Richard Wright

(1908-1960)

Wright titled his autobiography "Black Boy." It describes Wright's poor and rough upbringing in Mississippi and Tennessee. It is often considered a fictionialized autobiography because of its novelistic techniques.

Wright was one of the first African-Americans to protest the treatment of blacks, notably in his novel "Native Son." The protagonist in the book is Bigger Thomas, a young black man whose accidental killing of a white girl makes clear to him the antagonism blacks receive from mainstream society.

-- Encyclopedia of Literature

Pub Date: 03/14/99