Richard R . Wright Richard Robert Wright , Sr . ( May 16 , 1855 – July 2 , 1947 ) was an American military officer , educator and college president , politician , civil rights advocate and banking entrepreneur . Among his many accomplishments , he founded a high school , a college and a bank . He also founded the National Freedom Day Association . Biography . Early life . Wright was born into slavery on May 16 , 1855 , in a log cabin six miles from Dalton , Georgia . Education . After emancipation , Wright ’ s mother moved with her son from Dalton to Cuthbert , Georgia . He attended the Storrs School . The school had a reputation among freedmen as a place for their children to be educated . While visiting the school , retired Union General Oliver Otis Howard asked what message he should take to the North . The young Wright reportedly told him : " Sir , tell them we are rising . " That exchange inspired a once - famous poem by John Greenleaf Whittier . The Storrs School , a forerunner of Atlanta University , was one of many academic schools for freedmen ' s children founded by the American Missionary Association ( AMA ) . He was valedictorian at Atlanta University ' s first commencement ceremony in 1876 . Military career . Wright was commissioned as a major in the Spanish - American War . In 1896 , President William McKinley appointed him as a paymaster of the United States Volunteers in the United States Army . He was the first African American to serve as an Army paymaster . During this period , he was the highest ranking African - American officer . Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth . From 1891 to 1921 , Wright served as the first president of the Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth , a historically black college ( HBCU ) in Savannah , Georgia . It is now Savannah State University . During the 1890s , Wright traveled to various locations , including Tuskegee Institute , Hampton Institute , Girard College of Philadelphia , and the Hirsch School in New York , to document current trends in higher education . Based on his studies , he developed a curriculum at Georgia State College to include elements of the seven classical liberal arts , the " Talented Tenth " philosophy of W . E . B . Du Bois , Booker T . Washington ’ s vocationalism and self - reliance concepts , and the educational model of the New England colleges ( he was a graduate of Atlanta University under the instruction of Dartmouth College and Yale University graduates ) . At the time , Wright was viewed as one of the leading figures of black higher education in America , conferring regularly with major educational leaders . Visitors and lecturers to campus during his tenure as president included Mary McLeod Bethune , George Washington Carver , Walter Barnard Hill , Lucy Craft Laney , Mary Church Terrell , Booker T . Washington and Monroe Nathan Work . U . S . presidents William McKinley and William Howard Taft also visited the campus and spoke to students in Peter W . Meldrim Hall . By the end of Wright ' s tenure as president , the college ’ s enrollment had increased from the original eight students to more than 400 . Additionally , he expanded the curriculum to include a normal division ( for teacher training ) , courses in agriculture and mechanical arts , and four - year high school subjects . Banker . After moving to Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , in 1921 Wright decided to open a bank . At age 67 he enrolled in the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania to prepare for this venture . He entered the business world in 1921 , creating and leading Philadelphia ' s Citizens and Southern Bank and Trust Company at 1849 South Street . At the time , it was the only African - American - owned bank in the North and the first African American Trust Company . He also founded the Negro Bankers Association . It was the first African - American banking association . Under his leadership , the bank withstood the Great Depression . When it was sold in 1957 , more than a decade after Wright ’ s death , it had assets of $ 5 . 5 million . Personal life . Wright was married to Lydia Elizabeth ( Howard ) Wright ; together they had nine children . Legacy . Family legacy . In June 1898 , his son Richard R . Wright , Jr . received the first baccalaureate degree awarded by Georgia State Industrial College . He went on to become the first African American to earn a Ph . D . from the University of Pennsylvania , having studied in the new field of sociology . He became a professor and later president of Wilberforce University in Ohio and a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church . One of Richard Jr ' s daughters , Dr . Ruth Wright Hayre , also earned a Ph . D . at the University of Pennsylvania . They were the first African - American father and daughter to do so . Dr . Ruth Wright Hayre became the first full - time African - American teacher in the Philadelphia public - school system . She served as a senior high - school principal and as the first female president of the Philadelphia Board of Education . At age 80 , she established the " Tell Them We Are Rising " program , promising to pay college tuition for 116 sixth - graders in two poor North Philadelphia schools if they completed high school . Her story was chronicled in her book " Tell Them We Are Rising : A Memoir of Faith in Education " , published in 1997 , the year before she died . National Freedom Day . Wright invited national and local leaders to meet in Philadelphia to formulate plans to set aside February 1 each year to memorialize the signing of the 13th Amendment to the U . S . Constitution by President Abraham Lincoln on February 1 , 1865 , which freed all U . S . slaves . One year after Wright ' s death in 1947 , both houses of the U . S . Congress passed a bill to make February 1 National Freedom Day . The holiday proclamation was signed into law on June 30 , 1948 , by President Harry Truman . It was the forerunner to Black History Day and later Black History Month , officially recognized in 1976 , though began by Carter G . Woodson in 1926 .