Page "Richard Wright (author)" Paragraph 16

In mid-1953, Wright traveled to the Gold Coast, where Kwame Nkrumah was leading the country to independence from British rule.

Before Wright returned to Paris, he gave a confidential report to the United States consulate in Accra on some of the things he had learned about Nkrumah and his political party.

After he returned to Paris he met twice with an officer from the U. S. Department of State.

The officer's report includes what Wright had learned from Nkrumah advisor George Padmore about Nkrumah's plans for the Gold Coast after its independence ( as Ghana ).

Padmore, a Trinidadian living in London, believed Wright to be a good friend, as his many letters in the Wright papers at Yale's Beinecke Library attest, and their correspondence continued.

Wright's book on his journey, Black Power, was published in in 1954 ; its London publisher was Padmore's -- Dennis Dobson.

In addition to whatever political motivations Wright had for reporting to American officials, he was in the uncomfortable position of an American who did not want to go back to the United States and needed to have his passport renewed.

According to Wright biographer Addison Gayle, just a few months later Wright answered questions at the American embassy in Paris about people he had met in the Communist Party who were at this point being prosecuted under the Smith Act.