Richard Wright

Richard Nathaniel Wright (September 4, 1908 – November 28,1960) was an African-American author of powerful, sometimes controversialnovel, short stories and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerned racial themes. His work helped redefine discussions of race relations in America in the mid-20th century. Wright, the grandson of a slave, was born on the Rucker plantation in Adams County, Mississippi, just outside of Natchez. His family soon moved to Memphis, Tennessee. While in Memphis, his father Nathaniel, a former sharecropper, abandoned the family. His mother, a schoolteacher, had to support herself and her children. In 1914 Ella Wright became ill, and the two brothers were sent to Settlement House, a Methodist orphanage. The mother then moved with her children to Jackson, Mississippi, to live with relatives. In Jackson, Wright grew up and attended public high school. In 1916, Wright, his brother, and their mother returned to Mississippi, moving in with Margaret Wilson,... full article at wikipedia