Black Power: Three Books from Exile: The Color Curtain / Black Power / White Man, Listen!

by Richard Wright

Three extraordinary nonfiction works by Richard Wright, one of America's premier literary giants of the twentieth entry, together in one volume for the first time, with an introduction by Cornel West.

Originally published in 1954, Richard Wright's Black Power is an impassioned chronicle of the author's trip to Africa's Gold Coast before it became the free nation of Ghana. It speaks eloquently of empowerment and possibility, and resonates loudly to this day.

Also included in this omnibus edition are White Man, Listen!, a stirring collection of Wright's essays on race, politics, and other essential social concerns ("Deserves to be read with utmost seriousness"-New York Times), and The Color Curtain, an indispensable work urging the removal of the color barrier. It remains one of the key commentaries on the question of race in the modern era. ("Truth-telling will perhaps always be unpopular and suspect, but in The Color Curtain, as in all his later nonfiction, Wright did not hesitate to tell the truth as he saw it."--Amritjit  Singh, Ohio University)

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Race, Africa

864 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Richard Nathaniel Wright was an African-American author of powerful, sometimes controversial novels, short stories and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerned racial themes. His work helped redefine discussions of race relations in America in the mid-20th century.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Elaine Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The expression Black Power was hijacked by Stokley Carmichael in the 1960's, and may put some people off - but Wright is wrestling with some seminal questions about his relationship with Pan Africanism and his responses to being in Ghana , or rather the Gold Coast.

He is honest to a fault almost. Several of the realities that he wrestled with were experienced by American and Caribbean idealists who imagined Africa as an extension of their homelands.

[Amanda Birdwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rereading this one now, and taking notes. On the one hand, it was written between 1954 and 1957, so there's some distance to reach across since the book is mostly covering the Gold Coast Revolution and the Bandung Conference in Indonesia. On the other, Wright's just smarter and writes better than most writers today. Totally worth the investment.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Wright took the monumental pronouncement of W.E.B. DuBois to heart: "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line". He exiled himself to Paris after World War II to escape American racism but did not remove himself from racial politics. He was knee-deep it it until his heartbreaking death at age fifty-two. From France Wright set out to explore and dissect the politics of race in what was coming to be called the Third World, but he knew this was a voyage of self-discovery as well. What did he, a Black man, have in common with the colored peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America? "The Nervous Colony", reprinted here under the title "Black Power" (yes, Wright coined that phrase long before Stokeley Carmichael) recounts his trip to the Gold Coast of Africa, soon to be independent Ghana, under the charismatic leadership of Kwame Nkrumah. Wright is in awe of this dynamic figure, but questions whether his drive towards industrialization for Ghana won't strip that country of much of its African identity. Do Africans want to be copy-cats of the white West? Can religion play a role in maintaining African culture? Wright tells his hosts he is "profoundly areligious". Significantly, in talking to the officials around Nkrumah Wright uses "we" in speaking of the United States and its stake in Africa. Wright knows he is an outsider despite his skin color, yet still wants to empathize with Africans. "The Color Curtain" is a brilliant reporter's notebook of the 1955 Bandung Conference in Indonesia, hosted by president Sukarno in hopes of uniting the Third World against the two superpowers on the basis of color. Wright, a former Communist, is struck by the fiery eloquence of Chinese Premier Chou En Lai. Perhaps Communist China offered a third way between the racist imperialism of the United States and the bankrupt Stalinism of the Soviet Union. "White Man, Listen!" collects some of Wright's more startling pamphlets and lectures on Black America over two decades. Will his country wake up in time to reverse course on a path that is sure to lead to extinction for all races?

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Wright's journey from Paris to Liverpool to Accra and Bandung chronicles the challenges and promises of a post-colonial world at a critical time in recent history. Wright's intimate exposure to figures like Nkrumah and the many diplomats in attendance at Bandung offer a fascinating firsthand look at the political ideas being circulated and leveraged at the time. Beyond this reporting, Wright is also a supremely honest observer and conversationalist, making for entertaining digressions (if you have the patience). I was most interested, however, by how Wright himself navigated these discussions and spaces. As a black US citizen and expatriate, Wright's travels provoke questions about what it means to be African, to be American, and to be African American. Wright, who also disassociated himself from the CPUSA, doesn't seem like the type to anchor himself in one boat or another; instead as he floats from shore to shore, the reader is left to gaze at the ripples in his wake, fishing for answers.

[Betsy Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only read the first piece in this omnibus collection, and will save the other two for another time. Black Power was, by far and away, the very best piece of nonfiction that I've read this year. It wasn't at all what I was expecting it to be - but it was absolutely everything that I needed it to be. This is the first of Wright's nonfiction that I have encountered. I added it to my list because my good friend Dr. Cornel West told me to (he doesn't know who I am, but I listen to him anyway). It was utterly outstanding.

There was such a beautiful tension between his hope for Africa and his disdain/disgust with the tribalism. It was this element that I wasn't expecting, and it was incredibly powerful. I could feel the tug of war within him has he grappled with his idea of what was necessary and the lived realities of African life in the Gold Coast.

I've never read better analysis of the mentality of the African -- never. It was heartbreaking in its accuracy and horrifying in its clarity.

It's a big book (420 p), but worth every syllable.

[Rachel Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The San Francisco Chronicle's entreaty to the reader of Black Power aptly epitomizes the tone of the three of Wright's pieces included in this compilation: "Before it is too late, we would do well to read carefully and critically what Richard Wright has written." For better or for worse, this appeal is just as valid for the global citizens of the 1950s as it is for those of us reading it 60 years later in the 21st century. Wright's interrogation of the psychology of recently liberated colonial subjects serves as a warning to the western world in its dogged resistance to an acceptance of a just global world. While Wright himself is guilty of the common pitfalls of those who wrote about Africa, including his judgments of their "backwards" and "childish" religious and "tribalized" ways of life, his moral courage in writing what he did when he did transcends these mistakes. Reminiscent of his idol, H. L. Mencken, Wright's words in these three "books from exile" serve as sharp weapons of outrage, warning, and interrogation that leave no one, NO ONE, immune from global responsibility for their fellow humans.

[David Withun · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collects the books of Richard Wright from his travels and journalistic life in the 1950s. All are important powerful statements of the way it is in our world today. His style is so readable that he makes these topics as exciting as any novel set in Africa or Asia.

[Emilie Frechie]

For Wright lovers, this is a must.

[Abdi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

[Kyrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting outlook at african nationalism as it swept the continent in the 1950s...

[Endora harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

extraordinary piece.