Richard Robert Wright Sr. (May 16, 1855 – July 2, 1947) was an American military officer, educator and college president, politician, civil rights advocate and banking entrepreneur.

[4] While visiting the school, retired Union General Oliver Otis Howard asked students what message he should take to the North.

In 1890, Emanuel K. Love and Wright were in a dispute with William White, Judson Lyons, Henry A. Rucker, and especially John H. Deveaux, who was in control of Georgia's Republic Party machinery.

The Second Morrill Land Grant Act of August 30, 1890 provided more land-grant funding to states, but also established federal oversight.

It required that Southern and border states, which had segregated public schools, develop land grant colleges for black students in order to receive any funds under this program.

Based on his studies, he developed a curriculum at Georgia State College to include elements of the seven classical liberal arts, the "Talented Tenth" philosophy of W. E. B.

Du Bois; Booker T. Washington’s vocational emphasis and self-reliance concepts, and the educational model of New England colleges.

Additionally, he expanded the curriculum to include a normal division (for teacher training) and courses in agriculture and mechanical arts.

He also provided four-year high-school subjects to prepare students who came from areas without such facilities, as was the case for many blacks from rural Georgia.

[3] Wright participated in the March 5, 1897 meeting to celebrate the memory of Frederick Douglass, who was an abolitionist and public intellectual.

[11] From the founding of the organization until 1902, Wright remained active among the scholars, editors, and activists of this first major African-American learned society.

Their work refuted racist scholarship, promoted black claims to individual, social, and political equality, and published the history and sociology of African-American life.

[5] He entered the business world in 1921, creating and leading Philadelphia's Citizens and Southern Bank and Trust Company at 1849 South Street.

Richard Wright wrote a landmark letter to President Harry Truman describing the horrible mistreatment of Isaac Woodard, a black veteran who had been severely beaten and had his eyes gouged out by white policemen.

As a result of this letter and advocacy by the NAACP about the case, President Truman asked his Attorney General, Tom Clark, to investigate.

It made far-reaching and prescient recommendations, including that there should be a permanent civil rights division in the Justice Department and that the entire executive branch of the federal government should be desegregated.

Some agencies had established segregation in their facilities in the early 20th century under President Woodrow Wilson, who was influenced by his own background in the South and by Southern members of his cabinet.

[4] In 1941, Wright invited national and local leaders to meet in Philadelphia to formulate plans to set aside February 1 each year to memorialize the anniversary of the 1865 signing by President Abraham Lincoln of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which freed all U.S. slaves.

[1] One year after Wright's death in 1947, both houses of the U.S. Congress passed a bill to make February 1 National Freedom Day.