Fellow Truth-Seekers: In order to fully appreciate the subject matter of Richard Wright’s famous novel, we must consider the America that he lived in from the time of his birth in 1908 up to the year 1945 when the novel was first published. What was it like to be a black American living in southern cities like Natchez, Mississippi or Memphis, Tennessee? And what was Chicago like when Wright first ventured up north? The following list of terms may give us some insight into those years and the difficulties/hardships that Wright had to endure.

Terms to Remember

Frederick Douglass publishes Narrative of a Life (1845)

Dred Scott Decision (1857)

Reconstruction (1865-1871)

Booker T. Washington founds Tuskegee Institute (1881)

Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) – Beginning of Jim Crow laws

Booker T. Washington’s autobiography, Up From Slavery, is published (1900-1901)

W.E.B. DuBois The Souls of Black Folk published (1903)

N.A.A.C.P  formed (1909)

Jack Johnson wins World Heavyweight Title (1908)

N.A.A.C.P. formed (1909)

The Great Migration (1915-1920)

Marcus Garvey found UNIA (1916)

East St. Louis Race Riot  (1917)

Houston Mutiny and other Race Riots (1917)

Race Riots in Chicago, Washington D.C., Knoxville, Indianapolis (1919)

Tulsa, Oklahoma Race Riot (1921)

Dyer Anti-Lynching Law defeated in Congress by filibuster (1922)

Rosewood Massacre (1923)

Stock Market Crash (1929)

Scottsboro Boys Trial (1931)

Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at Berlin Olympics (1936)

Billy Holiday perform “Strange Fruit” in New York City (1939)

Truman issues Executive Order 9981 de-segregating the  U.S. armed forces (1948)

Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)