Black Boy

Richard Wright

Jun 2009 · Harper Collins

About this ebook

Richard Wright's powerful account of his journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. It is at once an unashamed confession and a profound indictment--a poignant and disturbing record of social injustice and human suffering.

When Black Boy exploded onto the literary scene in 1945, it caused a sensation. Orville Prescott of the New York Times wrote that “if enough such books are written, if enough millions of people read them maybe, someday, in the fullness of time, there will be a greater understanding and a more true democracy.” Opposing forces felt compelled to comment: addressing Congress, Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi argued that the purpose of this book “was to plant seeds of hate and devilment in the minds of every American.” From 1975 to 1978, Black Boy was banned in schools throughout the United States for “obscenity” and “instigating hatred between the races.”

The once controversial, now classic American autobiography measures the brutality and rawness of the Jim Crow South against the sheer desperate will it took to survive. Richard Wright grew up in the woods of Mississippi, with poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and raged at those about him; at six he was a “drunkard,” hanging about in taverns. Surly, brutal, cold, suspicious, and self-pitying, he was surrounded on one side by whites who were either indifferent to him, pitying, or cruel, and on the other by blacks who resented anyone trying to rise above the common lot. At the end of Black Boy, Wright sits poised with pencil in hand, determined to "hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo."

Ratings and reviews

Wright exposes the human world that stood for long now with Its shot comings that draws attention. Few standing over the other for supremacy or standards.Because of these, Wright's mother tells her to stop complaining. Cleverly she tells Wright to be a man at some positions and to fight back.with this at the back of the young man's mind, he becomes challenging and most times rude. He fails to even understand what Is for him because of bitter heart.

Amazing it really made so many relatable things I could compare to. I love ❤ it so much plus me being black with racial issues I've experienced as well as religion and family problems and struggles throughout my life makes me understand so much of where he is coming from. I have so much respect for this Mr. Wright he is so inspiring. R.I.P

I have to say this is one of my favorite books I've been assigned. The story is really engaging and gives you a completely new perspective and new information on the civil rights movement era. Wright is hands down a great author who is has changed the way I look at the world, forever.

About the author

Richard Wright won international renown for his powerful and visceral depiction of the black experience. He stands today alongside such African-American luminaries as Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison, and two of his novels, Native Son and Black Boy, are required reading in high schools and colleges across the nation. He died in 1960.