Richard Wright
Natchez | Jackson
Life dates: September 4, 1908 to November 28, 1960
Induction Date: 2017
Category: Writing
“Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I had clutched at books.”
— Richard Wright, <i>Black Boy</i>
Although Richard Wright only made it through the ninth grade, he was incredibly intelligent and showed a gift for words at a young age. Wright was born in Roxie, near Natchez, in September 1908, later moving to Memphis, where he worked at a series of odd jobs and spent his free time focused on literature.
Wright later moved to New York, where he published a short-story collection, Uncle Tom’s Children. His novel Native Son followed. A stage version was adapted from the novel, and Wright played the lead role in a film version made in Argentina. Black Boy, a novel based on Wright’s own youth, was published in 1945.
In 1947, Wright moved to Paris, where he remained for the rest of his life. He continued to write, creating The Outsider, The Long Dream, and over 4,000 haikus.
Richard Wright died on November 28, 1960, of a heart attack and was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery. His works remain some of the most honest accounts of the violence and discrimination toward African Americans during the late-19th and mid-20th centuries. Today, they are considered vital parts of America’s historical, sociological, and literary realms, and many believe they helped change race relations in the U.S.