Hello All:
I found this bio on Facebook about the illustrious Judge Bruce Wright. I was so elated that he was being featured until I realized that, with all the detail given in the bio, there was one glaring oversight - no mention of the fact that he was a proud alumnus of LINCOLN UNIVERSITY - my Alma Mater. I tried to let it go, but I realized that this was on FaceBook, where thousands of people were bound to read it and think it was the totality of who he was and how he got started. Judge Bruce Wright graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1942. He is a legend in New York - with the appellation of "TURN 'EM LOOSE BRUCE!" I heard about him long before I even moved to New York. In fact, long before I attended Lincoln. The sad point of fact is that Lincoln University neglected to tell us that he was an Alumnus. I learned that after I graduated and moved to Harlem. Mind you, Lincoln University has no compunction about telling us who their grads were - they fairly bragged on them: Langston Hughes, President Kwame Nkrumah, President Nnamdi Azikewe, Thurgood Marshall, Cab Calloway, etc... But, somehow, Judge Bruce Wright was not mentioned.
Interestingly enough, his son, Keith, and I were co-workers at the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA); and later he worked with future mayor David N. Dinkins. Still, no one told me the connection between Judge Wright and Lincoln.
So, I am bragging - Judge Bruce Wright was a Lincoln graduate - we are so proud of all that he accomplished while sitting on the bench. Yet another star in the Lincoln University Pantheon. We celebrate his birthdate - September 28, 1918. My FB comments and those of a few others are included in this post.
September 26 at 10:35 PM ·
I found this bio on Facebook about the illustrious Judge Bruce Wright. I was so elated that he was being featured until I realized that, with all the detail given in the bio, there was one glaring oversight - no mention of the fact that he was a proud alumnus of LINCOLN UNIVERSITY - my Alma Mater. I tried to let it go, but I realized that this was on FaceBook, where thousands of people were bound to read it and think it was the totality of who he was and how he got started. Judge Bruce Wright graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1942. He is a legend in New York - with the appellation of "TURN 'EM LOOSE BRUCE!" I heard about him long before I even moved to New York. In fact, long before I attended Lincoln. The sad point of fact is that Lincoln University neglected to tell us that he was an Alumnus. I learned that after I graduated and moved to Harlem. Mind you, Lincoln University has no compunction about telling us who their grads were - they fairly bragged on them: Langston Hughes, President Kwame Nkrumah, President Nnamdi Azikewe, Thurgood Marshall, Cab Calloway, etc... But, somehow, Judge Bruce Wright was not mentioned.
Interestingly enough, his son, Keith, and I were co-workers at the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA); and later he worked with future mayor David N. Dinkins. Still, no one told me the connection between Judge Wright and Lincoln.
So, I am bragging - Judge Bruce Wright was a Lincoln graduate - we are so proud of all that he accomplished while sitting on the bench. Yet another star in the Lincoln University Pantheon. We celebrate his birthdate - September 28, 1918. My FB comments and those of a few others are included in this post.
September 26 at 10:35 PM ·
Lest We forget... "Turn 'em Loose Bruce", Bruce M. Wright...
Bruce M. Wright was born on September 28, 1918. He was an Afrikan judge, lawyer, and poet.
He was born in Princeton, N.J., and raised in Harlem, New York. Bruce McMarion Wright's father was Black and his mother was white. He was awarded a scholarship to attend Princeton in 1939, but denied admission when the university learned that he was Black. Wright was denied admission to Notre Dame on the same grounds.
He had no trouble entering a U.S. Army’s Infantry Division. But after
World War II he went AWOL, making his way to Paris, where he was
befriended by Senegalese poet Leopold Senghor, who later became his
country's first president. "I was introduced to him as an American poet.
All I ever wanted to be in life was a poet," said Wright, a friend of
Langston Hughes. Wright's first book of poetry, "From the Shaken Tower,"
was edited by Hughes and published in 1944. He then graduated from
Lincoln University, attended Fordham Law School, and obtained his law
degree from New York Law School.
After receiving his law degree he worked for the law firm, Proskauer Rose, where he represented such jazz legends as Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Max Roach. Wright worked as a criminal and civil lawyer. Mayor John V. Lindsay named him to the bench in 1970. Judge Wright was critical of the judicial system and believed that race and class all too frequently determined the outcome of a trial.
Appointed as the General Counsel for the Human Resources Administration in New York City, Wright served as a judge in New York's civil and criminal courts. He was elected to the New York State Supreme Court in 1982 and retired on Dec. 31, 1994.
Justice Wright spent 25 years on the bench in both criminal and civil cases, gaining a reputation as a scholarly and provocative jurist who sprinkled his opinions with literary quotations. He was the author of a 1987 book, “Black Robes, White Justice,” about the role of race in the judicial system. Wright suffered a heart attack in March 2000 and was made an honorary member of Princeton's 2001 class 65 years after being denied a scholarship because of his race.
Judge Bruce M. Wright, who denounced what he called racism in the criminal justice system and created a furor in the 1970s by setting low bail for many poor and minority suspects, died in his sleep on March 24, 2005, at his home in Harlem, New York, at the age of 86. His wife, Elizabeth Davidson-Wright, announced his death.
Source: Bruce Wright, Repetitions
After receiving his law degree he worked for the law firm, Proskauer Rose, where he represented such jazz legends as Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Max Roach. Wright worked as a criminal and civil lawyer. Mayor John V. Lindsay named him to the bench in 1970. Judge Wright was critical of the judicial system and believed that race and class all too frequently determined the outcome of a trial.
Appointed as the General Counsel for the Human Resources Administration in New York City, Wright served as a judge in New York's civil and criminal courts. He was elected to the New York State Supreme Court in 1982 and retired on Dec. 31, 1994.
Justice Wright spent 25 years on the bench in both criminal and civil cases, gaining a reputation as a scholarly and provocative jurist who sprinkled his opinions with literary quotations. He was the author of a 1987 book, “Black Robes, White Justice,” about the role of race in the judicial system. Wright suffered a heart attack in March 2000 and was made an honorary member of Princeton's 2001 class 65 years after being denied a scholarship because of his race.
Judge Bruce M. Wright, who denounced what he called racism in the criminal justice system and created a furor in the 1970s by setting low bail for many poor and minority suspects, died in his sleep on March 24, 2005, at his home in Harlem, New York, at the age of 86. His wife, Elizabeth Davidson-Wright, announced his death.
Source: Bruce Wright, Repetitions
Comments
Gloria Dulan-Wilson Uh,
Ray - I don't know how you can write all this and fail to mention that
HE GRADUATED FROM LINCOLN UNIVERSITY IN PENNSYLVANIA???!!!!! Class of
1942. That meant he was a freshman when Nkrumah and Langston Hughes
were seniors. He was a Lincoln Man thru and thru - and Lincoln Lion and
it proved to be advantageous during the course of his career as a judge
because he knew what kinds of conditions and prejudices Black men and
women had to endure. A total legend in his own time. Please make sure
you include this monumental detail in any future writing you do about
him. His son, Keith, is a New York State Assemblymember, and a dear friend. We were former co-workers at the New York City Transit Authority. Stay Blessed & ECLECTICALLY BLACK - Gloria
STAY BLESSED
Alice Bonner Unforgettable. I met him as a guest speaker at Columbia U. in 1973 and at Harvard in 1978.Ron Austin I met him in the 70's at Rochester State U.
Nathan Hare I
was in a meeting with him and some educators in New Yiork.Nice man.
When he came to speak in the Bay Area. It was wall to wall.
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