Editing Richard Wright (author) (section)

===Childhood in the US South===
Richard Nathaniel Wright was born on September 4, 1908, at Rucker's Plantation, between the train town of [[Roxie, Mississippi|Roxie]] and the larger river city of [[Natchez, Mississippi]].<ref name="life" /> He was the son of Nathan Wright, a [[sharecropper]],<ref name=life>{{Cite web|url=http://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/richard-wright/|title=Richard Wright|website=Mississippi Encyclopedia|access-date=October 29, 2019}}</ref> and Ella (Wilson),<ref>[https://familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3AElla%20%2Bsurname%3AWilson%20%2Bbirth_place%3AMississippi%20%2Bresidence_year%3A1880-1910~%20%2Bfather_surname%3AWilson&offset=20 US Census 1900]</ref> a schoolteacher.<ref name=life/><ref>[https://familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bsurname%3AWright%20%2Bfather_givenname%3ARichard%20%2Bfather_surname%3AWilson LDS Family Search: Cook County Death record]</ref> His parents were born free after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]; both sets of his grandparents had been born into [[slavery]] and freed as a result of the war. Each of his grandfathers had taken part in the U.S. Civil War and gained freedom through service: his paternal grandfather, Nathan Wright, had served in the 28th [[United States Colored Troops]]; his maternal grandfather, Richard Wilson, escaped from slavery in the South to serve in the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] as a [[Landsman (rank)|Landsman]] in April 1865.<ref>[https://civilwartalk.com/threads/richard-wilson-aka-richard-vincent.97026/#post-832592 Summary of Richard Wilson and Nathan Wrights Civil War services] at Civil War Talk Forum. Retrieved May 5,2019.</ref>

Richard's father left the family when Richard was six years old, and he did not see Richard for 25 years. In 1911 or 1912, Ella moved to Natchez, Mississippi, to be with her parents. While living in his grandparents' home, he accidentally set the house on fire. Wright's mother was so angry that she beat him until he was unconscious.<ref name=childhood>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/mississippi-writers/richard-wright|title=Richard Wright|website=Mississippi Writers & Musicians|access-date=October 30, 2019}}</ref><ref name=fire>{{Cite web|url=http://blackhistorynow.com/richard-wright/|title=Richard Wright|website=BlackHistoryNow|date=August 7, 2011|access-date=October 30, 2019|archive-date=April 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200413105901/http://blackhistorynow.com/richard-wright/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1915, Ella put her sons in Settlement House, a [[Methodism|Methodist]] [[orphanage]], for a short time.<ref name=childhood/><ref name=abuse>{{Cite web|url=http://blackboy.pbworks.com/w/page/59555846/Say%20Hello%20To%20Richard%20Wright|title=Say Hello To Richard Wright |publisher=PBworks |website=blackboy |access-date=October 30, 2019}}</ref> He was enrolled at [[Howe Institute (Tennessee)|Howe Institute]] in [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]], Tennessee, from 1915 to 1916.<ref name=life/>  In 1916, his mother moved with Richard and his younger brother to live with her sister Maggie (Wilson) and Maggie's husband Silas Hoskins (born 1882) in [[Elaine, Arkansas]]. This part of Arkansas was in the [[Mississippi Delta]], where former cotton plantations had been. The Wrights were forced to flee after Silas Hoskins "disappeared", reportedly  killed by a white man who coveted his successful saloon business.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3755|title=Richard Nathaniel Wright (1908–1960) |website= Encyclopedia of Arkansas|access-date=September 30, 2016}}</ref> After his mother became incapacitated by a stroke, Richard was separated from his younger brother and lived briefly with his uncle Clark Wilson and aunt Jodie in [[Greenwood, Mississippi|Greenwood]], Mississippi.<ref name=life/> At the age of 12, Richard had not yet had a single complete year of schooling.

