Jonathan Jasper Wright (1840-1885)
Springville Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Jurist, educator, politician. The son of runaway slaves, Wright became the first black lawyer in Pennsylvania. He supported Frederick Douglass in advocating suffrage and legal equality for blacks. During Reconstruction in 1870, he was appointed South Carolina State Supreme Court justice, the first African American United States Appellate Judge. Wright's boyhood home was here in Springville.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Born in 1840 to parents who had escaped slavery, Jonathan Jasper Wright grew up in Springville and went on to become the first Black lawyer admitted to the bar in Pennsylvania. He stood with Frederick Douglass in the fight for the vote and legal equality, and in 1870, during Reconstruction, he was elevated to the South Carolina Supreme Court—the first African American to sit on a state's highest court. His rise from a runaway slaves' son to the bench marked a breathtaking, if fragile, moment of possibility.
Why it matters
Wright's career embodies the brief promise of Reconstruction, when Black Americans first entered the highest ranks of the nation's legal and political life.
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Related people
- · Jonathan Jasper Wright
- · Frederick Douglass
Themes & tags
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