Herbert Lee Wright

- Langston Hughes

Herbert Lee Wright, 92, passed from this earth on April 17, 2020 in his Phoenix, Arizona care facility. He has found “Equality” and is indeed “Free”, resting in the arms of his loving God, in peace. Although he transcended his physical body, his energy, love and spirit will be with us beyond time.

We salute “Herbert Lee,” as he was known by family, and “Herb” by friends and colleagues, a decorated veteran, a pioneering entrepreneur, and an untiring and largely unsung fighter for justice. While most history books offer only passing reference to Herbert Wright, archives and newspapers across the country provide substantial documentation that identifies him as one of the major architects of the Modern Civil Rights Movement, a young man who challenged and labored to transform this nation.

Herbert was preceded in death by his wife, Shirley E. (Williams), mother, Josephine T. Berryman, step-father, E.L. Berryman, brother, James Wesley Wright and grandson, Patrick G. Wright, Jr.

Those beloved and privileged survivors who will continue to share Herb’s prolific story are his daughter, Deborah R. Hendon (Edmund) of Houston, TX, sons, Eric L. Wright, Sr. (Karen) of Danbury, CT, and Patrick G. Wright, Sr. of Tempe, AZ, grandchildren, Portia Wright, Tara Tate, Jamal Morgan, Simone Liles Henry (Maajo), Eric L. Wright, Jr.

and Justin Wright, great-grandchildren, Kaleb Coffee, Vicente Rojas, Jr., Joshua Coffee, Chandilyn Coleman, Dezia Wright, Tiara Wright, and Zara Liles Henry, nephew Paul W. Wright (Harrietta), cousins Jacqueline Walker, Uhry Thomas, Jr. (Renee), Laquona Thomas Smith (Kenneth), Sandra Risper, and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and cherished friends.

A virtual memorial tribute to Herb will be live streamed on Saturday, May 30, 2020 at 11 a.m. Central Time and a recorded version will be available June 1 at www.forevermissed.com/herbertwright/lifestory.

A member of the Greatest Generation, Herbert Lee’s legacy reads like a history book of accomplishments. His rich legacy can be told in the following narrative.

Born October 3, 1927 in Houston, Texas, Herbert Lee Wright graduated from Jack Yates High School in Third Ward, Houston. He enlisted in the US Army, serving in the 82nd Airborne Paratroopers toward the end of WW II and was a member of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, aka the Triple Nickels. After his discharge from the military with the rank of sergeant, Herb enrolled at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

He threw himself into campus life and participated in numerous activities and organizations. In his sophomore year, Wright was elected the first black student body president. He was president of the University chapter of the NAACP, a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and the national service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, among other organizations. In 1948, Wright’s classmates hailed him as a hero who saved lives when a fire destroyed the barracks that housed veterans on the campus. After he and other students boycotted businesses in Albuquerque that refused service to African Americans,

he worked with George Long, another pre-law student, to push for an ordinance in 1950, designed to “eliminate all discrimination in Albuquerque places of business because of race, creed, or religion.” The ordinance was ultimately adopted in 1952.

Upon graduating from the University of New Mexico with degrees in biology and political science in 1951, Wright was selected to replace Ruby Hurley as the NAACP’s national Youth Secretary. He married Shirley Williams, a UNM co-ed and together they moved to New York where they started their family.

During the critical years of the Civil Rights struggle in the 1950s and early 1960s, Herb was driven by his passion for equal treatment and making a better world for his family. He traveled extensively throughout the American south, working with students and youth organizers such as Daisy Bates to advise the Little Rock Nine, speaking at youth conferences and fundraising. His travels took him to South America and colonial-ruled Africa, lending support to civil rights advocates in those countries in the lead-up towards independence in 1963.

From their home in St. Albans, Queens, he and Shirley hosted guests from the South and held planning sessions attended by prominent freedom movement voices such as Whitney Young, A. Phillip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Thurgood Marshall, Bayard Rustin, Andrew Young and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., among others.

Throughout the span of the 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott initiated by Rosa Parks’ arrest, Herb championed the young men and women, including Claudette Colvin, who energized the local struggle. In June 1956, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. thanked Wright for sending letters of support from college students. “Such encouraging words from our youth are tremendously important in the struggle for justice as we are presently engaged in.” Weeks later when the NAACP met in San Francisco for its annual convention, Wright was with King when he reviewed the ongoing bus boycott and declared: “We will win this battle.”

On October 20, 1960, Wright stood tall next to Malcolm X in the Yale University Law School Auditorium as the two debated the “future of the American Negro.” The two toured Ivy League schools across the nation with Malcolm X championing black nationalism, while Wright underscored the value of litigation, education and legislation. As they debated, both men had mutual respect for one another and agreed that they were waging the same battles and fighting the same enemies.

Herbert was acknowledged for his work resulting in the unprecedented growth of NAACP youth membership, registering over 200,000 students by 1962. For over a decade amid milestone events in the Civil Rights Movement, Wright recruited and advised thousands of young people around the nation who dared to believe that their futures might be free of discrimination. And at nearly each step in countless communities across the nation, Herbert L. Wright was there providing encouragement, workshops, lectures, strategic advice, and affirmation until he departed from his NAACP position in the spring of 1962 to pursue business and real estate opportunities.

In working with black entertainers who supported the NAACP with their donations and speaking engagements, Wright became aware that many of the black entertainers were being taken advantage of and had been dealt extremely unfair terms in their contracts with recording companies. Herb became a business and road manager for musical notables such as Brook Benton, Sarah Vaughan, dancer Pearl Primus and drummer Max Roach. He worked hard in fighting for these entertainers’ rights, freed them from their existing one-sided agreements, and was successful in negotiating fair and lucrative contracts.

Herb’s desire to help others and to right inequities continued as he later founded Community Resources Corp., a real estate development firm. Between 1965 and 2003, Herb oversaw the completion of 2,500 low and moderate income housing units in urban centers in Washington, DC, Minneapolis, Boston and New York. He developed and managed Ennis Francis Houses in Harlem - his pride and joy - and which at the time was the highest subsidized Section 8 development in the U.S.

Herbert envisioned providing end-to-end energy services and founded NYTex Energy, embarking in international oil and commodities trading in West Africa. His human experience and business acumen led to him being named to the Board of Trustees of Dowling College in Oakdale, NY and to consulting for the College Entrance Examination Board.

Herbert Lee served this world with passion and an unparalleled restless spirit that accommodated people from all walks of life. Indeed, many others need to study and document Herbert Lee Wright’s lifetime of “good works.”

As we mark his transition and celebrate his remarkable journey, we pray that generations to come may remember, honor, and emulate Herbert Wright—a resilient voice, a brilliant writer, a talented organizer, and a tireless fighter for justice. “Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.”

A part of Herb has passed away, but so much is carried everyday within his family and friends, and will as long as they are here.

This may be a final tribute, a way to say goodbye, but it is not final. Every day those left will celebrate in some way, just by virtue of how Herb shaped a life, the absolute and incredible fortune that they knew Herb as a son, soldier, mentor, husband, father, grandfather, man and friend.