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Hon.
J. J. Wright |
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Judge of the
Supreme Court of South Carolina |
| JUDGE J. J. WRIGHT, OF SOUTH
CAROLINA |
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The Honorable J. J. Wright, recently
elected to a seat in the Supreme Court of South Carolina, whose portrait we give on page 149, was
born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and is now about thirty-one years of age. When he
was about six years old his parents removed to Montrose, Susquehanna County, in the same
State, where for several years he attended the district school during the winter months,
working for the neighboring farmers the rest of the year. Having saved up a small sum of money
he entered the Lancasterian University, at Ithaca, in New York State; and after a thorough course
of study there returned to the village where his parents resided, and entered the office of a law
firm, where he read law for two years, supporting himself by teaching. He subsequently
entered the office of Judge Collins, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, with whom he read law for
another year. Feeling himself qualified for the legal profession, he now applied for admission to
the Bar; but so great was the existing prejudice against colored men that the Committee refused
to examine him.
In April, 1865, he was sent by the American Missionary Society to Beaufort, South Carolina,
as a teacher and laborer among the freedmen. He remained in Beaufort until after the Civil Rights
Bill had passed, when he returned to Montrose, Pennsylvania, and demanded an examination.
The Committee found him qualified, and recommended his admission to the Bar. He was
admitted August 13, 1865, being the first and only colored man ever admitted to practice law in
Pennsylvania. In April, 1866, he was appointed by General O. O. Howard legal adviser for the
freedmen in Beaufort, and acted in that capacity until he was elected to the Constitutional
Convention of South Carolina. He was soon afterward elected Senator from the county
Beaufort, and acted as such until February 1, 1870, when he was elected to the Supreme Bench of
the State, and immediately entered upon the discharge of his duties as Judge. |
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