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Major R.R. Wright Sr.

Major R.R. Wright Sr.: Entrepreneur and Banker

Beyond his leadership of National Freedom Day, Major Richard R. Wright Sr. built landmark Black-owned enterprises — from importing Haitian coffee to founding the Citizens and Southern Bank and Trust Company. The archival photographs and captions below are reproduced verbatim from the original records.

Haitian Coffee and Do-Nut Shop

In 1935, Major Wright established the Haitian Coffee and Products Trading Company. This business venture made him the sole U.S. importer and distributor of Haitian coffee. It also helped to boost his bank's assets from $800,000 to $3 Million in 1939. The name of his bank was Citizens and Southern Bank and Trust Company.

First Airplane Trip to Encourage Aviation and Commerce

MAJOR R. R. WRIGHT TAKES FIRST AIRPLANE TRIP TO ENCOURAGE AVIATION AND COMMERCE. He, along with aviator C. Albert Anderson, flies to Richmond, Virginia with top quality Haitian coffee. A round trip of 500 miles, altitude 4000 feet, completed in 4 flying hours. This trip was designed to boost commerce and aviation in the African American community.

Historical Marker

The historical marker for the Citizens and Southern Bank is located on the 1800 block of South Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Marker text: 'CITIZENS AND SOUTHERN BANK. Founded in 1921 by R.R. Wright Sr., who was born of slave parents, this bank was noted for serving the financial needs of Black community members. It survived the Great Depression and later established and opened offices throughout the city.'

The Bank Building

The Citizens and Southern Bank and Trust was located at 1849 South Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When the Bank and Trust Company was founded by Major R. Wright Sr. in 1921, it represented the largest Black-owned bank in the South and the only Black Trust Company in the United States. This institution was sold in 1957 to White investors with assets totaling $5.5 million.

Chauffeur to His Office

Chauffeur drives Major Wright to his office. It is a far cry from the day when he was age 11 and walked 200 miles with his mother to Atlanta to enter his first school.

Constitutional Foundation

The Reconstruction Amendments

Ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments — together known as the Reconstruction Amendments — transformed the United States Constitution from a document that tolerated slavery into one that promised freedom, citizenship, equal protection, and the franchise. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude. The Fourteenth Amendment established birthright citizenship, guaranteed due process and the equal protection of the laws to every person, and addressed representation, insurrection, and the public debt. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibited the denial of the vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Together they remade the meaning of American citizenship.

These amendments are not relics. They are the living constitutional foundation for nearly every contemporary debate over who belongs, who is protected, and who may participate in self-government. Birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment is once again contested, even as it remains the clearest constitutional guarantee that those born on American soil are Americans. The equal protection and due process clauses underpin modern civil rights law and remain the principal shield against state discrimination. The Fifteenth Amendment's promise of voting rights regardless of race is tested anew with every change to ballot access, district lines, and election administration — questions that turn on whether the franchise is genuinely open to all citizens or narrowed by race and circumstance.

Two clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment have taken on renewed urgency. Section 3, the insurrection clause, disqualifies from federal and state office those who, having sworn an oath to support the Constitution, engaged in insurrection or rebellion against it — a provision largely dormant for over a century until the events of January 6, 2021 returned it to the center of public debate over accountability for those who attacked the peaceful transfer of power. Section 4, the public-debt clause, declares that the validity of the public debt authorized by law shall not be questioned — a guarantee now invoked in debates over the debt ceiling and the nation's fiscal obligations. The full verbatim text of each amendment, with every section preserved exactly as ratified, appears below.

Amendment XIII

Section 1

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XIV

Section 1

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.

Section 3

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Amendment XV

Section 1

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section 2

The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Historical Record

Past National Freedom Day Speakers

A chronological register of every speaker who has addressed the National Freedom Day observance from 1942 through 2026. Names, titles, affiliations, and venues are reproduced verbatim from the original program records.

