Richard Wright’s Black Boy

Chapter 15

Richard relocates to Chicago, Illinois in the year 1927. He is at first amazed at the lack of segregated facilities and the apparent lack of tension between whites and blacks. Moreover, he is somewhat relieved at not having to face hostility from whites on a daily basis, but is also intimidated by his strange, new, urban-industrial surroundings.  He and his Aunt Maggie go to stay with Aunt Cleo in her apartment. Richard notes that her husband, “a product of the southern plantation,” has abandoned her much like his own father had done. (261-263)

Richard finds work as a porter (or delivery boy) with the Hoffmanns,  an immigrant Jewish couple who treat him fairly and as an equal. Despite their generosity, Richard is not sure whether he can fully trust them and their motives. Instead of telling them about an upcoming postal examination, he lies and says that he has to miss work for three days so that he can attend his mother’s funeral in Memphis. The Hoffmans see through the lie, but Richard refuses to admit the truth and the damage is done. (263-269)

Soon after this, Richard finds another job at a new restaurant called the North Side cafe. While working as a busboy, he notices that Tillie, a Finnish cook has been spitting in the food. When he and another black employee inform the owner, she confirms that they are telling the truth and the cook is fired. (270-277)

Chapter 16

Richard meets the cynical Irish chap and the “gang” of Irish, Jewish and Negro free-thinkers or non-religious types  (285)

Richard joins a literary group of Negro literary bohemians and would-be artists and poseurs obsessed with sex relations (285). He is disappointed by their crass gossip and lack of genuine seriousness . He is somewhat more impressed by the commitment of the Garveyites and their “Back to Africa” movement (286)

Richard finds his job at the post office cutting back hours – He notices demonstrations on the street with “Reds” picketing City Hall b/c of the Stock Market Crash of 1929 – millions of people have suddenly been thrown out of work (287)

Richard finds work with several burial and insurance societies – selling policies to illiterate black people – During this time, Richard has a brief and unsatisfying affair with a simple-minded woman who is obsessed with going to the circus and cannot share Richard’s interest in books (289-292)

Richard observes how the other black insurance agents are very territorial about their “kept women.” (292-293)

Richard is somewhat amused by the Negro Communists and their personal mannerisms. Careless with their outward dress, they wear Lenin caps and v-necks in an obvious attempt to emulate Lenin, Stalin and their fellow white comrades. It seems they are trying very hard to fit in and be accepted by the party. (294-295)

The Negro Communists hope to foment revolution among black people but Richard doesn’t think that American blacks will rebel. The Communists also openly ridicule God and religion. (296-297)

Richard witnesses “Big Bill Thompson” and other Republican party bosses “buying up” the Negro vote – so in the election booth he writes: I protest this fraud. (298)

Chapter 17

Richard goes to work as an orderly at a medical research institute in one of the largest and wealthiest hospitals in Chicago. Richard notices there a division of workers along racial and class lines. (303)

One employee named Bill – drunk or hung-over most of the time – scares Richard with his inane solutions to social problems (303-304)

Brand plays a prank on Richard making it seem like it’s dangerous for him to inhanle Nembutal while helping one of the doctors operate on a dog. (305)

A young employee tells Richard he needs to measure the time it takes for him to clean rooms for efficiency’s sake and Richard gets upset at being observed doing menial chores. “Why don’t you work for a change?” he tells him. (306-307)

Brand and Cooke argue about which newspaper is better the Chicago Tribune or the Herald-Examiner and get into a knife fight. As a result of this, they end up knocking over animal cages and several animals are let loose (309, 310,311)

Later on, the doctors don’t seem to notice that some of the animals have been put back in the wrong cages . When the doctor calls for A-Z rabbit number 14, he doesn’t notice that it’s a different rabbit. (313)

Richard ends the chapter reflecting on how the black employees have been marginalized and kept sequestered with the animals in the “underworld corridors” of the hospital. (314)

Chapter 18

Richard receives an invitation one Thursday from a group of ‘white boys,” many of whom have joined the Communist party. Richard attends a meeting and is encouraged by Sol to join the Chicago chapter of the John Reed Club.  (315-316)

Richard visits the John Reed Club out of curiosity and meets Grimm. He is introduced to revolutionary periodicals and literature  such as “Masses” and “Left Front”. (306-307)

Richard’s mother becomes suspicious of the Communists literature he has been reading (319-320)

Richard begins to notice factions forming and in-fighting among the communists (322-323) The first rift that involves him is a conflict between the writers and the artists. (322-323).

One day, Richard befriends a painter named Young who becomes very active in party circles, but ends up denouncing another young artist named Swann. Richard later learns that Young had been a mental patient. (324-327)

Chapter 19

Richard attends his first unit cell meeting on the South Side of Chicago and gets to know the Negro organizer. At his first meeting, however, as he reads his report, he is met by laughter and giggles. Even with only an eighth-grade education, he has been branded as an “intellectual“ by the other Negro communists – who are patronizing and condescending about his ambitions to be a writer. Richard finds himself the object of ridicule because he “talks like a book…” (329-331)

Richard is further shocked to learn that these Communists do not encourage book-reading or literacy in general. One comrade tells him “Reading bourgeois books can only confuse you…” – “Didn’t Lenin read books?” Richard replies to which the other replies: “But you’re not Lenin.” (331)

Richard chooses to do some “biographical sketches” on a party member named Ross who is facing an indictment for “inciting a riot.” When word spreads as to Richard’s writing project, other party members advise him to drop it. Richard objects to having been branded as a renegade “intellectual”  (i.e. a Trotskyite) – while being told that he must “prove his revolutionary loyalty” through action. Evans for example suffered a head injury during a recent demonstration. Richard is baffled by the resistance the party has to his own independent brand of thinking. When threatened indirectly with being labeled a Trotskyite, Richard objects that he knows nothing about the man and can’t fathom what is meant by “counter-revolutionary activity”. (332-333-334)

As Richard doggedly continues with his biography of Ross, he learns that Ross has been charged with “anti-leadership tendencies,” “class collaborationist attitudes” and “ideological factionalism” – phrases so fanciful that he is confused by their meaning. One night his fellow black comrades order him to stay away from Ross – advising him that “members of the party do not violate the party’s decisions.” (340-341)

Buddy Nealson, a member of the Communist International, arrives in Chicago to rid the party of all of its “Negro Trotskyite elements.” (346)

While planning for an upcoming writer’s conference in the spring of 1935, Richard experiences first-hand the northern brand of race discrimination when he has difficulty finding a place to stay even in Harlem.(357-350)

When Richard raises his hand to dissent from the majority during a cell meeting, he is later condemned by Buddy Nealson as a “smuggler of reaction and a “petty bourgeois degenerate” who is “corrupting the party” with his ideas. Soon this, he is officially “investigated” by a party operative named Ed Green. (350-351)