American Century Revives NATIVE SON 4/14 At Gunston Center
by Gabrielle Sierra
- Mar 25, 2009
Novelist Richard Wright's searing novel Native Son aroused violent controversy from the moment it was published. The saga of a young American black man who becomes an unrepentant killer, the book was hailed as an uncompromising indictment of the nation's racial divisions and social injustice, and condemned as feeding white bigotry while excusing crime. Naturally, Orson Welles, then the most dynamic force in American theater, thought it was just the kind of story his Mercury Theater needed to tackle.
