about

Jonathan Jasper Wright is credited as being the first Black attorney licensed in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, gaining admission to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1865. During Reconstruction, he relocated to South Carolina, initially working to educate recently freed slaves. He served on the South Carolina Constitutional Convention and South Carolina Senate, before ultimately being elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court.

 

Wright is recognized as the first Black judge on any state appellate court. Unfortunately, ongoing political turmoil and racial tension forced him off the SC Supreme Court in 1877. He returned to private practice in Charleston, where he died in 1890. He personifies the hope of Reconstruction, and the sorrow of Jim Crow. His name is the inspiration for the Wright Legacy.