Sonny Wright, who made Peoples the first black-owned bank in Miami-Dade, dies at 81

Sonny Wright, a real estate entrepreneur, led an investor group that bought Peoples National Bank of Commerce in 1983 in Liberty City. Miami Herald file
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BY HOWARD COHEN

hcohen@miamiherald.com

Sonny Wright’s wife of 50 years, Veronise Strong-Wright, thinks the secret to her late husband’s business success could be traced, in part, to his father, Lindzey Wright, a construction worker in Swainsboro, Georgia.

“I think there might be some genes that steered him to where he ended up in real estate,” Strong-Wright surmised.

A clear vision helped, too. “He was a visionary,” she said. “He could envision things to happen and it took place. My son-in-law asked him, ‘Why do you think God was so good to you and allowed you to be successful in whatever you pursued?’

“He said, ‘Listen to me carefully. Most people talk about it. People talk about things. I did it.’ He was a very aggressive person and had the vision, but he made sure he circulated in the right circles that could help him,” Strong-Wright said.

Sonny Wright, who died Dec. 12 at 81 of cancer, made local history when, in 1983, he bought 81 percent of the existing Peoples National Bank of Commerce in Liberty City. This action, undertaken with the help of investors like Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie and the Rev. Samuel Atchison, made Peoples the first black-owned bank in Miami-Dade.

Wright also owned the historic Carver Hotel at Northwest Ninth Street and Northwest Third Avenue in Overtown; the newspaper South Florida News Week; Universal Real Estate in Liberty City, which he established; and served on the boards of Florida International University, Miami Board of Realtors, Urban League of Greater Miami, Mount Calvary Baptist Church, and chaired the Florida Real Estate Commission.

Between the bank and real estate firm, Wright had the ear of local politicians and bold-face names including President Bill Clinton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, then-U.S. House Speaker Tip O’Neill, religious leader Louis Farrakhan, boxing promoter Don King and “Miami Vice” costar Philip Michael Thomas.

SONNY WAS AN ASTUTE BUSINESSMAN. HE WAS SKILLED IN HIS CRAFT AND PRACTICED REAL ESTATE ALMOST LIKE IT WAS A RELIGION.

Historian Dorothy Jenkins Fields on Sonny Wright.

A humiliating experience at a Miami Royal Castle soon after Wright arrived from New York in 1957 inspired him to start his first business — Sonny’s Sportsman’s Luncheonette in Overtown.

In an interview for Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer’s book, “Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1960 Through the 1980s,” Wright recounted how he was inspired to open the Miami eatery.

“When I first came here, I recall going into Royal Castle and I made the mistake of sitting down waiting for a hamburger that I was going to take out because I knew that you couldn't eat the hamburger there,” he said.

Wright was instructed by a staffer to stand and wait for his food — and then leave with the bagged burger.

“That was really an experience that I think a lot of black people have had at one time in their life. I think that the idea really is not so much the ability to eat at a hamburger place, but I think more importantly, to buy one,” Wright said.

Said daughter Denise Webster: “He said that was so compelling to him. Though he was embarrassed he couldn’t eat the hamburger, what struck him wasn’t [that] fact … but that he should be able to own the business that produces the hamburger. That way we could revitalize our own communities. That is where he got his whole premise on creating economic empowerment within the community in Overtown.”

Cobbling savings from a post office job he’d held in New York, work as a laborer, and tapping friendships he’d made with some local businessmen, Wright opened his own small restaurant. Friends like Cassius Clay (later boxing champ Muhammad Ali) and R&B singer Solomon Burke could be found helping out inside in the 1960s, his wife remembered.

“Solomon showed Sonny how to cook, he would take old dishes and he knew how to doctor them up,” Strong-Wright said.

“I worked my ass off, but I learned a lot,” Wright told Inc. magazine in 1986. “I met the meat man, the bread man, the jukebox man. They became my advisers. I was getting an education in business administration.”

Soon, Wright turned his attention to real estate, left the restaurant business, and started his own firm, Universal Real Estate. By the mid-1970s, he had more than $5 million in sales, Inc. reported.

“What I admired about him the most was he did not graduate from high school. He needed one more class to get a high school diploma and he refused to do it. He went on the road called life and the rest is history,” said his wife, a registered nurse who also worked alongside her husband in the real estate business for decades. The couple lived on LaGorce Island in Miami Beach, the first black family on the block, she said.

