Richard Wright, 12 Million Black Voices

Patrick Chura (University of Akron)

Ed. by Patrick Chura, University of Akron
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.5: African American Writing and Culture of the United States.
Vol. editors: Philathia Bolton (University of Akron), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), A Yemisi Jimoh (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Domains

Race

Dates

First circulation or publication 1941

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Photojournalism/ Photo-reportage

Cultural Identities

African American

Resources

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In the summer of 1940, while

Native Son

was still on the best-seller lists, Richard Wright turned to a project that would describe the cultures of the two geographical settings that defined his literary career. Viking Press, probably in a hurry to publish anything with Wright’s name on it, asked the newly famous writer to produce a text to accompany a book of photographs that captured stark realities of black American life in the urban world of the North, and in the rural agrarian South.

Though the publisher requested only about 20 pages of explanatory text, Wright became fascinated with the book’s visual content, which consisted of 147 compelling images selected by Edwin Rosskam from the archives of the Farm Security Administration, a New Deal agency created in 1937. As novelist and

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1818 words

Citation: Chura, Patrick. "12 Million Black Voices". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 February 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=28595, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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