Past National Freedom Day speakers, 1942 through 2026, grouped by year in ascending order
Year	Speaker	Place
1942	Dr. J. S. Clark, Baton Rouge, Louisiana	Convention Hall
1943	Dr. Charles H. Wesley, Wilberforce, Ohio	Academy of Music
1944	Governor Edward Martin, Pennsylvania	Convention Hall
1945	Mrs. Beulah Whitby, Basileus, AKA Sorority
	Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune
	Congressman William Dawson, III
	Senator J. Francis Myers, Pennsylvania
	Congressman James P. McGranery, Pennsylvania
1946	Dr. Nannie Burroughs	Convention Hall
1946	Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, Daytona Beach, Florida	Town Hall
1947	Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Sedalia, North Carolina	Town Hall
1947	Congressman Adam Clayton Powell (Luncheon)	Ritz Carlton Hotel
1948	Reverend J. H. Jackson, D.D., Chicago, Illinois	Academy of Music
1949	Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Hyde Park, New York	Town Hall
	Dr. Alfred H. Williams, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia	Adelphia Hotel
	Miss Elsie Austin	Academy of Music
	Reverend William Hones Boarders, D.D., Atlanta, Georgia	Academy of Music
1950	Ms. Ruth Whaley Whitehead, Secretary of Board of New York City	Sherwood Hotel
1951	Judge J. Walters Waring (Luncheon)	Ritz Carlton
1951	Dr. Rayford W. Logan, Howard University	The Franklin Institute
1952	Dr. Kenneth D. Wells, President Freedom Foundation, Valley Forge, PA	The Franklin Institute
	Dr. John C. Dancy, Detroit, Michigan
	Reverend Gardner C. Taylor, Brooklyn, New York	Town Hall
1953	Reverend Archibald Carey, Chicago, Illinois	Academy of Music
1954	Dr. Sandy Ray, Brooklyn, New York	Warwick Hotel
1954	Mrs. Carmel Marr, United Nations Advisor
1955	Judge Thurgood Marshall, New York, NY	Congress Hall
	Mrs. Ray Biester, Superintendent, U.S. Mint, Philadelphia	Barclay Hotel
	Dr. Ira Dea. Reid, Haverford College, Pennsylvania (Luncheon)	Adelphia Hotel
1956	Attorney George E. C. Hayes, Department of Labor, Washington, DC	Warwick Hotel
1957	Congresswoman Kathryn S. Granahan, Pennsylvania	Warwick Hotel
1957	Mrs. Loretta Scott King, Atlanta, Georgia
1958	Dr. Harry S. Longley, Philadelphia	Sheraton Hotel
	Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Atlanta, Georgia	Congress Hotel
	Mrs. Anna E. Heath, Washington, DC (Dinner)	Sheraton Hotel
1960	Mr. Lee H. Bristol Jr., Bristol-Myers (Luncheon)	The P.A Academy of Fine Arts
1960	Dr. E. Fred Maser, Pastor, Old St. George Methodist Church	Independence Hall
1961	Dr. Horace Mann Bond, Atlanta, Georgia	Benjamin Franklin Hotel
1962	Dr. Ralph D. Abernathy, Atlanta, Georgia	Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church
1963	Judge Constance Baker Motley (Luncheon)	Patriots Hall - Bookbinders
	Dr. Howard E. Mitchell
	Mr. Louis Lomax, New York, NY	Bethel A.M.E. Church
1964	Senator Leroy Johnson, Atlanta, Georgia	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
1964	Senator Verdict Welcome, Baltimore, Maryland
1965	Mrs. Alex Quassey-Sakgey, Ghana, Africa, Wife of Pres. General Assembly, UN	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
1965	Dr. John W. Davis, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc
1966	Mr. Ossie Davis, New York, NY, Noted Actor	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
1966	Mr. Cecil B. Moore, Philadelphia NAACP	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
1967	Honorable Julian Bond, Member Georgia State Legislature	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
1968	Mr. P. Jay Sidney, TV Personality	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
1969	Dr. Bennetta B. Washington, Educator	Sheraton Hotel
1969	Reverend Leon H. Sullivan, Founder OIC	Sheraton Hotel
1970	Congressman William H. Gray
1970	Dr. Marcus A. Foster, Educator
1971	Dr. Herman R. Brannon, President, Lincoln University	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
1971	Dr. William Hudgins, Freedom National Bank	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
1972	Dr. Helen Edmunds, Dean of Graduate School, NCCU, Durham, NC / National President, The Links Inc.	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
1973	Mr. Mal Goode, Press Representative, United Nations -ABC	Benjamin Franklin Hotel
1973	Bishop E. L. Hickman, A.M.E. Church First District	Congress Hall
1974	Dr. Wade Wilson, President, Cheyney State College, Cheyney, PA	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
	Reverend James L. Dandridge, Pastor, Mount Pisgah A.M.E. Church	Congress Hall
	Father Elmer Powell, Archdiocese of Philadelphia, PA	Congress Hall
1975	Congressman Walter E. Fauntroy	Benjamin Franklin Hotel
1975	Congressman William Green	Benjamin Franklin Hotel
1976	Mr. Sherman Hampton, Past President, Y's Men International	Visitors Center
