Bruce Wright

Bruce Wright was one of the first black justices on the New York Supreme Court. He wrote Black Robes, White Justice, a harsh critique of institutional racism in the American judicial system. Although Wright was educated in Catholic schools, he eventually became a non-believer like his agnostic West Indian father. In an interview with Peter Occhiogrosso, published in the book Once A Catholic, Wright said, "The Church is superstition to me. I'm a lawyer, and I look for evidence: haven't seen a Holy Ghost, haven't seen a God or anything of that sort. And I read the Bible and instruct my children to know something about biblical history -- either as literature or as fiction, as they wish. I think they should know something about it, especially when you have a season such as Christmas and they might be strangers or babes in the woods."

Wright continues "I have no religion. I am what probably would be called an atheist. Probably, by other people, I often am. But that's their problem, that's not my problem."