saturday.

His aunt's and grandparents' overbearing attempts to control him caused him to carry over hostility towards biblical and Christian teachings to solve life's problems.

This theme would weave through his writings throughout his life.

At the age of 15, while in eighth grade, Wright published his first story, "The Voodoo of Hell's Half-Acre," in the local Black newspaper Southern Register. No copies survive.

In Chapter 7 of Black Boy, he described the story as about a villain who sought a widow's home.

In 1923, after excelling in grade school and junior high, Wright earned the position of class valedictorian of Smith Robertson Junior High School from which he graduated in May 1925.

He was assigned to write a speech to be delivered at graduation in a public auditorium.

Before graduation day, he was called to the principal's office, where the principal gave him a prepared speech to present in place of his own.

Richard challenged the principal, saying "the people are coming to hear the students, and I won't make a speech that you've written."

The principal threatened him, suggesting that Richard might not be allowed to graduate if he persisted, despite his having passed all the examinations.

He also tried to entice Richard with an opportunity to become a teacher.

Determined not to be called an Uncle Tom, Richard refused to deliver the principal's address, written to avoid offending the white school district officials.

He was able to convince everyone to allow him to read the words he had written himself.

In September that year, Wright registered for mathematics, English, and history courses at the new Lanier High School, constructed for black students in Jackson—the state's schools were segregated under its Jim Crow laws—but he had to stop attending classes after a few weeks of irregular attendance because he needed to earn money to support his family.

In November 1925 at the age of 17, Wright moved on his own to Memphis, Tennessee.

His best known works include the novella collection Uncle Tom's Children (1938), the novel Native Son (1940), and the memoir Black Boy (1945).

Literary critics believe his work helped change race relations in the United States in the mid-20th century.

Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially related to the plight of African Americans during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries suffering discrimination and violence.