	Mrs. Barbara Thompson, Equal Employment Opportunity Officer, US Dept.	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
	Dr. Charles S. Spivey Jr., Executive Dir. Federation of Churches, Chicago, IL	Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church
1977	Dr. Deborah Wolfe, Professor, Queens College, New York City	Benjamin Franklin Hotel
1977	Dr. Franklin H. Williams, President, The Phelps-Stokes Fund	Benjamin Franklin Hotel
1978	Dr. Michael Russell Winston, Director, Moorland Springarn Research Center / Howard University, Washington, DC
1979	Dr. Walter J. Leonard, President, Fisk University	Benjamin Franklin Hotel
1980	Mayor Henry L. Marsh II, Mayor of Richmond, VA	Benjamin Franklin Hotel
1981	Dr. Wiley A. Branton, Dean, Law School, Howard University, Washington, DC	Franklin Plaza Hotel
1982	Congressman Bob Edgar	Franklin Plaza Hotel
1983	Mr. W. Wilson Goode, City Manager, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
1984	Honorable Roland W. Burris, Comptroller for State of Illinois	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
1985	Dr. Edwin L. Ellis, President, National Freedom Day Association	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
1985	Dr. Bernard C. Williams, President of William Penn Foundation	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
1987	Mr. John E. Jacobs, President, National Urban League	Sheraton Society Hill Hotel
1987	Representative John F. White Jr.	Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel
1988	Ms. Niara Sudarkasa, President, Lincoln University	Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel
1990	Judge Juanita Kidd Stout	First District Plaza
1992	Bishop Frank C. Cummings	First District Plaza
1993	Dr. Valerie Swain Dale (Luncheon)	Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
1993	Dr. Ronald Temple, President, Community College of Omaha	First District Plaza
1994	Mr. Rotan E. Lee, President, Philadelphia Board of Education	First District Plaza
1995	Reverend Richard F. Norris, Pastor, St. Matthew A.M.E. Church	First District Plaza
1996	Congressman Chaka Fattah	Holiday Inn
1997	Council President John F. Street, City of Philadelphia	First District Plaza
1998	Mr. W. Cody Anderson, President and CEO of WHAT Radio	First District Plaza
1999	Ms. Jannie Blackwell, Councilwoman, City of Philadelphia	First District Plaza
2000	Dr. Charles J. Elmore, Professor, Savannah State University	First District Plaza
2001	Reverend Dr. Alynerrick Waller, Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church	First District Plaza
2002	Mr. Robert Sorrell	First District Plaza
2003	Reverend William "Rocky" Brown Bethany Baptist Church	First District Plaza
2004	Ms. Jannie Blackwell, Councilwoman, City of Philadelphia	First District Plaza
2005	Reverend. Dr. Keith W. Reed, Sr., Sharon Baptist Church	First District Plaza
2006	Reverend. Ellis. I. Washington, Pastor, St. Matthew A.M.E. Church	First District Plaza
2007	Reverend Martha A. Lang, Mt. Tabor A.M.E. Church	First District Plaza
2008	Mr. Donald Scott Sr, Community College of Philadelphia	First District Plaza
2009	Representative Cherelle L. Parker, Philadelphia	First District Plaza
2010	Reverend. Dr. Leslie D. Callahan, Pastor, St. Paul Baptist Church	First District Plaza
2011	Reverend James P. Baker Jr., Pastor, Morris Brown AME Church	First District Plaza
2012	Dr. Delores Wright, Science Educator, Chester Upland School District	First District Plaza
2013	Mr. R. Seth Williams, District Attorney, City of Philadelphia	First District Plaza
2014	Dr. Cheryl Davenport Dozier, President of Savannah State University	First District Plaza
2015	Reverend Dr. W. Wilson Goode, President and CEO of Amachi, Inc	First District Plaza
2016	Bishop Gregory G. M. Ingram, Presiding Prelate 1st Episcopal District A.M.E. Church	First District Plaza
2017	Rev. Marshall Paul Hughes Mitchell, Salem Baptist Church of Jenkintown, PA	Hilton City Avenue
2018	Dr. Delores Wright, Science Educator, Chester Upland School District	Hilton City Avenue
2019	Reverend Vernon R. Byrd Jr, Pastor, St. Matthew A.M.E. Church	Hilton City Avenue
2020	Dr. Delores Wright, Science Educator, Chester Upland School District	Hilton City Avenue
2021	Professor Richard Robert Wright, IV, JD, ESQ., Great Grandson of Pres. R.R. Wright Sr.	Virtual
2022	Dr. Kenneth Scott, President/CEO Beech Companies	Hilton City Avenue
2023	Darlene Miller, Chief - Philadelphia County Adult Probation & Parole Department	Hilton City Avenue
2024	Mr. Joseph W. Becton, Jr., Historian	Hilton City Avenue
2025	Mr. Lorenzo Cruger, Past President National Freedom Day Association	Hilton City Avenue
2026	Rev. Carolyn Cavaness, 53rd Pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church	Hilton City Avenue