' In Black Boy I found expressed for the first time in my life the sorrow the rage & the murderous bitterness which was eating up my life & lives of those around me Richard Wright's work was an immense liberation & revelation for me He became my ally & my witness & alas! my father'
- James Baldwin At four years of age Richard Wright set fire to his home; at five his father deserted the family; by six Richard was
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- temporarily
- an alcoholic Moved from home to home from brick tenement to orphanage he had had by the age of twelve only one year's formal education It was in saloons railroad yards & streets that he learned the facts about life under white subjection about fear hunger & hatred Gradually he learned to play Jim Crow in order to survive in a world of white hostility secretly satisfying his craving for books & knowledge until the time came when he could follow his dream of justice & opportunity in the north