Up from Where We've Come

Up from Where We've Come is Charles Wright's memoir of his childhood in rural Tennessee during the 1940s and 1950s. Wright recounts his experiences growing up in a Black sharecropping family near Nashville, documenting their daily life, struggles, and moments of joy. The narrative follows Wright from age four through his teenage years as he works in the cotton fields, attends school, and navigates the realities of racial segregation. His family relationships, particularly with his parents and siblings, form the core of his story as they labor to make a living and maintain their dignity under the oppressive sharecropping system. The book presents a stark portrait of the American South during the Jim Crow era through the perspective of a child coming to understand his place in that world. Wright's memoir stands as a historical record of Black family life, rural poverty, and the gradual social changes that began to reshape the South in the mid-twentieth century.

There are not enough internet reviews to create a summary of this book. Instead, here is a summary of reviews of Charles Wright's overall work: Readers appreciate Wright's meditative and spiritual themes, with his poetry collections receiving high ratings on Goodreads (4.2 average). Many note his ability to capture natural landscapes and blend them with philosophical insights. Multiple readers highlight his precise language and imagery. A Goodreads reviewer wrote: "His descriptions of the Tennessee landscape make you feel like you're there." Another noted: "Wright finds profound meaning in small observations." Common criticisms include his work being too abstract or inaccessible. Some readers find his later collections repetitive in theme and style. One Amazon reviewer stated: "Beautiful language but often feels like he's writing the same poem over and over." Ratings across platforms: Goodreads: - Country Music: 4.3/5 (289 ratings) - Chickamauga: 4.1/5 (201 ratings) - Black Zodiac: 4.4/5 (334 ratings) Amazon: - Collected Poems: 4.6/5 (28 reviews) - Zone Journals: 4.2/5 (12 reviews) Most negative reviews focus on difficulty understanding his abstract style rather than quality of writing.

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🔹 Charles Wright penned this memoir in 1974, chronicling his experiences growing up in segregated Lexington, Mississippi, during the 1920s and 1930s as the son of a sharecropper. 🔹 The author worked as a successful journalist for the New York Daily News, becoming one of the first Black reporters to work for a major white-owned newspaper in New York City. 🔹 Throughout the memoir, Wright details the complex relationships between Black and white residents in rural Mississippi, including the unwritten social codes that governed daily interactions. 🔹 The book's title reflects the author's journey from poverty and racial oppression in the Deep South to eventual success in the northern United States, mirroring the larger Great Migration of African Americans. 🔹 Wright incorporated oral history techniques in his writing, preserving not just his own story but also the voices and experiences of his family members and community during a pivotal time in American history.