Any serious discussion of the development of black fiction in modern American literature must include Richard Wright . He was the first black novelist to describe the plight of the urban masses and the first to present this material in the naturalistic tradition. Not only is he the father of the post-World War II black novel, he is also the main precursor of the black arts movement of the 1960s. Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin are but two of many outstanding black writers who profited from his influence. Moreover, he was, as Robert Felgar explains in Richard Wright (1980), "perhaps the very first writer to give the white community explanations and themes that cut through its prejudices and forced it to look at the reality of black life in America."

Richard Nathaniel Wright felt victimized by racial discrimination and racial prejudice throughout his life in the United States. He experienced...