Dr. Earl Wright II

Earl Wright II was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee.  A product of the Memphis City School System, he graduated with the diploma from Trezevant High School in 1989.  Later that year he entered college on a football scholarship at Kentucky State University (K-State).  After a successful two year stint as the team’s starting wide receiver, he was ‘compelled’ to leave Frankfort because of his inability to afford tuition and because of his low grade point average.  It is provident that he was ‘compelled’ to leave K-State since it is likely that he would have not graduated had he stayed.  Upon his return to Memphis he began to take college seriously and eventually earned the Bachelors Degree in History and Masters Degree in Sociology from the University of Memphis.  In 2000 Earl took the Doctorate Degree in Sociology at the University of Nebraska, where he founded a chapter of the Black Graduate Student Association, and later that year accepted employment at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida.

Over the next four years Dr. Wright intensely engaged in research on the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory, the moniker bestowed on scholars engaged in sociological inquiry at Atlanta University between 1895-1917.  His groundbreaking research on the W. E. B. Du Bois led school challenged many of the accepted dogmas in American sociological history and has led to numerous revisions of the history of the discipline.  After a successful tenure at the University of Central Florida he accepted employment at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee in 2005.  In 2006 Dr. Wright accepted the position of Chairperson at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas.  As chairperson of the Department of Sociology Dr. Wright spearheaded accomplishments including the reorganization of the undergraduate and graduate programs; implementation of the thesis component of the graduate program; and the expansion of the department from 6 to 8 faculty.  After a successful 4 year tenure at Texas Southern University, Dr. Wright joined the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Cincinnati. 

Over the course of his relatively short career Dr. Wright has engaged in many activities and received numerous awards.  He has appeared as the special guest on local television news programs in Orlando, Florida and Houston, Texas and has been featured in print articles including the Dallas Morning News, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronicle, Diverse Issues In Higher Education and the Orlando Magic Magazine.  Awards that Dr. Wright has garnered include ‘Shades of Leadership Award’ (University of Nebraska), ‘Graduate Assistant Mentoring Award’ (University of Nebraska), ‘Outstanding Faculty Award’ (University of Central Florida) and ‘Scholar of Note’ by Black Issues in Higher Education (now called Diverse Issues in Higher Education).

Dr. Wright is currently engaged in research on the contributions of predominately Black institutions to the development of sociology in the United States.