Oscar Wright, Oakland activist and pioneer for equal education, dies at age 101

OAKLAND, Calif. - Oscar Wright, a longtime advocate for equal education and civil rights in Oakland, died Monday at the age of 101, his son confirmed to KTVU.

Wright joined KTVU's Talk of the Town in 2022 and shared his story of growing up in the segregated South, picking cotton in Mississippi and his lifelong advocacy for Black students and families in Oakland.

Wright served in World War II and the Korean War in the U.S. Army. 

"Everywhere we went in the world, we were recognized as American soldiers, but returning home we had to go to the back of the bus. That cuts me real deep."

Wright was one of 11 children and spent his childhood growing up on a plantation in Mississippi.

After high school, he served in the Army and was promoted to sergeant after completing basic training. 

After being discharged from the army, he attended college – something he says boys were discouraged from doing. 

"Black girls go to school. Black boys go to war," he told KTVU in 2022.

In the 1950s, he headed west to the Bay Area.

Oscar Wright celebrating his 100th birthday at McClymond's High School in Oakland in 2023.

"When I first came to Oakland, back home, we thought of California as ‘god’s country,' – the Golden Gate Bridge, Frisco."

He worked as a contractor and engineer and was active in Oakland's NAACP. 

He advocated for equality in the Oakland Unified School District, where Black students were not treated equally. 

"He became a regular at school board meetings, holding local leaders’ feet to the fire to bring equality to education for Black students in OUSD," the Kingmakers of Oakland said. "In 1994, Oscar and the African-American Education Task Force sued OUSD for violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Years later, in 2000, the school board put an action plan in place to address the inequity, but it was never implemented."

He also launched the African American Honor Roll at Oakland's Acts Full Gospel Church, which recognizes Black students who earn at least a 3.0 GPA. 

In 2021, Wright told KTVU that while Brown v. Board of Education ended segregation in 1954, in Oakland in the 1980s, it was like it had never happened.

"It was almost like segregation had never ended," Wright told KTVU in 2021.

Wright celebrated his 100th birthday last year at MyClymond's High School in Oakland.