On the recordMarch 19, 2021
I am going to do a couple of things right now, and one of the first ones is a little conversation about someone we lost in my community who actually was a friend and a neighbor and had an impact in ways that are hard to describe. I desperately wish the Members of this body could have spent time with him and his wife. It is Rev. Dr. Professor C.T. Wright. What was so unique about him is that he was a big man, and he had a voice that carried. You would have conversations with him, Madam Speaker, and realize just how incredibly brilliant he was. He was born in Georgia. He struggled and worked his way up. He ended up with a Ph.D. in history from Boston College. He became a civil rights leader, yet when you would talk to him about that, Reverend Wright--Dr. Wright--actually often wouldn't refer to himself as a civil rights leader. He would say: I want to lead for humanity. He loved people. It was a different view. He took his struggles, his success, and his academic prowess and said: We are going to make people's lives better. Why would you dare focus on the color of their skin? I remember one of the most interesting conversations I had with him where he and I were in the back of the room and talked, and he saw many of--actually, almost an example of what we just saw on the floor--the discussions of politics and race, and said: David, it is class and opportunity that divides us. It is not our color; it is our opportunity. Dr.…
