Hon. James Wright, Jr.- At Large

James Wright Jr. Biography for the City of Seat Pleasant

James Wright Jr., a resident of Ward I, serves as an at-large council member on the Seat Pleasant City Council. He has lived in Seat Pleasant since 2005. 

The city council appointed James Wright to fill the vacancy for At-Large  on October 10th, 2022, and was sworn in on Monday, October 24th, 2022.

In Seat Pleasant, Mr. Wright serves as the vice chair of the CPAC, a support for the city’s police department. He has served as president of the Seat Pleasant Citizens Association and as a member of the Seat Pleasant/University of Maryland Health Partnership. Mr. Wright is a member of the 202 Coalition led by state Senator Joanne Benson.

Mr. Wright is a staff writer for the Washington Informer Newspaper. He has worked with the Informer since December 2018 and had written  freelance articles for the newspaper from October 2009-August 2014.

Mr. Wright has been a staff writer and city editor for the Washington AFRO-American Newspaper covering Capitol Hill and the White House and sports from April 1993-July 2000. He worked in The Washington Post sports copy desk from July 2000-August 2005. He returned to the AFRO in August 2005 as a general assignment reporter until August 2009.

Mr. Wright has traveled extensively to Africa, the United Kingdom, Rome, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Ghana, as a journalist and interviewed such notables as Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi, U.S. Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Vice President Al Gore, South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, and many African Americans leaders including members of the Congressional Black Caucus. He has received numerous awards because of his work and appeared on numerous radio and television shows. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists.

Mr. Wright was initiated into the Eta Gamma chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. in Spring 1984. He serves presently as the Associate Editor to The Sphinx for the Omicron Lambda Alpha chapter and is the longest serving member of the executive board in the same position. Mr. Wright facilitated “The OLA Show,” the only Divine 9 chapter that has its own television show. He has served as a delegate to the Baltimore and Indianapolis General Conventions and the 2021 Eastern Regional Convention. In June 2022, OLA chapter awarded him its highest honor, the Leon Gordon Order of the Sphinx Award, and renamed its President’s Award the James Wright President’s Award.

Mr. Wright has worshipped at Asbury United Methodist Church since 1996 and presently serves as the church historian and sits on regional historical organizations for the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

Mr. Wright is a native of Austin, Texas, holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Prairie View A & M University, 1986.

Mr. Wright’s greatest inspiration is his 91-year-old mother, Helen Porter Wright, who grew up in segregated Austin, Texas to become financially secure in her own right.