Webster recalled growing up with a father who tried to instill in his three children that same strong sense of self. He would use slogans, some borrowed from friends like Ali, some original, to get his message across.

“We had an unusual upbringing,” she said, laughing, as she recalled some of those sayings: “There’s never a bad deal, it’s how you structure a deal.” “Don’t cry when you win. Don’t cry when you lose.”

“He would always have these weird sayings and we’d think, ‘What does this have to do with anything?’ And now that we are older, we understand what he was talking about,” Webster said.

Not every venture panned out, however. Wright lost control of Peoples National Bank in 1990 when his holding company couldn’t repay a $3.5 million Miami-Dade County loan. The bank folded nine years later when regulators seized it and sold its assets to Boston Bank of Commerce, another black-owned bank.

Dorothy Jenkins Fields, historian and founder of the Black Archives, History and Research Foundation of South Florida, said Wright left a formidable footprint in South Florida.

“Sonny was an astute businessman. He was skilled in his craft and practiced real estate almost like it was a religion,” she said. “He mentored quite a few who eventually went into real estate on their own as a result of his own work. He loved his community, started off in Overtown working in a grocery store on Third Avenue and 10th Street, and he was a great person, a kind and generous family man. He certainly will be missed.”

Wright is also survived by his son John David Wright, daughter Shinekqua Baines and five grandchildren. A viewing will be at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 27, at Range Funeral Home, 5727 NW 17th Ave. Miami. Services at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 28, at Antioch Baptist Church, 21311 NW 34th Ave, Miami Gardens.

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The Reluctant Entrepreneurs  Are American blacks still stuck on the bottom rung of the economic ladder because so few start businesses of their own?

By Joel Kotkin

Back in 1957, when Sonny Wright arrived in Miami, business was lively and vibrant in such black inner-city neighborhoods as Overtown and Liberty City. Independent laundries, restaurants, nightclubs, hotels -- many of them black-owned -- flourished along the main streets of the steamy resort city. "We had a thriving little business community," Wright remembers. "The black entertainers like Sammy Davis Jr. and Nat "King" Cole stayed in our hotels. Blacks bought from blacks."

Wright himself started out as a laborer, washing cars and doing odd jobs. Over time, he met a number of local businessmen, both black and Jewish, who soon helped him start his own restaurant. "I worked my ass off," Wright remembers. "But I learned a lot. I met the meat man, the bread man, the jukebox man. They became my advisers. I was getting an education in business administration." Eventually, this education paid off. After attending real estate school, Wright left the restaurant business and started his own realty firm. And by the mid-1970s, he was boasting more than $5 million a year in sales.

Now all that has changed. "Ever since integration, everything is gone," says Wright. "The smart guys went to work for the government or moved to the suburbs. Nobody stayed around. Nobody created jobs in the community. Integration set everything downhill for black business in this town."

Today, where once Sonny Wright sat at the lunch counter chatting with his fellow black businessmen, there are only deserted storefronts and empty lots. As the deterioration of the 1970s gave way to the riots of the early '80s, Wright's inner-city real estate trade took a turn for the worse. Sales today, he says, are "a helluva lot less" than what they were a decade ago.

In contrast, the ascendancy of Miami's Cuban community has become the kind of story that renews the great American dream. And, not surprisingly, it is a tale that evokes both envy and resentment among Miami blacks.

Miami's Hispanics are twice as likely to start businesses as Miami's blacks. While most of these are modest businesses, some are more modest than others. One study reported that the average Hispanic company in Miami boasts sales of $84,000, the average black business only $45,000. And you sense the shifting balance at every street corner. In 1960, blacks owned 25% of the service stations in Dade County, for example, while Hispanics owned only 12%. By 1979, the figures were 9% for blacks and 48% for Hispanics.

This entrepreneurial prowess has translated directly into a higher standard of living, not just for those who own businesses, but for the Hispanic community in general. In 1979, median family income among Miami's Hispanic community was $16,331, or 80% of the median family income for whites. Among black families, it was $12,710, or 63% of that for whites. Today, black unemployment is near 9%, while the rate for Hispanics is about 6%.

"The black leadership sees success not in an entrepreneurial context," says Tim Mescon, a business school professor at the University of Miami who has conducted studies on both black and Cuban businesses in the Greater Miami area. "It's like their whole development is missing a chapter, the one on achieving equality through their own business development. They still see success as being a teacher or physician, of fitting into the white world that way. Cubans try to make it by working together to build economic strength. And it's worked marvelously."

