Black Boy

A wonderful story by Richard Wright that explores the author’s own life and challenges growing up as a black male in the southern states of the US.  In Black Boy, Wright presents two aspects of his life, his early days growing up in the South and his more mature days in the North (Chicago).  A person who has never experienced discrimination, especially white supremacy against black communities, Wright provides a chilling real-life heart-felt tale of fear, pain, and anguish.  Wright and his brother grow-up in Mississippi in the first decade of the 1900s, a tumultuous time of race relations prior to World War I.  Wright and his brother face his father’s decision to leave his mother and that begins a long series of moving from one relative to another.  Wright, very different from other children his age, takes EVERYTHING literally and often gets himself into trouble for misperceiving things people say to him and actions he takes.  He burns his home down, kills his parents' cat, loses jobs, ends relationships, and gets involved in the communist movement all through taken things not as they were intended by others.  Wright, from a very early age, has a talent for writing, although he rarely has a continuous educational experience in his life based on the constant movement of his family.  Wright always stays connected to his mother, though she becomes ill at a very young age.  Wright finds jobs at a very young age, always intended to serve as monetary support for his mother.  Wright is one of these characters who always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  There are some funny parts of the tale, love the part when he finds solace in a boarding house only to find out the owner’s daughter falls in love with him though they have only known each other for less than 24 hours.  Wright, always on the precipice of despair (no food, shelter), finds a way out.  His writing skills come in handy and leads him to a better place.  The underlying “through-line” in this story is clearly the role education, reading, and storytelling can play, though racism never truly allows Wright to succeed at the same level as his white counterparts.  While the first section focuses on life in the South, the second half (life in the North) isn’t as engaging to me.  Wright gets heavily involved with the communist movement in the US immediately following World War I (with lack of money, food and jobs for the community).  Wright’s struggles with the ideology conflicting with his need to follow his inner-voice lead to a final conflict.  Black Boy is a classic read that gives an inside view to Southern Black America.  Great book!  Provides a perspective that so much of our mainstream history books always leave out!  Add this to the list.