Richard Wright wrote only a handful of published poems during his life. However, those he did publish were incredibly important to race relations in the United States (which is the consistent theme throughout his work). Born in 1908 in Mississippi to former slaves, Wright's interest in writing began at age 15, when he published a short story in the local black newspaper. Wright excelled in school, but ultimately decided that he and his family would join the Great Migration of Blacks moving up to the Northern United States for better opportunity -- and less racism. His dream came true, as he and his family were able to move to Chicago. It was there that he began to write some of his more racially-charged work.
For most of his later work, Wright drew on his childhood experiences when he lived in the segregated South. He drew from those experiences to write his poem "Between the World and Me." Ultimately, the poem is about a black man who discovers the horrific site of a lynching, which turns his life upside down. He is overcome with fear and struggles to live his life fully. The poem was historically important because it was published during the time an anti-lynching bill was trying to get passed through the United States Congress (this ultimately failed, but Wright and others tried their best to ensure that it did). Although not incredibly well-known any more, the poem received solid reviews and played a key role in the repair of race relations in the United States.
