The Ossification of Hierarchy and Civil Disobedience in "Down by the Riverside"

 

"Down by the Riverside" by Richard Wright illustrates how a White supremacist hierarchy is upheld by a number of social rituals that are repeated to such a degree that they become almost natural to those that participant in them, both Black and White to some degree. By arguing for the totality of the South's racial hierarchy, the narrative argues that the only real solution is mass disruption of the well-oiled machine through civil disobedience. 

The story takes place during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. Our protagonist, Mann, a Black man, seeks to take his pregnant wife Lulu into town to give birth, all while avoiding the forced labor on the levy that all Black people are liable to. His relative, Bob, provisions him with a boat stolen from the virulently racist Mr. Heartfield, and he makes his way into town. As Mann makes his way into town, he is able to navigate in an oddly free manner because of the darkness. Still, he is overjoyed to find "square of dim, yellow light" because "where there is light, there is people." However, the fear soon enters his mind as he approaches a house "Is they white folks?." Mann relates his plight but the voice from the house, a White man, tells him to "Wait a minute!" (Wright 61). A moment passes and "a pencil of light [shoots] out into the darkness. . .[to catch] the boat" (Wright 62). Even in times of crisis, the White southerner goes out of his way to fetch a flashlight in order to racially differentiate between supplicants. The man turns out to be Mr. Heartfield, who subsequently completely forgets about Mann’s entreaty and focuses on one thing, his property. He only replies, “[racial slur], where you steal that boat?” Heartfield’s son follows up, emphasizing that the boat belongs to them because “It’s white” (Wright 62).  When confronted with the crisis of the flood, White southerners fear it more as an event that might destabilize hierarchies of race and property than a natural disaster. This anxiety manifests through attempts at using the flashlight to distinguish between racial groups and focusing on the defense of their “White” property.

During the confrontation with Heartfield, Mann shoots him in self-defense. He is pursued but manages to escape and row himself to the hospital, where Lulu dies. As soon as he arrives, he is greeted by soldiers who speak in jest about his struggles and cast his actions as ludicrous. One soldier refers to him with a racial slur and remarks, “I never thought anybody was fool enough to row a boat against the current.” He subsequently refers to him in animalistic terms as a “[racial slur] who beat everyone” in rowing over from the ghetto, implying that he would do good work on the levy and tells another soldier to take him to the Red Cross hospital, noting that “his bitch is sick” (Wright 66). The doctor also patronizes him and tries to blame him for not tending to her health, asking him “Why didn’t you bring her sooner?” In the end, he only coldly remarks, “Well oy, she’s dead” (Wright 68). The use of “boy” is an obvious attempt at infantilization. As Mann stands frozen in grief, the doctor and nurses merely “gather around” him as if observing a specimen. One nurse remarks only “Poor [racial slur],” but none of them try to comfort him (Wright 68). By treating Mann as childlike and animalistic, the medical staff are able to distance themselves from his suffering and thus continue their complicity in the system of Jim Crow. 

After witnessing the death of his wife, Mann has little time to recover. Instead, the soldiers rapidly and aggressively redirect him to work on the levee alongside the town’s other Black, male populace. Mann is paired with Brinkley, a young Black man who seems to have fully internalized the rituals and mentalities of the Jim Crow system. As soon as a soldier calls for someone to go into the deep waters to rescue only White survivors, Brinkley eagerly responds, “Ah Kin, Mistah!” while Mann hesitates (Wright 75). Choosing Black men to pilot the boats seems to be an uneasy decision for the soldiers. One notes that, “We don’t want too many [racial slur]’s handling these boats” however they find themselves forced to admit Black men because of the lack of drivers (Wright 75). In order to counteract this disruption of the social order, the women that Mann rescues refer to him with racial slurs. In addition, the women “scream and pull back” as soon as he lifts them onto the roof while the soldiers immediately tell him to “Let [them] go!” (Wright 79). Brinkley remains indifferent in the face of these rituals of hierarchy, simply accepting them. Afterwards, Mann learns that they will travel to the house of the Heartfields in order to rescue them. He fears being lynched if they identify him. However, he is unsure whether to trust Brinkley. As he looks at Brinkley and tries to make a decision, he sees, “the boy was bent forward, straining his eyes, searching the surface of the black water” (Wright 81). Mann is already receiving signals that Brinkley has passively internalized the logic of the Jim Crow system and cannot be trusted. 

Mann escapes from the Heartfields, but he is eventually identified. He expects help from the Black crowd that surrounds him, but he cannot get them to notice him. They appear as a mass “blurred and merged one into the other” without agency (Wright 88). However, he does realize that he “had not helped other black men being taken by the white folks to their death” (Wright 88). At the end of the narrative, he slowly realizes the importance of solidarity. His cries grow from personal appeals to the White men executing him to a final call to “stop killing black folks!” (Wright 100). 

“Down by the Riverside” makes clear that the rituals of racial hierarchy in the South gradually entrench themselves into the consciousnesses of its inhabitants. The White populace comes to disregard the humanity of the Black population, and the Black populace has to internalize submission in order to survive. This a society that cannot be transformed by individual action but one that can only be transformed by solidarity and mass civil disobedience as the narrative suggests.