Soul Music’s Charles Wright Releases Autobiography, “Up From Where We’ve Come”

‘Up From Where We’ve Come’ touches on first hand accounts of racism and is an honest depiction of how the renowned musician went from poverty to prosperity. It’s the first in a planned series of autobiographies that details his painful early life stories as a southern Black man that miraculously brought himself from poverty to prosperity. The inaugural installment, “Up From Where We’ve Come,” is an up-close and intimate telling of the Wright family’s back-breaking struggles as sharecroppers near Clarksdale, Mississippi through the ’40s and early ’50s. Written in the raw dialects and rhythms of how Blacks and Whites communicated with each other in the era, it is a insider’s glimpse into the realities of the times.

“I wanted to reveal just how thin the line between sharecropping and slavery really was. It’s important to me because I spent a significant part of my life under that regime. I started writing this book 40 years ago. It’s something – given the right circumstance – I wish I could have shared long ago…But now is the optimal time because discrimination never went away. Racism simply vaulted to a whole ’nother level. Honestly, in some cases, I’d take the way it used to be over what it is today. The process of systematic racial elimination is extremely ugly to me. I can see it so clearly. I need others to see it, too. So I’m expressing myself.” – Charles Wright

Charles Wright is a renowned musician and songwriter best known as the leader of the ’60s-founded Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band and for recording the enduring 1971 classic “Express Yourself” (#3 R&B, #12 Pop – Billboard). The ensemble also recorded the classics “Loveland ” (sung by drummer James Gadson who became an ace session musician in Los Angeles), “Do Your Thing ” (featuring lead guitarist Al McKay who went on to become a star member of Earth Wind & Fire) and the racial equality anthem “Comment” (also recorded by jazz legend Les McCann, alternative rockers Wilco and others).

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