Richard Wright

One of the most powerful reading experiences in my life was discovering the work of Richard Wright when I was a teenager in the 1960s. Like many great writers, Richard Wright offered that vision of truth and reality that can change our perspectives forever.

Grandson of slaves, Wright was born this date (September 4) in 1908 on a sharecropper's farm in Natchez, Mississippi. A life of oppression and poverty led to his career as one of the most influential writers of his day. Moving to Chicago, ...