Wright's terror of the south

“This was the culture from which I sprang. This was the terror from which I fled.”
This comes, as Wright is about to be leaving for the north. He has been taking to Shorty about how Wright is lucky to leave the south. The terror, which Wright is talking about, is the fear the blacks have of the whites and what the whites will do if the blacks were to fight back. Wright is trying to go to the north were he will be a little more accepted by people but it is what Shorty says in the elevator the is why Wright wants to leave the south. Shorty says, “I’ll die here. Or maybe they’ll kill me.” It is that fear of being killed if you do something wrong you can be killed or you can be killed because the whites just do not like you like we see in the first optical shop Wright works at. Wright is going north to escape some of this terror of the south although he will never be free of this terror just yet.