AMERICAN LITERATURE

When Richard Wright Used Poetry as Reportage

The Mississippi born writer used the verse of others to admonish American racism

Richard Wright — (Archives and Special Collections, University of Mississippi Library, Oxford)

Poetry and Justice

In Richard Wright’s 1945 “Introduction” to the book, Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City, he quotes from a poem called “The Leaden Eye” the poet, Vaclav Lindsey at the end of the introduction. Black Metropolis is a classic text of American sociology. It is a legendary analysis of Black life in mid century America. St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton, Jr. two storied and forgotten Black sociologists, produced a timeless tome of urban life in one of America’s most important cities for Black people at the time.

St Claire Drake (left) — Fair use photo; and Horace R. Cayton, Jr. (right) — Black Metropolis photo

Richard Wright, the writer, lived in Chicago from 1927 to 1938. He became a writer there, politically engaged, astute, confident, and most of all, he began his escape from America. His introduction makes that obvious but his use of poetry in the introduction is amazing.

Vaclav Lindsay’s poem acts as an exclamation point in the essay. Wright excerpts the part of the poem directly…