The difference is perhaps most visible in the area of banking. Blacks have only one small and still struggling bank in South Florida -- Peoples National Bank of Commerce -- which was purchased by Sonny Wright and others in 1983 only after the white owner of the Miami Dolphins agreed to guarantee the financing. By contrast, Miami's Hispanics control 30 banks, including the Cuban-owned Republic National Bank of Miami, which has grown from a few million dollars in assets a generation ago to more than $800 million today. That's more than the combined assets of the 9 largest black-owned banks in the entire United States.

"When the Cubans came over, they didn't have any inside track," notes an admiring Arthur Hill, president of Peoples National Bank of Commerce. "The whites didn't trust them any more than they trusted us. The difference was that the Cubans took matters in their own hands. They knew each other and took risks for each other. They went out and created their own economy."

Of course, the Cubans who came to Miami were self-selected risk-takers, many with personal savings and entrepreneurial experience to draw upon. But there is no doubt that they pooled their resources effectively and, through their banks, helped multiply those advantages a thousand times over. The bustling garment factories, coffee shops, trading firms, bodegas (grocery stores), and gas stations of Miami's Little Havana and Hialeah stand in sharp contrast to the economic torpor of Liberty City and Overtown. These are businesses, by and large, that got their start with Cuban money, and now rely heavily on Cuban customers.

"If a Cuban had a cleaning shop and we knew him, we lent him money," explains Republic National's chairman, Luis Botifoll. "And people in the community bought from that store because the owner was Cuban. Blacks have to do the same. They have to help themselves, their own people. You have to create that sense that there's no reason to go to McDonald's. When you go to your own, you create wealth. Then you have the power."

Judged by its purely political power, of course, black America has enjoyed progress far greater than any major minority group. Since 1970, the number of black congressmen has doubled to 20, and the number of black mayors is approaching 300. Blacks now control the top offices in Detroit, Newark, Los Angeles

Washington University Digital Gateway Texts Home   Search   Browse   Bookbag   Help Interview with Sonny Wright

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Interviewer: NAME_OF_INTERVIEWER_X_process
Production Team: X
Interview Date: March 21, 1989

Camera Rolls: 1070-1071
Sound Rolls: 130-131

Editorial Notes: Interview with , conducted by Blackside, Inc. on March 21, 1989, for . Washington University Libraries, Film and Media Archive, Henry Hampton Collection. These transcripts contain material that did not appear in the final program. Only text appearing in bold italics was used in the final version of

QUESTION 1 INTERVIEWER: When you came here thirty years or so ago to Miami, what was it like for you?

SONNY WRIGHT: Well, it was a different experience. I, I w--I grew up in New York, and I lived there most of my young adult life. And so when I got to Miami was a little bit different. I was really surprised at some of the things, at some of the customs that was a, I guess you'd say of the area at the time. Of course we had segregation. That was different, segregation was happening all over the United States and I suppose there was discrimination even in New York and prejudice and everything else. But it's just different. When you got down to Miami then you saw the signs, you know, "Back of the bus" and those kind of things. So you know, we experienced that and that was different. But then I think the other thing that was different is that in the, those days the Black people lived basically all in the same communities and there was a little bit more cohesiveness. Ah, there was businesses flourishing on the avenues, 2nd Avenue, 3rd Avenue. And it was really a fun place in spite of a lot of things that would appear to be negative, such as the segregation and the discrimination, and the prejudice-type things that I just mentioned to you. But it was a fun place. I mean, a lot of things were happening in Miami at that time. And I kind of enjoyed it.
QUESTION 2 INTERVIEWER: Is that why you stayed?

SONNY WRIGHT: No. I got stuck. I, I got down here, I came with the idea of passing through. I was headed to Cuba at the time. I worked in the Post Office--
INTERVIEWER: Let's stop.
QUESTION 3 INTERVIEWER: So who compelled you to stay in Miami?

