Jonathan Jasper Wright
Jonathan Jasper Wright (c. 1870)
Associate Justice of theSouth Carolina Supreme Court
In office January 30, 1870 – December 1, 1877
Preceded by	Solomon L. Hoge
Succeeded by	Alexander Cheves Haskell
Member of theSouth Carolina Senate fromBeaufort County
In office November 24, 1868 – January 30, 1870
Preceded by	Richard J. Davant
Succeeded by	Robert Smalls
Personal details
Born	(1840-02-11)February 11, 1840 Luzerne,Pennsylvania
Died	February 18, 1885(1885-02-18) (aged 45) Charleston,South Carolina

Jonathan Jasper Wright (February 11, 1840 – February 18, 1885) was an African-American lawyer who served as a state senator and judge on the Supreme Court of the State ofSouth Carolina duringReconstruction from 1870 to 1877.

Wright was born on February 11, 1840, inLuzerne County, Pennsylvania.^[1] When he was about six years old his parents moved toMontrose,Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. He attended the district school during the winter months, working for the neighboring farmers the rest of the year.

He saved up a small sum of money and enteredLancasterian University inIthaca,New York State. After a thorough course of study there, he returned to the village where his parents resided. He received an honoraryLL.D fromAvery College in Pittsburgh.^[2] He entered the office of a law firm, where heread law for two years, supporting himself by teaching. He subsequently entered the office of Judge Collins, inWilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, with whom he read law for another year. He applied for admission to the Bar but the committee refused to examine him because of racial prejudice.

In April 1865, Wright was sent by theAmerican Missionary Society toBeaufort, South Carolina, as a teacher and laborer among the freed slaves. He remained in Beaufort until theCivil Rights Act passed. Then he returned to Montrose, Pennsylvania, and demanded an examination for the Bar. The Committee found him qualified, and recommended his admission to the Bar. He was admitted August 13, 1865, and was the first African American admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania.

In April 1866, Wright was appointed by GeneralOliver Otis Howard, head of theFreedmen's Bureau in Beaufort, to be the legal adviser for the freedmen. In July 1868 he was elected to the Constitutional Convention of South Carolina. He was the convention vice-president and helped draft the judiciary section of the State Constitution, which remains today. Wright was soon afterward elected state senator from Beaufort County. On February 1, 1870, he was elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court. He served for seven years, until the white Democrats regained control of state government in 1877. Wright left the Court and entered into private practice in Charleston. He died oftuberculosis in 1885.

TheUnited States Law Review gave a scornful summary of his career after his death.^[3] His death was covered on the front page of theCharleston News and Courier including the statement that "one more relic of Reconstruction disappears."^[4]

In 1997, portrait artistLarry Francis Lebby was commissioned to produce a painting of Wright, which was unveiled in theSouth Carolina Supreme Court building inColumbia, South Carolina.^[5][6]

• List of African-American jurists
• List of first minority male lawyers and judges in South Carolina

• Hine, William C. (1999), "Wright, Jonathan Jasper", inGarraty, John A.; Carnes, Mark C. (eds.),American National Biography,Oxford:Oxford University Press,ISBN 978-0-19-520635-7,OCLC 39182280.
• Holt, Thomas (1977),Black over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina during Reconstruction,Champaign,Illinois:University of Illinois Press,ISBN 978-0-252-00775-0,OCLC 2964308.
• Picture and text fromHarper's Weekly, March 5, 1870, p. 149.
• Oldenfield, J. R. (1989), "A High and Honorable Calling: Black Lawyers in South Carolina, 1868–1915",Journal of American Studies,23 (3):395–406,doi:10.1017/S0021875800004047,ISSN 0021-8758,OCLC 22222229.
• Rogers, George C. Jr. (1992),Generations of Lawyers: A History of the South Carolina Bar,Columbia,South Carolina: South Carolina Bar Foundation,ISBN 978-0-945036-01-2,OCLC 27192809.
• Tindall, George B. (2003),South Carolina Negroes, 1877–1900,Columbia,South Carolina:University of South Carolina Press,ISBN 978-1-57003-494-7,OCLC 51151417.
• Williamson, Joel (1965),After Slavery: The Negro in South Carolina during Reconstruction, 1861–1877,Chapel Hill,North Carolina:University of North Carolina Press,OCLC 335753.
• Woody, R. H. (April 1933), "Jonathan Jasper Wright, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1870–77",The Journal of Negro History,18 (2):114–31,doi:10.2307/2714290,ISSN 0022-2992,JSTOR 2714290,OCLC 30061380,S2CID 150315666.

• The Jonathan Jasper Wright Award at the Law School of the University of South Carolina

• People of the Reconstruction era
• Justices of the South Carolina Supreme Court
• 1840 births
• 1885 deaths
• U.S. state supreme court judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law
• South Carolina Republicans
• 19th-century South Carolina state court judges
• 19th-century American lawyers
• 19th-century African-American lawyers
• African-American politicians of the Reconstruction era

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata