Chapter 23 - Wright’s Black Boy in Context

Summary

Richard Wright published four major books between 1938 and 1945: Uncle Tom’s Children (1938), Native Son (1940), 12 Million Black Voices (1941), and Black Boy (1945). This essay discusses how Black Boy converses with the preceding three books, and how, thereby, they all contextualize each other. They are all migration narratives presenting African Americans moving from South to North in the Great Migration era. They portray black boys including Wright himself migrating from boyhood to young manhood. Collectively, they present Wright migrating into his writing career, his writing self. Once there, he can be a racial “we” and a personal “I.” Special attention is given to how 12 Million anticipates Black Boy. Quite specifically, the racial “we” in 12 Million becomes the “I” in Black Boy who tells his own story and his race’s story of starving variously in a neglectful American nation. The FSA photographs in 12 Million led Wright to see himself and others among the black people portrayed. Hearing the voices, seeing the faces, and seeing himself prepared Wright for composing American Hunger. What came out in 1945 was Black Boy, the portion of his story before he headed North.