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Wngnt, acclaimed author of native Son a n ^B ^ckB oyan dLo^herJinflueP
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Th^ irSt fu"-'en9th documentary on the life, work, and legacy of Richard
" Ch'Ca9° ’ Ci™ 1928; Photo: court^
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and ,nfamous Writer Who
To mark the 50th anniversary o f
the documentary chronicles W right’s
Bom outside Natchez, Missis
the publication o f Richard W right’s
struggle, overcoming poverty and
sippi, on September 4, 1908, Wright
iconoclastic autobiography, Black
fear to earn recognition as one o f
was the son o f an i 11 iterate sharecrop­
Boy, Mississippi Educational Tele­
Am erica’s most important writers.
per. He developed his fascination
vision and the Independent Televi­
Producer Madison Davis Lacy,
with the power o f words at an early
sion Service (IT V S ) present the first
whose credits include Eyes on the
age. His classmates at Jackson’s
in-depth look at the A frican-A m eri­
Prize II, drew from hundreds o f sourc­
can w riter who changed the face o f
es to reveal the persona o f a man
American literature. When asked in
critics viewed as a literary genius.
1945 why he wrote Black Boy, a
Three years in the making, Richard
harrowing account o f his Southern
W right - Black Boy s k illfu lly inter­
childhood, W right replied that he
tw ine s d ra m a tic excerpts from
wanted to “ give [his] tongue to voice­
W right's own work w itfr historical
less Negro boys.” Quoting W alt
footage and recollections from his
. Whitman, he added, “ Not until the
daughter Julia as well as friends,
, sun ceases to shine on you w ill I
associates, and fellow writers such as
Historian John Henrik
disown you.” Fifty years later, Rich­
Ralph Ellison and Margaret Walker
ard W right’s passion for words is
Alexander.
depicted in the first full-length docu­
" I was in itia lly interested in pur­
Smith-Robertson School recall that
mentary on his life.
suing W rig h t’s expatriation, and the
he always had his head in a book.
Richard W right- Black Boy w ill
phenomenon o f expatriation as a
Reading reinforced his dissatisfac­
air on PBS on September 4, 1995 at
dynamic in African-Am erican cul­
tion with life in the segregated South
10:00 p.m. EDT (check local list­
ture, says Lacy. “ What I discovered
and, like thousands o f other African-
ings). September 4 marks the 87th
was a self-taught literary genius o f
Americans, he resolved to go north,
anniversary o f W righ t’ s birth.
tremendous political conviction. At
to Chicago. He survived the Depres­
R ecently, the program was
19 years old, W right told a friend, “ I
sion as a street-sweeper and a postal
awarded a 1994 Southeast Regional
want my life to count for something.’
worker until he found encourage­
Emmy. The program was co-pro­
Somehow he was able to crystallize
ment to write from the Communist
duced by the BBC and w ill air in the
that determination and his under­
Party. Soon he was at the forefront o f
BBC series “ Bookm ark” this fall.
standing o f racial oppression into a
the “ school fo r social protest” in
W ritten, produced, and directed by
reason to write on behalf o f him self
Chicago, a literary movement which
Emmy-winner Madison Davis Lacy,
and his people.”
gave rise to a wealth o f progressive
u
*” « * c e of American Literature
literature. As W right’s popularity
grew, so did the displeasure o f party
officials intent upon influencing his
writing, eventually causing him to
break with the Party. He left Chicago
in 1937 for New York where “ he
‘He came like a sledgehammer, like a giant out
of the mountain with a sledgehammer, writing
with a sledgehammer... After Native Son, the
condescending attitude toward Black writers
was over.
Clarke, in Richard Wright - Black Boy
99
could get published,” according to
Margaret Walker Alexander. Hepub-
lished his first book. Uncle T om ’s
Children, to good reviews in 1938,
but it was his second, Native Son,
that brought W right critical and pub­
lic acclaim.
In 1940, native Son soared to the
top o f the best-seller lists and be­
came the first book by an African-
American author to be a Book-of-
the-Month Club selection. “ His new
book makes it clearer than ever that
he has one o f the most notable gifts in
U.S. writing, black or white,” claimed
Time magazine. The public seemed
to agree, sending the book to fourth
place among fiction sales for the
year.
