Description

Richard Wright devoted much of his literary career to investigating the toll that racial prejudice exerted on society. The son of an illiterate sharecropper, Wright eventually settled in New York City, where he became the most respected African American writer of his day. His breakthrough novel-Native Son-was published in 1940. Centered on the murder of a white girl by the "brute Negro" Bigger Thomas, Native Son sold well but also aroused great controversy for its uncompromising portrayal of racism in America. Despite his literary success, Wright was unwilling to tolerate the discrimination he experienced, and in 1947 he moved permanently to Paris. This image was taken the year before by Fred Stein, a well-respected photographer who had fled his native Germany at the outbreak of World War II.

Record Contributed By

National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution