Richard Nathaniel Wright (1908 - 1960)

Born 4 Sep 1908 in Rucker's Plantation, Roxie, Mississippi, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Frieda (Poplowitz) Wright — married 12 Mar 1941 in New Jersey, United States

Died 28 Nov 1960 at age 52 in Paris, Seine, France

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Biography

Richard Wright is Notable.

Richard Wright was awarded the Spingarn Medal for outstanding achievement by an African American.

Richard Wright was an American author. His novels, short stories, poems, and works of non-fiction were at times considered controversial since they often dealt with racial themes, including violence and discrimination directed at African-Americans.^[1]

Richard Nathaniel Wright, native of Natchez, Mississippi, son of Nathan Wright and Ella Wilson, was born in 1908. His parents were born free after the 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 (1842–1904) had served in the 28th United States Colored Troops; his maternal grandfather Richard Wilson (1847–1921) escaped from slavery in the South to serve in the US Navy as a Landsman in April 1865.

Richard's father left the family when Richard was six years old, and he did not see his father for 25 years. In 1916 his mother moved with Richard and his younger brother to live with her sister Maggie (Wilson). They moved around frequently and lived for a short time with aunt and uncle Clark and Jodie Wilson in Greenwood, Mississippi.

In 1925 he left Mississippi for Memphis, Tennessee, where he eventually established a home with his mother and brother. By 1930 he had moved his family and his aunt Clara to Chicago, Illinois. In 1933 he joined the Chicago branch of the John Reed Club, and organization of young leftists and communists, which became for him a community of like minded, progressive intellectuals.^[2]

In 1937 he left Chicago for New York where, in August 1939, with Ralph Ellison as best man, Wright married Dhimah Rose Meidman,^[3] a modern-dance teacher of Russian Jewish ancestry. It was a short-lived marriage that ended a year later.

On March 1, 1940 his book, Native Son was published to great acclaim.

On March 12, 1941, he married Ellen Poplar (née Poplowitz)^[4], a Communist organizer from Brooklyn. They had two daughters: Julia, born in 1942, and Rachel, born in 1949.

Wright left the Communist party in 1942. He visited France for the first time in 1946.

He died on 28 November 1960 in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.^[5][6] He is buried in the storied Père-Lachaise Cemetery.^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wright_(author) "Richard Wright (author)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 16 Jan. 2018. Web. 17 Jan. 2018.
2. ↑ https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Richard_Wright_Encyclopedia/WlQ0SS4XEYYC?hl=en&gbpv=1
3. ↑ Ancestry Record 61788 #222485 New York City Department of Records & Information Services; New York City, New York; New York City Marriage Licenses
4. ↑ Ancestry Record 61253 #901486025 Ancestry.com. New Jersey, U.S., Marriage Index, 1901-2016 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.
5. ↑ acte de décès: Archives de Paris: Arrondissement 15, Décès, 1960, Commence à 23 novembre 1960, Termine à 20 décembre 1960, Cote 15D 474, acte 3224, vue 7, consulté le 12 janvier 2019
6. ↑ NY Times Obituary: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0904.html
7. ↑ *Find A Grave: Memorial #3961 retrieved 17 January 2018

• "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MGNC-TFT : accessed 13 January 2019), Richard Wright in household of Jane Coleman, Memphis Ward 2, Shelby, Tennessee, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 109, sheet 2A, family 36, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1519; FHL microfilm 1,375,532.
• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XST7-684 : accessed 13 January 2019), Richard N Wright, Chicago (Districts 0001-0250), Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 138, sheet 17B, line 70, family 238, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 420; FHL microfilm 2,340,155.

See also:

• Wikidata: Item Q319820