SONNY WRIGHT: Well, actually I, I got stuck here. I, I came down with the idea of passing through. I really wasn't, my destination was Cuba. I worked in the post office when I was in New York. As a kid I worked there. And this was a vacation for me. I had heard a lot of stories about Cuba and finally I decided that if the opportunity presented itself, I wanted to go. So I was passing through Miami. In fact, I passed through Miami, went to Cuba, came back from Cuba broke, basically as I planned because I worked in the post office and they were supposed to send my two weeks check. And I was going to go and pick it up in this post office box that I'd already previously you know, provided for. And then true to form, I opened the post-office box, no check. Typical post-office kind of a deal. So I was really disappointed, not receiving a check but I knew I had one coming. So I said, well, you know, I made a few arrangements. But bottom line is that I stayed around here doing odd jobs and things because I was going to, I was scheduled to go into the armed forces. And I felt that since I was down here I might as well just be inducted in Miami as opposed to going back to New York. And a few things happened and I found myself really involved. After not, going in the army I met people and was convinced that maybe I should go into a business. And I opened up a little small restaurant. And after working at odd jobs and doing various things. And so you know, one thing led to another and before you know it, it's thirty years and here I am. You know. Miami. My home town.

QUESTION 4 INTERVIEWER: Tell me about the bank. What's its name and how did it come about?

SONNY WRIGHT: The bank. Peoples' National Bank of Commerce. In 1983, January the fifth, 1983, after one year of--

INTERVIEWER: Okay. Tell me about the bank. How did it come about, what's its name?

SONNY WRIGHT: Peoples' National Bank of Commerce. On January the 5th, 1983 we established the Peoples' Bank, National Bank of Commerce. It was an existing bank. We bought the bank and it was the first time that in Dade County that there was a, that there was a Black bank. And it was something that I believe everybody in Dade County wanted to see happen. All the Black people at least wanted to see it happen. And I think the total community for that matter because there never was a Black bank, a real Black bank in Dade County. And we were able to, with the help of our, of our friends, acquire this bank. And it was to me, and to others who participated with us, including Joe Robbie incidentally who's the owner of the Miami Dolphins who played a very key role in help us, in helping us, helping us to acquire the bank, along with some other people from the Cuban community, Raoul Marspidal[SIC] for example who at that time owned a bank and was very helpful. And I mention that because I think it's important to know that there was other people in the community besides the Black community who also felt that it was a good thing to have a Black bank. And we did get quite a bit of cons--cooperation from the total community in establishing the bank. But it was a dream that came true and the bank is something that we hope will be able to play a role in this community to help to bring about the economic development which we've all been striving to achieve all these many years.
QUESTION 5 INTERVIEWER: Why after thirty years? What, to what do you attribute the Cuban great success after thirty years?

SONNY WRIGHT: Well, I don't know if it's thirty years or, or maybe if it's longer. I think that, like most people that look at what the Cubans have accomplished and have some idea of their background, you have to recognize that initially a lot of the Cubans that came here came with money. They came with education. They came with skills. They came away from a government that they didn't want to be subject to. So they came seeking political freedom and freedom of speech, and all the things that America represents. And they came and they brought something with them. They brought their skills. They brought their, their wealth in a lot of instances. But there were many of them that did not have, maybe, great skills or great amounts of wealth. But what they've done is they've done what the Black people need to do. That is stick together, work together, pool their resources, do the things that make the difference. And what the difference is is that when people understand that their destinies really are interwoven, I mean, and, and recognize that the, the real value of relationships and, and of, and of opportunities for that matter is in seeing that people around you that you are friendly with, that you have some influence with reach the heights. Because if my friend is in a position and he has control and he has power, then at least I have an opportunity, whether he gives it to me or not, it's there for him to give it to somebody. So we need to recognize, in my opinion at least, anyway, that the idea is to not pull the other man, but push and try to see if you can't, as you make your stride to reach your goal, to do what your destiny calls for you to do, push somebody, in this case we're talking about a somebody Black, in order that he might be able to reach back and pull somebody. And together we pool our resources. We learn to buy from our own community. We learn to respect one another. We learn to control our neighborhoods. And we learn to do all the things that other people have already demonstrated to us that work. Not only the Cubans, what about the Jewish people? Well, when the Jewish people came here, at least when I came here, they were saying there were signs on the beach. I never saw any of the signs. But they must have been there because I read about it, I heard about it. There were signs on Miami Beach which said that no Jews, no dogs allowed. That had to be very, I mean, you know, hurtful to a Jewish person to see a sign like that. It's something like you know, White water fountain, Black water fountain, sit at the back of the bus, same kind of thing. But today, the Jews own Miami Beach. That's what it's all about, man. I mean, now if you go to Miami Beach and you want to do something you have to deal with them because they understand the value of working together.
INTERVIEWER: Stop there.

