Professor Beirich
11 May 2023
Segregation in the South
The books Black Boy by Richard Wright and Separate Pasts Growing Up White in the
Segregated South by Melton Alonza McLaurin are both autobiographies of two different men
and their experiences throughout their lives. In both of these autobiographies we see each of their
points of views, one of the white male and another of a person of color. We often see what it is
like for each of them to encounter different struggles with segregation. While Wright believes
that segregation should end, McLaurin has mixed feelings about blacks. Race plays a strong role
in each of these books, for Wright we see him growing up and understanding more about what it
means to be black and how he is to be treated. For McLaurin we see the way he acts towards
blacks and for the most part he never had a problem with them but here and there, there was
always some odd event that would have a major impact on him.
In Black Boy, Wright is a troubled kid and doesn’t know much about what it means to be
a black person. As he discusses his life throughout the book he gets a deeper understanding about
where he stands in the world. What he can say, shouldn’t say, who he can talk to, not talk to, or
whether he can touch someone or not. Throughout his years there are many changes he faces,
some too fast for him to comprehend. But there is always some event that always leads back to
his race. For instance, Wright didn’t really think too much about the segregation between whites
and black until he and his family moved in with Aunt Maggie (Wright's mothers sister) and
Uncle Hoskins. Uncle Hoskins was unfortunately killed because he had been receiving death
threats from white men. It wasn’t until this event that Wright starts to realize that people of color
, aren’t wanted and this gives him a new fear and wonder of where he stands in the world. At this
point of the book, Wright is only 9 years old and he gets a rude awakening of how his race is
presented. Following this event, one day he was playing outside and saw what he thought were
elephants. He looks closer and sees that their faces were much like the faces of men. He thinks to
himself:
“What kind of men were these? I saw that there were two lines of creatures that looked
like men on either side of the road; that there were a few white faces and a great many
black faces. I saw that the white faces were the faces of white men and they were dressed
in ordinary clothing; but the black faces were men wearing what seemed to me to be
elephant’s clothing.” (Wright 57)
Wright realizes that the blacks were chained up and whites were guards watching over them
because they had done something bad and they’re being punished. This is what is known as a
chain gang. He asks his mother about why there are so many black men wearing stripes and not
many whites? She says, “Well, they’re harder on black people.” (Wright 58) This occurrence
only adds more to Wright's fear about his race.
More race comes in throughout Wright’s life, for example, there was a corner grocery
store that he goes to and he hears an unfamiliar foreign language to what he describes as “odd”
and he begins to make fun of them using a very taunting rhymed song. As of right now, Wright
doesn’t know that what he is doing is wrong but he is overcome by guilt later in the book when
he realizes that what he had done was horrible. Soon after, as he, his family, and Aunt Maggie
are staying in a room he notices that Aunt Maggie keeps getting a visitor late at night. Wright
eventually learns that this man is to be Aunt Maggie’s husband. On Aunt Maggie’s final night
being there Wright's mother is frantically packing a bag for Maggie and Wright learns that the
11 May 2023
Segregation in the South
The books Black Boy by Richard Wright and Separate Pasts Growing Up White in the
Segregated South by Melton Alonza McLaurin are both autobiographies of two different men
and their experiences throughout their lives. In both of these autobiographies we see each of their
points of views, one of the white male and another of a person of color. We often see what it is
like for each of them to encounter different struggles with segregation. While Wright believes
that segregation should end, McLaurin has mixed feelings about blacks. Race plays a strong role
in each of these books, for Wright we see him growing up and understanding more about what it
means to be black and how he is to be treated. For McLaurin we see the way he acts towards
blacks and for the most part he never had a problem with them but here and there, there was
always some odd event that would have a major impact on him.
In Black Boy, Wright is a troubled kid and doesn’t know much about what it means to be
a black person. As he discusses his life throughout the book he gets a deeper understanding about
where he stands in the world. What he can say, shouldn’t say, who he can talk to, not talk to, or
whether he can touch someone or not. Throughout his years there are many changes he faces,
some too fast for him to comprehend. But there is always some event that always leads back to
his race. For instance, Wright didn’t really think too much about the segregation between whites
and black until he and his family moved in with Aunt Maggie (Wright's mothers sister) and
Uncle Hoskins. Uncle Hoskins was unfortunately killed because he had been receiving death
threats from white men. It wasn’t until this event that Wright starts to realize that people of color
, aren’t wanted and this gives him a new fear and wonder of where he stands in the world. At this
point of the book, Wright is only 9 years old and he gets a rude awakening of how his race is
presented. Following this event, one day he was playing outside and saw what he thought were
elephants. He looks closer and sees that their faces were much like the faces of men. He thinks to
himself:
“What kind of men were these? I saw that there were two lines of creatures that looked
like men on either side of the road; that there were a few white faces and a great many
black faces. I saw that the white faces were the faces of white men and they were dressed
in ordinary clothing; but the black faces were men wearing what seemed to me to be
elephant’s clothing.” (Wright 57)
Wright realizes that the blacks were chained up and whites were guards watching over them
because they had done something bad and they’re being punished. This is what is known as a
chain gang. He asks his mother about why there are so many black men wearing stripes and not
many whites? She says, “Well, they’re harder on black people.” (Wright 58) This occurrence
only adds more to Wright's fear about his race.
More race comes in throughout Wright’s life, for example, there was a corner grocery
store that he goes to and he hears an unfamiliar foreign language to what he describes as “odd”
and he begins to make fun of them using a very taunting rhymed song. As of right now, Wright
doesn’t know that what he is doing is wrong but he is overcome by guilt later in the book when
he realizes that what he had done was horrible. Soon after, as he, his family, and Aunt Maggie
are staying in a room he notices that Aunt Maggie keeps getting a visitor late at night. Wright
eventually learns that this man is to be Aunt Maggie’s husband. On Aunt Maggie’s final night
being there Wright's mother is frantically packing a bag for Maggie and Wright learns that the
