Beyond the blues

Richard Wright, psychoanalysis, and the modern idea of culture

Eli Zaretsky

pp. 43-70

in: Joy Damousi, Mariano Ben Plotkin (eds), The transnational unconscious, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009

Abstract

The transformation in the self-image of American blacks between 1903, when The Souls of Black Folk appeared, and the 1963 March on Washington is one of the most inspiring episodes in all of history. Early twentieth century black America was a ravaged continent, rural, protoliterate and impoverished, still dominated by lords and masters, whether plantation-owners and ex-confederates, internal despots such as Booker T. Washington, or Northern patrons, "philanthropists," and political mentors. A few years before The Souls of Black Folk appeared, when some black college students in Alabama accidentally wandered into a white railroad car, their black college president, William H. Council, called them into his office with the words, "You all have ruined me," and then, weeping, handed his resignation to the white board of trustees.¹ By way of contrast, similarly situated black college students launched the Civil Rights movement in the Deep South in the 1950s. Facing down intimidation, jail, and lynching, their actions culminated in the March on Washington and the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965.