Soon Richard with his younger brother and mother returned to the home of his maternal grandmother, which was now in the state capital, [[Jackson, Mississippi|Jackson]], Mississippi, where he lived from early 1920 until late 1925. His grandparents, still angry at him for destroying their house, repeatedly beat Wright and his brother.<ref name=fire/> But while he lived there, he was finally able to attend school regularly. He attended the local [[Seventh-day Adventist]] school from 1920 to 1921, with his aunt Addie as his teacher.<ref name=life/><ref name=childhood/> After a year, at the age of 13 he entered the Jim Hill public school in 1921, where he was promoted to sixth grade after only two weeks.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Black Boy |last= Wright |year= 1966 |publisher=Harper and Row |location= New York |pages= 135–138 }}</ref>

In his grandparents' Seventh-day Adventist home, Richard was miserable, largely because his controlling aunt and grandmother tried to force him to pray so he might build a relationship with [[God]]. Wright later threatened to move out of his grandmother's home when she would not allow him to work on the [[Sabbath in seventh-day churches|Adventist Sabbath]], Saturday. His aunt's and grandparents' overbearing attempts to control him caused him to carry over hostility towards Biblical and Christian teachings to solve life's problems. This theme would weave through his writings throughout his life.<ref name=abuse/>

At the age of 15, while in eighth grade, Wright published his first story, "The Voodoo of Hell's Half-Acre", in the local Black newspaper ''Southern Register.'' No copies survive.<ref name="abuse" /> In Chapter 7 of ''Black Boy'', he described the story as about a villain who sought a widow's home.<ref>{{Cite book|title= Black Boy |last= Wright |year= 1966 |publisher= Harper and Row |location= New York |pages= 182–186 }}</ref>

In 1923, after excelling in grade school and junior high, Wright earned the position of class [[valedictorian]] of Smith Robertson Junior High School from which he graduated in May 1925.<ref name=life/> He was assigned to write a speech to be delivered at graduation in a public auditorium. Before graduation day, he was called to the principal's office, where the principal gave him a prepared speech to present in place of his own. Richard challenged the principal, saying: "[T]he people are coming to hear the students, and I won't make a speech that you've written."<ref>{{Cite book|title= Black Boy |last= Wright |year= 1966 |publisher=Harper and Row |location= New York |pages= 193–197 }}</ref> The principal threatened him, suggesting that Richard might not be allowed to graduate if he persisted, despite his having passed all the examinations. He also tried to entice Richard with an opportunity to become a teacher. Determined not to be called an [[Uncle Tom]], Richard refused to deliver the principal's address, written to avoid offending the white school district officials. He was able to convince everyone to allow him to read the words he had written himself.<ref name="abuse" />

In September that year, Wright registered for mathematics, English, and history courses at the new [[Lanier High School (Jackson, Mississippi)|Lanier High School]], constructed for black students in Jackson—the state's schools were segregated under its Jim Crow laws—but he had to stop attending classes after a few weeks of irregular attendance because he needed to earn money to support his family.<ref name="abuse" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Wright |first=Richard |url=https://archive.org/details/blackboyrecordof00wrig_0 |title=Black Boy |publisher=[[Harper and Row Publishers]] |year=1966 |isbn=0060830565 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}</ref>

In November 1925, at the age of 17, Wright moved on his own to Memphis, Tennessee. There, he fed his appetite for reading. His hunger for books was so great that Wright devised a successful ploy to borrow books from the segregated white library. Using a library card lent by a white coworker, which he presented with forged notes that claimed he was picking up books for the white man, Wright was able to obtain and read books forbidden to black people in the Jim Crow South. This stratagem also allowed him access to publications such as [[Harper's Magazine|''Harper's'']], the ''[[Atlantic Monthly]]'', and ''[[The American Mercury]]''.<ref name="abuse" />

He planned to have his mother come and live with him once he could support her, and in 1926, his mother and younger brother did rejoin him. Shortly thereafter, Richard resolved to leave the [[Jim Crow economy|Jim Crow South]] and go to Chicago.<ref>{{Cite book|title= Black Boy |last= Wright |year= 1966 |publisher=Harper and Row |location= New York |pages= 276–278}}</ref> His family joined the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]], when tens of thousands of blacks left the South to seek opportunities in the more economically prosperous northern and mid-western industrial cities.

Wright's childhood in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas shaped his lasting impressions of American racism.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Black Boy |last=Wright |first=Richard |year=1993 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |location=New York |isbn=0060812508 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/blackboyamerican00wrig/page/455 455]–459 |url=https://archive.org/details/blackboyamerican00wrig |url-access=registration }}</ref>