In a Chicago restaurant, a young black man took a job as a dishwasher. Later he would work as a ditch-digger, delivery boy, hospital worker, and postal clerk—all youthful survival steps before he found his true calling as an author.
In his writings and particularly in his most successful novel, “Native Son,” his cry of what racism can do to a black man was burned into the consciousness of American readers through the powerful and horrific story of Bigger Thomas. Perhaps he opened his readers to the strength of Dr. King‘s Civil Rights message. And certainly his message laid bare the history that unveiled the terrible consequences of racism for so many African-Americans, including the real-life story of Emmet Till, who was tortured, pulverized, and left to rot in a Mississippi river because someone said he whistled.
New to the North, this young dishwasher was approached by a white waitress.
“Young man, will you tie my apron?” She was heavy-set and her arms couldn’t reach around easily. She smiled nicely at him.
His hands froze.
“Hurry up, I’ve got an order waiting!”
Gingerly, his black fingers took the white strings and tied them, a looping bow, then pulled tightly, securing them in place.
“Thanks, “ she exclaimed before she whisked away.
Richard Wright later wrote: “I continued my work, filled with all the possible outcomes that tiny, simple human event could have brought to any Negro in the South where I had spent my hungry days.”
Originally published in Fewer Than 500