Finally, an ironic — but likely not final — note on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. For one who deigns to speak – or shriek – for the older black generation, Wright grew up in a decidedly non-Jim Crow environment.
The Philadelphia native was raised in Germantown, the same section as Bill Cosby — only Cosby’s neighborhood wasn’t as nice. But they were both variations on what was then a middle class theme in that part of northwest Philly. Wright’s father was a pastor, his mother a high school vice principal.
Students could attend either the multi-racial Germantown High School or – if they preferred and qualified – the city’s pre-eminent public school, Central High. It was mostly white, skewed Jewish and pure meritocracy. Racial friction was unheard of. Jerry Wright graduated from Central in 1959.
And the rest is revisionist history.