Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
Richard Wright
Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics
Images
Richard Wright Richard Wright in the mid-1940s
At a Glance
default image
Richard Wright summary
Quizzes
Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) portrait by Carl Van Vecht April 3, 1938. Writer, folklorist and anthropologist celebrated African American culture of the rural South.
American Writers Quiz
Encyclopaedia Britannica thistle graphic to be used with a Mendel/Consumer quiz in place of a photograph.
49 Questions from Britannica’s Most Popular Literature Quizzes
Related Questions
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
Richard Wright
Richard Wright American author Richard Wright posing in his study, photograph by Gordon Parks, May 1943.

Richard Wright

American writer
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

Richard Wright (born September 4, 1908, near Natchez, Mississippi, U.S.—died November 28, 1960, Paris, France) was a novelist and short-story writer who inaugurated the tradition of protest explored by other Black writers after World War II. From the late 1930s through the 1950s—most notably in his novel Native Son (1940) and his autobiography, Black Boy (1945)—Wright was a dominant voice laying bare the discrimination and injustice that Black people were experiencing in the United States....

Discover the world with Britannica

Subscribe to Continue Reading

Free Trial | No Ads | Exclusive Content
Explore Subscriptions
DNA
Right
Mobile