For decades, the Rev. Thomas A. Wright has contributed to education time and time again. At the age of 94, he has retained his devotion to helping young people reach their potential, along with his buoyant optimism and booming voice.
The future of underprivileged youth is dear to Wright, the retired pastor of Gainesville’s Mount Carmel Baptist Church.
Wright grew up in Boynton Beach with six brothers and a sister living in what he describes as a “shack,” which lacked a refrigerator and indoor plumbing and was lit by two sole kerosene lanterns.
Wright dropped out of school in the eighth grade after his father’s death, and he went to work as a gardener on an estate in Lantana. With savings from his daily income of $2.25, Wright was able to help his mother, who he called his “model person,” with household expenses.
He approached an electrician about wiring the family home and reached a deal to do the job for $21 through an installment plan.
An appliance store owner allowed Wright to purchase a refrigerator on a payment plan.
A carpenter and plumber added a bathroom by building onto the four-room house.
“Those three experiences laid the foundation for my feeling that if you live close to God, what Jesus said is the truth: ‘Ask, and it shall be given. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and the door shall be open unto you,’” Wright said.
Education Opportunity
Wright has many people to thank for the help he received in getting his own education.
That help began after he left the Army and returned with his wife to Boynton Beach. He had been trying to find a way to get into college to use his GI bill benefits.
One day, a woman representing Florida Memorial knocked on his door and said she had met with his principal in eighth grade, who told her, “If there has ever been a young man with great potential and a good mind, Thomas Wright is one of the best I’ve ever seen.”
The representative helped Wright enroll in Florida Memorial’s program for GIs who had not completed high school.
As he was approaching his last semester of college, however, his GI Bill money ran out, and he didn’t see a way to pay the $300 tuition.
The Florida Memorial faculty selected Wright to go to a conference at Howard University in Washington, D.C. While in the northeast, Wright visited his wife’s aunt and uncle in Philadelphia, who alerted him to the compensation the State of Pennsylvania was paying veterans.
Wright received $275 from Pennsylvania, allowing him to complete college.
Based on the recommendation of a Florida Memorial faculty member, Wright also received a full scholarship to attend divinity school at Howard.
Repaying Support
Wright himself sought education for years, an accomplishment he finally achieved,but not without help along the way. Today, he continues to pay it forward.
In February 2014, he donated $50,000 to Santa Fe College to create an endowment for the Rev. Thomas A. Wright and Affie M. Wright Family Scholarship, named for himself and his late wife. Alachua County Commissioner Lee Pinkoson matched Wright’s contribution to the endowment, bringing it to $100,000.
Proceeds from the endowment will fund scholarships for students who live in low-income, multi-family housing units.
Serving these students is important to Wright, who persuaded the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to build Gainesville’s first low-income housing complex, Gardenia Garden Apartments.
In establishing the Santa Fe endowment, he was spurred by a 2008 Time magazine story about the issues facing people living in low-income housing.
“Too many people are suffering,” Wright said. “Too many problems.”
“There are people out there with good minds who need a chance,” he added. “It is such a great waste when nobody in a group has a chance to be trained.”
Wright’s contributions to education over the years include teaching at Florida Memorial College, then located in St. Augustine, as well as a Bethune-Cookman College program in Gainesville and the University of Florida.
Civil Rights Leadership
Wright promoted equal opportunity in education as a civil rights leader in both St. Augustine and Gainesville.
After receiving his master’s of divinity, he pastored St. Mary’s Missionary
Baptist Church in St. Augustine. He also led a group that met monthly to discuss civil rights.
“Every issue that you could think of, we discussed it: school segregation, jobs downtown, police brutality,” Wright said.
In 1960, Wright and other leaders, organized a sit-in at the Woolworth’s store.
Wright and his family received death threats, and crosses were burned in their front yard.
Wright’s wife and children left town in the middle of the night, temporarily moving to Boynton Beach. Wright stayed in St. Augustine several months more, hosting Martin Luther King Jr. for two visits to the area.
Demonstrations followed King’s arrival in St. Augustine — demonstrations that are credited with helping the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
With all the threats, Wright looked for another pastorate. Mt. Carmel invited him to serve as pastor in 1962, and he stayed in that position until 2006.
At first, Wright stayed away from activism in Gainesville.
“I had risked the life of myself and my wife and my children in St. Augustine,” he said. “I wasn’t having a thing to do with civil rights.”
Reluctantly, Wright attended an NAACP meeting at Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church.
Wright recounts the following conversation: “They said: ‘We need an active, brave person as our president.’ I said: ‘I’m not your man’; I said, ‘I’m not having a thing to do with civil rights.’”
By midnight, the long meeting concluded with Wright agreeing to serve for six months; eventually, the appointment stretched to 17 years.
In 1964, Wright won a suit against the Alachua County School Board in order to desegregate the schools. His daughter, LaVon, was the first black student to graduate from Gainesville High School.
A Legacy of Community Service
While Rev. Wright continues to work on scholarships from his room in the Atrium assisted living facility, his surviving children are still active although they are in their 60s and 70s themselves.
Philoron, who retired this year as assistant superintendent of Alachua County Schools, is now running for the school board.
Lavon is still active in the New Covenant Baptist Church in Orlando, which she and her husband, Dr. Randolph Bracy Jr., founded.
Patricia Murray, a retired teacher, lives in Palm Beach County.
Rev. Wright’s achievements were recognized when UF awarded him an honorary doctorate of public service in 2002.
“One of the most precious weeks of my life was attending the activities the week they gave me the doctorate,” he said.
Wright represents the impact one person can have on a community. His lifetime of service and faith will undoubtedly be part of his legacy.
Captions:
Rev Wright: Rev. Wright holds photos of his late wife and himself
94 Birthday: Rev. Wright at his 94th birthday celebration