SONNY WRIGHT: That's what it's all about.
QUESTION 6 INTERVIEWER: Tell me what it was like trying to buy a hamburger when you got here thirty years ago.

SONNY WRIGHT: Oh, you remember that story I told you, huh?

INTERVIEWER: Mm hm.

SONNY WRIGHT: Yeah. I, when I first came here, I recall going into, Royal Castle. Royal Castle's like a Burger King or a McDonald's of, of today. And, I made the mistake of sitting down waiting for a hamburger that I was going to take out because I knew that you couldn't eat the hamburger there, but I felt like you know, since I had an opportunity to sit down and wait for the hamburger it wouldn't be a problem doing that. And I sat down. And I was told by the clerk that I had to get up. And of course I was very embarrassed because the place is you know, full of people. And I explained that you know, I was just waiting for the hamburger. And he explained to me that I couldn't sit down and wait for it. I had to stand up and wait for it. And when I got it I had to leave with it. And that was really a, a, an experience that I think a lot of Black people have, you know, had at one time in their life in way or another. But as we discussed earlier, I think that the idea really is not so much the ability to eat at a hamburger place, but I think more importantly, to buy one. And I think that's what it's all about. And I think that that's where Black America has to go. It has, we have to try to see if we can't control these resources in the community and keep our dollars circulating among ourselves more than one time because that's what the whole thing's all about, to be able to create opportunity for our business people and to create jobs for our young people and our pop--our general, our population in general. Not to mention the other people that we would employ. We have to begin to, to use our resources in a way in which it benefits us more than what it presently does today.
INTERVIEWER: Stop down

SONNY WRIGHT: That's what it is, man.

INTERVIEWER: I know, I understand, I understand.
QUESTION 7 INTERVIEWER: Tell me about it.

SONNY WRIGHT: It was a shame. A real sad thing. And the real shame and the real sadness is that you know, when are we going to learn? I mean, when are the White people going to learn that in order for everybody to live in this community and, and enjoy the, the, the natural resources that God has given us, our God-given resources in this beautiful city, that everybody has to have an opportunity to share in that? When are the Cubans going to learn that their blessings they've discovered in this community uh, need to be shared with others in this community? When are the Black people going to learn that we're going to have to work a little harder if we want our piece of the pie? And we're going to have to start working together. And when are we as a community going to learn that by working together and doing all the things that people should do to make a strong community, that everybody benefits. There's no losers. You know, if you have a cancerous sore on your arm and you neglect it, I mean, your whole body will deteriorate and you'll die. And that's what's happening here. I mean, one segment of our community cannot seem to get itself together. Now, you know, it's the thing where I believe that it was going to require more understanding and more sincere commitment on the part of all of us to make this community what it really ought to be.
INTERVIEWER: Stop.
QUESTION 8 INTERVIEWER: What happened after the riot?

SONNY WRIGHT: Well, a lot of people did a lot of talking and a lot of meetings. And nothing happened. I mean, it was like business as usual after a certain period of time, and that's the real sad thing because you know, we've had another riot since then. Another one since then.
QUESTION 9 INTERVIEWER: Okay. We don't need to get in, we can't get into that, so just, just give me that bite again.

INTERVIEWER: After the riots.

SONNY WRIGHT: Well, nothing happened. Just a lot of talking, a lot of meetings, and then nothing happened.
QUESTION 10 INTERVIEWER: Why?

SONNY WRIGHT: Well, because I think you have to do more than just plan for people for the most part. I think that's what's been happening in this community. You have to plan with people. And I think that the people that you're planning with have to have some resources in order to have some input. And so in my personal opinion what has to happen is we have to make a greater concentration on economic development and try and, to get the small business people to become a part of this community. I mean, a part of, a, a real part of the community. And we do that by supporting our small business people and by getting the kind of commitments from the people who have the resources to work with us. And I don't think that the average Black businessman want any more than any other businessman want. But it's just that there's more resources in the broader community than there is existing in the Black community. For example, in 1984, according to a grand jury report, there was six hundred Black businesses in Dade County expected to do $25,000,000 in business. There were 20,000 Latin business in the same report, expected to do $7,500,000,000 in business. Well, if you got $7,500,000,000 of I guess you could say money flowing through your community, well obviously you can do more with that than you can with 25,000,000. So I think that what the whole thing is all about is that in a capitalistic country--since its America--you have to have some capital. You have to deal with capital, deal with making money, deal with having money circulated among the people in the community.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. We've rolled out.