Richard Wright

Richard Wright (1908-1960) was born on a plantation near Natchez, Mississippi, and grew up in grinding poverty across the Jim Crow South. He educated himself at the Memphis public library—using a borrowed card, because Black citizens were not permitted to check out books—and eventually made his way to Chicago, where he joined the Communist Party and began to write. This author hub collects 1 work in the Canon Compass ranking, led by Native Son.