San Diego, CA, USA – February 27, 2023 – Dr. James Wright is a full-time assistant professor in San Diego at SDSU, teaching courses related to inequities in educational policy and leadership. He also released his memoir, “Heirs of the Great Migration: How the Past Became the Future,” last December, and it became the #1 Bestseller on Amazon. It is available in eBook and paperback. His success wasn’t easy, having overcome crime-riddled, impoverished communities and prison. Wright says, “My book chronicles aspects of my family’s migration from Jim Crow Era socio-politics in hopes of a better future for future generations. As part of their future generations, I speak about the realities we inherited in our ancestor’s hopeful new land.”
“Heirs of the Great Migration” is a narrative biography grounded on Wright’s family’s migration from Jim Crow-era sharecropping in North Carolina to manufacturing jobs in the industrial Northeast and told from the reference point and coming of age at the intersection of deindustrialization and the crack-cocaine epidemic (which sparked the 1994 Crime Bill and mass incarceration, e.g., The New Jim Crow). Caught in the dragnet of the Crime Bill at a young age and imprisoned, I am now a professor with an MBA and Ph.D., reflecting on overcoming historically rooted sociopolitical and socioeconomic structures, educational obstacles, and legal setbacks that mirror my ancestor’s pathways.
Wright is optimistic about the legacy he is leaving his three boys. An undervalued yet essential part of modern US history, the book helps amplify the Great Migration of Blacks from the US South across the US, directly correlating with large populations of US Blacks across the US. Wright says, “Having overcome failed urban schools, divested communities, and prison to become a committed father of three young boys and able to speak with integrity to the various educational and societal inequities I faced as a professor of education is hopefully a new standard.”
REVIEWS
“What an amazing read. Foremost, the style of the author is none like any other. It really is a work of art. It is written in a truly classy and academic hip-hop language. This reminds me of reading “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” Heirs is a brutally honest book that speaks to the Soul of young men and women who has inherited the generational struggle and traumas of African Americans’ struggle to find a place in yesterday’s and today’s America not only socially and economically but also in the academic realm. It speaks volumes about Black America’s struggle and resilience through a system never intended for people to prosper. A very relatable, awe-inspiring ready for anyone on both sides of the racial divide trying to understand the impact of America’s historical racial divide on a whole community. The book is a formulary for anyone who is looking to understand themselves better or wants to make a positive impact on society. AMAZING READ!!!”
“This book gives the reader a better understanding of how, historically, many Black American families migrated from the south. Dr. Wright also elaborates on his own life experiences: his family’s Jim Crow and deindustrialization, The Crack epidemic, Hip Hop South, US Crime Bill, life in Egypt, and his educational accomplishments and achievements, just to name a few. The book made me mad, sad, happy, and glad. Great perspective and great work Dr. Manny Wright!”
“After reading this book, I immediately presented it to my son so that he could read it too. This book is well-written and inspiring. The trip down memory lane was incredibly vivid. Dr. James “Manny” Wright, I loved this book from the beginning to the end.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Wright is an assistant professor in the College of Education at San Diego State University. His research critically analyzes the various ways that race and culture shape educational policy. Specifically, how contemporary educational practices, informed by school policies, are the result of historically racialized inequities.
Author: Dr. James Wright
Email: authorjameswright@gmail.com
Website: https://drjameswright.com
Phone: 619.908.2394
City: San Diego
State: CA
Country: USA
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