Zephyr Wright:

  • Zephyr Wright began her culinary career in 1940 to help pay her tuition at Wiley College located in Texas where she received her degree in Home Economics. Once hired by the Johnson Family, she became a personal advisor to Lady Bird & LBJ on all civil rights & equality topics.
  • Wright and her husband’s accounts of racial injustice were said to be a key factor in President Johnson’s signing and adoption of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. So much so, that LBJ gifted her the pen used, saying, “You deserve this more than anybody else.”
  • When asked to accompany (then) Senator LBJ back to Texas:

I’m not going to do it…I’m not allowed to go to the bathroom…we can’t go into restaurants…Not until there’s change.”

— Zephyr Wright

Source: New York Times