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'Books Are Weapons': Remembering Richard Wright

By TChris, Section Social Justice
Posted on Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 11:37:11 AM EST
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Richard Wright, author of the powerful novel Native Son, died in 1960. Had he lived, this would have been his 100th birthday.

This great black writer not only helped change the face of American fiction but he also helped pull the curtain down on Jim Crow. We should commemorate Wright because he defied all the odds. One hundred years ago, he was born poor, black, the son of a sharecropper. In his formative years, he was legally denied access to segregated Southern public libraries. Raised in poverty and hunger, and barely educated in rural Arkansas and Mississippi, Wright believed that "books are weapons." His material spat in the face of indifference, forcing readers to acknowledge the racist underside of the American dream.

Happy birthday, Richard Wright.

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    'Books Are Weapons': Remembering Richard Wright | 7 comments (7 topical)

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    Thanks TChris (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by DFLer on Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 12:31:36 PM EST
    Native Son is a most powerful book and should be a must read.

    I recently picked up a later edition of "The Outsider" which I've never read. It has the entire transcript as submitted by the author, restoring all the passages pulled and/or edited by the copy editors in the original publication.

    This is a good day to begin reading.

    Thank You (5.00 / 1) (#4)
    by reedsanchez on Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 12:49:42 PM EST
    Richard Wright has been one of my favorite authors since I was assigned to read Black Boy in my junior year of high school.

    Incredible author with an incredible personal story in addition to the many stories that he penned.

    A nice tribute (none / 0) (#1)
    by lepidus on Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 12:06:21 PM EST
    It reminds me that I need to read his books.

    Interesting cat, TChris. (none / 0) (#2)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 12:14:19 PM EST
    Thanks for the post.

    Celebrate the Freedom to Read! (none / 0) (#5)
    by kjb4706 on Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 01:17:21 PM EST
    The American Library Association celebrates Banned Book Week the last week of each September.  

    The American Library Association talks about Banned Book Week here:

    http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.cfm

    and Amnesty International talks about Banned Books Week here:

    http://www.amnestyusa.org/individuals-at-risk/banned-books/page.do?id=1101492&n1=3&n2=34& ;n3=842

    Happy Birthday Richard Wright

    My 25 year old daughter (none / 0) (#6)
    by obamahasmyvote on Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 02:07:26 PM EST
    just finished reading, discussing, and thinking about Wright's Native Son in a course she is taking. We are liberal and not poor and white in-tact nuclear family, (first/only marriage over 30 years ago).

    My daughter and all her cousins and friends are anti-racism, and native Son just perplexed and startled her. She doesn't know what to say. The book is a master work and as important today in the so-called "Post-racist Era" as it was when Wright wrote it.

    Native Son stays with the reader, which is a good definition of "classic". Thanks for mentioning Wright & Happy Birthday Richard!

    Thank you for posting this. (none / 0) (#7)
    by jawbone on Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 04:12:06 PM EST


    'Books Are Weapons': Remembering Richard Wright | 7 comments (7 topical)

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