Black Writers

Richard Nathaniel Wright

• 9/4/1908 - 11/28/1960

  • Born on the Rucker Plantation (Mississippi)

  • His parents were born free post-Civil War

    • Nathan - sharecropper

    • Ella (Wilson) - schoolteacher

  • His grandparents were freed after the war

    • Both grandfathers fought in the Civil War & gained freedom through service

    • Nathan Sr served in the 28th US Colored Troops

    • Richard Wilson served in the US Navy as a Landsman

      • 4/1865 - escaped slavery and joined

• Author of:

  • novels

  • short stories

  • poems

  • non-fiction

• Wrote about the plight of Black people in the late 19th & mid-20th centuries

• 1911/1912 - The family moved to Natchez, Mississippi, to be close to Ella’s parents

• 1914 - Nathan Jr left the family

  • Wright would not see him again for 25 years

• 1915 - Wright & his brother were placed in the Settlement House (Methodist Orphanage)

  • This was for a short time

• 1915 - 1916 - Enrolled at the Howe Institute (Memphis, Tenn)

• 1916 - Wright & his younger brother were moved to Elaine, Arkansas

  • They lived with Maggie & Silas Hoskins (the maternal aunt and her husband)

  • They were forced to flee after Silas “disappeared”

    • It is presumed that he was murdered by a white man who was jealous of his successful saloon