| Jim Wright | |
|---|---|
| 56th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives | |
| In office January 6, 1987 – June 6, 1989 |
|
| President | Ronald Reagan George H. W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Tip O'Neill |
| Succeeded by | Tom Foley |
| House Majority Leader | |
| In office January 3, 1977 – January 3, 1987 |
|
| Deputy | John Brademas (1977-1981) Tom Foley (1981-1987) |
| Preceded by | Tip O'Neill |
| Succeeded by | Tom Foley |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 12th district |
|
| In office January 3, 1955 – June 30, 1989 |
|
| Preceded by | Wingate H. Lucas |
| Succeeded by | Pete Geren |
| Mayor of Weatherford, Texas | |
| In office 1950–1954 |
|
| Member of the Texas House of Representatives | |
| In office 1947–1949 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 22, 1922 Fort Worth, Texas |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Weatherford College University of Texas at Austin |
James Claude Wright, Jr. (born December 22, 1922), usually known as Jim Wright, is a former Democratic U.S. Congressman from Texas who served 34 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the Speaker of the House from 1987 to 1989.
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Wright was born in Fort Worth. Because his father was a traveling salesman, Wright and his two sisters were reared in numerous communities in Texas and Oklahoma. He mostly attended Fort Worth and Dallas public schools, eventually graduating from Oak Cliff High School, then studied at Weatherford College in his mother's hometown of Weatherford, the seat of Parker County west of Fort Worth and then at the University of Texas at Austin, but he never received a bachelor's degree.[1] In December 1941, Wright enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces, and after training was commissioned as an Air Corps 2nd Lt. in 1942. He trained as a bombardier and earned a Distinguished Flying Cross flying combat in B-24 Liberators with the 530th Bomb Squadron, 380th Bomb Group (Heavy) in the South Pacific during World War II. His retelling of his wartime exploits is contained in his 2005 book The Flying Circus: Pacific War — 1943 — As Seen through A Bombsight.
After the war, he made his home in Weatherford, where he joined partners in forming a Trade Show exhibition and marketing firm. As a Democrat, he won his first election without opposition in 1946 to the Texas House of Representatives, where he served from 1947 to 1949. He was defeated in his bid for reelection in 1948, after a rival claimed that Wright was weak in opposing both communism and interracial marriage.[1] He was the mayor of Weatherford from 1950-1954. In 1953, he served as president of the League of Texas Municipalities.
In 1954, he was elected to Congress from Texas's 12th congressional district, based in Fort Worth but also including Weatherford. He won despite the fervid opposition of Amon G. Carter, publisher of the Fort Worth Star Telegram newspaper and later the benefactor of the Amon Carter Museum. Carter supported the incumbent Democrat Wingate Lucas. Wright would be re-elected fourteen times, gradually rising in prominence in the party and in Congress. He developed a close relationship thereafter with Amon G. Carter, Jr. Wright often said that the easiest way to "defeat an enemy is to make him your friend."[1] In 1956, Wright refused to join most of his regional colleagues in signing the segregationist Southern Manifesto.[2] In 1957, he voted for the Civil Rights Act, which created the Division of Civil Rights within the U.S. Justice Department and the investigatory Civil Rights Commission. Signed by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, the law was pushed through Congress by U.S. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and Speaker Sam Rayburn. However, Wright refused to support the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which authorized desegregation of public accommodations and established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It was signed into law by Wright's friend, President Johnson.[1]
In 1961, Wright finished in third place in the special election called to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by then Vice President Lyndon Johnson.[1] Two finalists for the Senate emerged from a field of seventy-one candidates. College professor John G. Tower, then of Wichita Falls, narrowly defeated the interim appointee William Blakley, a Dallas industrialist, in a runoff election. Tower hence became the first Republican senator from Texas since Reconstruction.
Wright continued to serve in the House and was elected House Majority Leader by one vote in December 1976, defeating Richard Bolling of Missouri and Phillip Burton of California. Wright won the majority leadership position with the support of all but two Democrats from the large Texas delegation, all party members of the Public Works Committee, and virtually all other Southern representatives members as well.[1] In 1987, he was elected the Speaker of the House. In 1988, he chaired the Democratic Party convention that nominated Michael Dukakis for president. During that convention, Wright introduced John F. Kennedy, Jr, for Kennedy's first televised speech.