W right married for the second
time in 1941 and weathered the war
years in New York lecturing and
w ritin g his autobiography, Black
Boy, published in 1945 Black Boy
also became a runaway best seller,
aided by a major photo spread in Life
magazine. After the war, Wright, as
a former Communist party member,
became the subject o f FBI m onitor­
ing and experienced overt acts o f
racial hostility.
In 1946 Wright traveled to Paris
and London, where he was welcomed
by his American expatriate and Eu­
ropean literary contemporaries. A f­
ter his return to New York in early
1947, W right decided to move his
fam ily to France where he felt he
could write unimpeded by social and
government interference. He never
returned to the States, though he al­
ways considered him self an Am eri­
can.
Livin g in Europe, W right’s in­
terests took on an expanding global
view. He lectured and wrote a series
o f non-fiction essays and books re­
flecting on the position o f race in a
quickly changing post-war world; he
took a particular interest in Pan-Afri-
can issues.
By the time o f his sudden death
in 1960 at the age o f 52, W right had
irrevocably changed the principles
governing African-American writing
and left an indelible mark on the
American imagination.
His books still sell briskly and
continue to be mainstays o f high
school and college Iiterature and com­
position classes. “ W right was one o f
the people who made me conscious
o f the need to struggle,” offers writer
A m iri Baraka. In a 1963 essay on
Wright, critic Irving Howe wrote,
“ the day Native Son appeared Amer­
ican culture was changed forever.”
W right biographer Constance
Webb reflects, “ He was a storyteller
- because he wrote these stories; but
he also lived these stories.” Promi­
nent author Ralph Ellison, in his last
filmed interview before his death in
1994, assessed, “ I don’t know wheth­
er he always knew where he was
going, and I think that is a good sign
because you don’t just create a novel,
you are created by it.”
ballot Box Can Ensure
Affirmative Action
NOW GET YOUR OWN VISA CARD
NO CREDIT CHECK
EVEN IF YOU HAVE *BAD CREDIT* NO CREDIT* BANKRUPTCY* LOW INCOME*
Helping Black Kids "Enter A New Realm’’: Students from the Mae C. Jemison Academy (MJA) in
Detroit enjoy some of the books on blacks in math and science given to them by Alpha Kappa Alpha
(AKA) during AKA’s Leadership Seminar. Sharing the moment are MJ A principal Schlybea Jean
Hopkins (far R) and AKA national leaders Dr. Eva L. Evans (C), president; and Mrs. Norma S. White (L)
vice president; who believe AKA's donation o f250 books to the school will motivate more black students
to enter the realm of math and science.
“ Why affirmative action?”
Because the wrongs have not
been undone. 200 years o f systemat­
ic barriers established to hold the
Black community back cannot be
overcome by 15 years o f affirmative
action.”
Addressing the question was
Robert L. Green, former president at
the University o f the D istrict o f Co­
lumbia, at the biennial Leadership
Seminar o f Alpha Kappa Alpha
(A K A ), a 140,000-member black
women’s organization, July 13-16.
His position was paralleled by
A K A international president Dr. Eva
L. Evans o f Lansing, M i., and other
speakers, including U.S. Rep. John
Conyers (D., M l ), U.S. Rep Louis
Stokes (D.,Oh.) and Detroit Mayor
Dennis Archer.
Evans also took her case to the
Michigan House Judiciary Com m it­
tee as it debated a civ il rights resolu­
tion to the Michigan Constitution.
Testifying, she queried, “ What
has gone so egregiously wrong in
Michigan that there is a need to alter
our most fundamental equal oppor­
tunity documents in a way which w ill
lock out a large share o f Michigan
• citizens from an opportunity to be
employed and promoted in the work­
place, and other facets o f Michigan
life?”
While Evans called on the com­
mittee to retain measures which pro­
vide access for minorities, she and
the speakers at the conference said
the solution is at the ballot box.
R esultingly, A K A has taken
steps to defend affirm ative action
and back candidates who support it.’
"W e are increasing the number
o f blacks registered and we w ill in­
sure that they vote,” Evans said.
A K A is also supporting organi­
zations at the forefront o f the a ffir­
mative action battle.
A K A supplemented its annual
chapterdonationstotheNAACPwith
a $10,000 check.
The con ference agenda also fea­
tured training for A K A ’ s math-sci­
ence initiative, its partnership with
the American Red Cross, and its chap­
ter operations, and A K A presented
250 books on Blacks in math and
science to students enrolled in the
Mae Jemison Academy, Detroit.
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