For Once-Criticized Judge, Tribute at a Harlem Corner
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
By KIA GREGORY
To some New Yorkers of a certain era, the idea that a streetcorner in Harlem would be renamed after Bruce McM. Wright, the State Supreme Court justice, might seem somewhat incongruous.
To be sure, the ceremonial renaming at 138th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, once Justice Wright’s home and power base, is meant to honor a lifetime of accomplishments, including a quarter-century on the bench.
Nonetheless, a predominant chapter in Justice Wright’s judicial career was marked by turbulence and criticism over some of his bail decisions in the 1970s; he emerged from that era with an enduring nickname: Turn ’Em Loose Bruce.
On Tuesday, before the new street sign for Judge Bruce Wright Place was unveiled to cheers and applause from dozens of onlookers, one of the judge’s sons, Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright, said that the nickname never bothered his father; in fact, it inspired him.
“That was a badge of honor in the community,” he said. “We wore that.”
The ceremonial street-renaming, he said, serves as a reminder.
“We had someone who fought and bucked the system,” Assemblyman Wright said. “We need someone to carry on the mantle.”
Justice Wright, who died in 2005 at 86, joined the bench in 1970, a time of protest and upheaval. He said white judges often treated black defendants unfairly.
Read the full aricle in the NY Times
To some New Yorkers of a certain era, the idea that a streetcorner in Harlem would be renamed after Bruce McM. Wright, the State Supreme Court justice, might seem somewhat incongruous.
To be sure, the ceremonial renaming at 138th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, once Justice Wright’s home and power base, is meant to honor a lifetime of accomplishments, including a quarter-century on the bench.
Nonetheless, a predominant chapter in Justice Wright’s judicial career was marked by turbulence and criticism over some of his bail decisions in the 1970s; he emerged from that era with an enduring nickname: Turn ’Em Loose Bruce.
On Tuesday, before the new street sign for Judge Bruce Wright Place was unveiled to cheers and applause from dozens of onlookers, one of the judge’s sons, Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright, said that the nickname never bothered his father; in fact, it inspired him.
“That was a badge of honor in the community,” he said. “We wore that.”
The ceremonial street-renaming, he said, serves as a reminder.
“We had someone who fought and bucked the system,” Assemblyman Wright said. “We need someone to carry on the mantle.”
Justice Wright, who died in 2005 at 86, joined the bench in 1970, a time of protest and upheaval. He said white judges often treated black defendants unfairly.
Read the full aricle in the NY Times
