The Honorable Milton L. Wright Jr.

Judge Milton L. Wright, Jr. was born on January 28, 1944 in Miami, Florida to Milton Wright, Sr. and Rosa Lee Akins. Wright received his B.A. degree in Spanish and literature from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1966 and his J.D. degree from the Boston University School of Law in Massachusetts in 1971.

Wright worked as a staff attorney for the Boston Legal Assistance Project in 1971, where he was promoted to supervising attorney in 1973. From 1977 and 1980, Wright served as an attorney for the Florida State Hospital and North Florida Legal Services. Wright returned to Boston in 1980 and worked as a senior and supervising attorney for the Roxbury Defenders for thirteen years. Wright joined the Roxbury District Court as an associate justice in 1993. He was selected as the first justice in 1999. In 2006, Wright was then appointed associate justice for the Boston Municipal Court. After retiring from the court in 2009, he worked as a commissioner for the Licensing Board of the City of Boston from 2011 to 2014.

In addition to his judicial service, Wright also performed internationally as an actor, director, musician, music producer, and songwriter. His sister was R&B singer Betty Wright. He released his first album, Friends and Buddies in 1975 and his second album, Spaced in 1977. Wright performed as the narrator and lead soloist of Boston’s annual production of The Black Nativity in 1986, later serving as interim music director in 2006. In 2010, Wright played the role of Frederick Douglass in the musical There’s A Meeting Here Tonight. He then worked as an executive producer on the Grammy-nominated song “Go!” by Betty Wright and the Roots, which was released in 2011. In 2014, Wright wrote a musical entitled Jobe. He has also served as the CEO of the nonprofit organization Common House Theater and Production, Inc. since 2014.

Wright served on the board of directors for the National Center of Afro-American Artists in 2002 and the Boston Landmark Orchestra in 2013. He co-founded the nonprofit, the Butterfly Project, in 2007 and served as co-director and instructor of humanities and Afro-American History at the Eliot Summer Collaborative from 2013 to 2015.

Wright has received numerous awards and honors during his career including the Edward J. Duggan Public Defenders Award from the Committee for Public Counsel Services in 1989, an Honorary Doctor of Law degree from the New England School of Law in 1999, the Judicial Excellence Award from the Massachusetts Judges Conference in 2004, the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association Award in 2009, and the Spirit of King Award from the Golden Decade Foundation at Boston University in 2023.

Wright and his wife, Judith Ann Alston, have one son and two grandchildren.

The Honorable Milton L. Wright, Jr. was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 14, 2024.