Richard Robert Wright, Sr.

Richard Robert Wright Sr., college founder and banker, was born into slavery on May 16, 1855, near Dalton, Georgia.

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After the Civil War ended, Wright's mother moved with her son to Atlanta, Georgia, where he attended the Storrs School, an institution founded by the American Missionary Association (AMA) to educate the children of the freed people. Storrs was the forerunner of Atlanta University. When retired Union General Oliver Otis Howard visited the school in 1868 and asked the students what message he should take to the North, Wright replied with the words, "Sir, tell them we are rising."

In 1876, Wright was named valedictorian at Atlanta University's first commencement ceremony. He studied at several other institutions, including Harvard, Columbia, the University of Chicago, Oxford University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Also in 1876, Wright married Lydia Elizabeth Howard of Columbus, Georgia. The couple had nine children.