Down By the Riverside and the Civil Rights Movement
On the surface, Richard Wright's short story "Down By the Riverside" tells the story of a man relentlessly beat down by the systems of oppression in America's Jim Crow south, but under that harrowing exterior lies a plea for de-segregation and racial equality. The story's main character, Mann, is usually pushed through the plot not by his own will, but by naturalist forces which do not answer to him. However, there are sometimes brief moments of levity when characters' race almost seems to be forgotten for a short while as they try to survive the flooding. At one point in the story, Mann rows his family in a stolen boat towards a pair of distant, faint lights in hopes of finding aid or shelter from the storm. After rowing for hours, the thought of finding other people fills Mann with strength, "They helped him, those lights. For awhile he rowed without effort. Where there were lights there were people, and where there were people there was help … he row...