In the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, Jim Wright is known for the Wright Amendment, a contentious law he sponsored that restricts air travel from Dallas's secondary airport, Love Field. Passed in 1979, the Wright Amendment was originally designed to protect the fledgling Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. The Amendment allows non-stop flights originating from or bound to any commercial airport within 50 nautical miles (93 km) of the DFW Airport Control Tower to serve only states bordering Texas. This requires any flight going to or coming from a destination within that 50-mile (80 km) radius (Dallas Love Field and the now defunct Greater Southwest International Airport in Fort Worth were the only airports affected) to land in a contiguous (bordering) state before continuing on to its destination. This effectively limited traffic from Love Field and GSIA to small, regional airlines (and provided the springboard for the later success of Southwest Airlines, which initially flew only within Texas) who were largely unable to compete with DFW Airport as a result. While the Amendment was welcomed at first, there were increasing doubts about its necessity as DFW grew into one of the three largest airports in the world. Many saw it as a boondoggle to benefit one particular group. Others saw it as an unlawful restraint of trade imposed against the two affected airports, and no others. However, the largest opposition came increasingly from people who simply felt that the Amendment had outlived its usefulness and was also an unwarranted intrusion on the free markets of the deregulated airline industry. In 2006 Congress passed the Wright Amendment Reform Act of 2006, which repealed the Wright Amendment in stages, with the last restrictions on travel from Love Field scheduled to be lifted in 2014.[3][4][5][6] [7]
Wright strongly supported the Superconducting Super Collider project in Waxahachie in Ellis County,[1] but the work was halted by the Bill Clinton administration in 1993.
In 1989, controversy arose from media reports that Jim Wright's main aide, John Mack, had violently attacked Pamela Small sixteen years earlier. Small was attempting to replace blinds in a store Mack managed, and he took her to the storeroom where he then asked her to lie down. When she refused, he repeatedly hit her in the head with a hammer, stabbed her with a steak knife, and slashed her throat, before putting her body in his car and going to see a movie.[8][9]
Pamela Small survived the attack, and reported it to the police. John Mack plead guilty to malicious wounding "with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable and kill" and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. However, after repeated correspondence with Rep. Wright, whose daughter was married to his brother, Mack was paroled after serving less than 27 months and given a job working for Wright on Capitol Hill. Critics, including feminist activist Andrea Dworkin, alleged that Wright manipulated the legal system to get Mack off and, subsequently, protected him from media scrutiny.[10] The story later broke in 1989, when Pamela Small gave an interview about her ordeal with the Washington Post. Amid media criticism, John Mack resigned from his post.[11]
In 1988 Wright became the target of an inquiry by the House Ethics Committee. Their report in early 1989 implied that he had used bulk purchases of his book, Reflections of a Public Man, to earn speaking fees in excess of the allowed maximum, and that his wife, Betty, was given a job and perks to avoid the limit on gifts. Faced with an increasing loss of effectiveness, Wright tendered his resignation as Speaker on May 31, 1989, the resignation to become effective on the selection of a successor.[12] He was the first Speaker to resign because of a scandal. On June 6, the Democratic Caucus brought Wrights's Speakership to an end by selecting his replacement, Tom Foley of Washington, and on June 30 Wright resigned his seat in Congress.
The incident itself was controversial and was a part of the increasing partisan infighting that has plagued the Congress ever since. The original charges were filed by Newt Gingrich in 1988 and their effect propelled Gingrich's own career advancement to the Speaker's chair itself.
Michael Parenti, critic of the national security state, attributed Wright's forced resignation to the critical questions he was raising in the late 1980s with regard to CIA covert actions in Nicaragua.[13]
After his resignation from the House, Wright retired to Fort Worth. He serves as a professor at Texas Christian University there, teaching a course titled "Congress and the Presidents". He has also written several books since his retirement. He is an avid reader but has been stricken with macular degeneration.[1]
In 2004, Wright was inducted into the Texas Trail Hall of Fame in the Fort Worth Stockyards. His exhibit says "Fort Worth Loves Him!"
| United States House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Wingate H. Lucas |
Member from Texas's 12th congressional district 1955–1989 |
Succeeded by Pete Geren |
| Preceded by Tip O'Neill |
House Majority Leader House Democratic Leader 1977–1987 |
Succeeded by Tom Foley |
| Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives 1987 – June 6, 1989 |
||
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Martha Layne Collins |
Permanent Chairman of the Democratic National Convention 1988 |
Succeeded by Ann Richards |
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