Richard Wright (1908-1960)
"12 Million Black Voices" (1941)
Homework Questions:
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How does Wright's views of life in the North compare with Locke's? How
might one account for any differences in their perspectives?
105:
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What was the Federal Writers' Project?
106-7:
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Why, according to Wright, were rural African Americans so unprepared
to move to the city?
107:
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How is the Ohio River a symbol, according to Wright?
108:
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Explain how moving North for a Black sharecropper "is the beginning
of living on a new and terrifying plane of consciousness" (108).
What specific examples does Wright employ to demonstrate this concept?
109:
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Explain: "We cannot see or know a man because of the thousands
upon thousands of men" (109).
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Explain: "We have never been allowed to become an organic part
of this civilization" (109).
110:
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What are the "'spirituals' of the city pavements" (110)?
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Explain: "We are able to play in this fashion because we have
been excluded" (110).
111:
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Explain: "Our songs and dances are our banner of hope flung desperately
up in the face of a world that has pushed us to the wall" (111).