About Justice Carolyn Wright

Justice Carolyn Wright is a fourth  generation Texan, born in Houston, Texas.  She was reared in the multi-cultural environment of a career military family.  She attended primary and secondary schools located at military installations throughout the United States and the Far East.  She returned to the United States from Yamato High School in Japan and graduated from Dover Air Force Base High School in Delaware, where she was editor of the year book, a member of the National Honor Society, volunteered in military hospitals as a Red Cross Candy Striper, lettered in five sports, selected as a representative to Girl’s State and elected by the general body as Girl State’s Attorney General for the State of Delaware. 

Her family includes:  husband, James (Jim) Sanders, President of Sanders Construction and Real Estate Investments, Inc.; retired military parents in  Delaware; and her youngest sister is also a judge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  In her spare time she enjoys her church activities, international travel, reading, attending spectator sports events as well as blues, jazz, spiritual and classical music concerts, live theater, and numerous charitable events. 

Justice Wright has served in the judiciary for the last 20 years.  While many of the positions held by her have been historical firsts for women and minorities serving in the Dallas judiciary, her election to the Court of Appeals marks the first time in Texas history that an African American woman has ever won a multi-county election for any elected office.  She is currently one of thirteen justices on the Fifth District Court of Appeals. She sits on a  rotating panel of three justices who decide criminal, civil, family, juvenile, and probate matters that are appealed from  trial courts in seven North Texas counties from which she is elected.

Her prior judicial service includes three elections as a State District Judge and an appointment as an Associate Judge in the Family District Courts. Prior to her judicial service, she was engaged in the private practice of law in areas of family, juvenile, and business transactions and litigation.  Prior to and during law school she worked for the federal government in a  law-related field of juvenile justice. 

She graduated from the Howard University School of Law, Washington, D.C.  Her professional memberships include: Chair and Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, a $14 million dollar charity; Fellow of the Foundations of the Dallas Bar and Dallas Young Lawyers; Member of the College of the State Bar of Texas, the National and American Bar Associations; and local minority bar, the JL Turner Legal Association; service for many years as a Faculty Member, Texas Center for the Judiciary and National Judicial College, Reno, Nevada.; and appointed by the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court to:  an Appellate Tribunal for the appeal of a  removal of a judge from office; a National Task Force to set standards for mediation practice; and the Judicial Ethics Committee.

Civic Activities:  She is the recipient of numerous civic awards for contributions to excellence in service to the community, as well as the judiciary; a frequent panelist on television and radio programs; and guest lecturer for churches, legal seminars, schools, public forums, and judicial education.  She is a member of the Hamilton Park United Methodist Church; Downtown Rotary Club; Executive Women of Dallas; Dallas Chapter of Links, Inc.; and former Commissioner, Governor’s Commission on Women appointed to the Blue Ribbon Task Force to Select Inductees  into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame.

Awards and Honors:  She was commissioned by Governor Bush as a “Yellow Rose of Texas” for many years of community service.  Other awards include:  the Dallas Women Lawyers’ Louise Raggio Award for contributions to women and proficiency in law; the Howard University School of Law’s “Distinguished Alumnus Award;” the American Jewish Congress’s “Woman of Spirit” Award; the Iota Phi Lamda Sorority’s Woman of the Year Award; the Committee on Race and Religion of the North Texas United Methodist Conference, Community Service Award; the Business Opportunity Symposium Series’ “Woman of Distinction Award”; the SMU  Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s Metroplex Woman of the Year Award; the NAACP’s Juanita Craft Award in Law; the Legal Services’ Pro Bono Legal Service Awards; and Outstanding Performance Awards as a Federal Civil Servant; nominated to President George Bush  by Senator Phil Gramm for appointment to the federal district court during his last year in office; subsequently appointed to the Texas Court of Appeals by Governor George W. Bush as his first judicial appointee. A permanent endowment for the Judge Carolyn Wright-Sanders Scholarship was established by the Hamilton Park United Methodist Women and her husband Jim Sanders.