Jackson Free Press

Antonio V. ("as in victory" he said, fittingly) Wright is an inspiring figure. The 38-year-old is the founder of Metro Area Community Empowerment Inc. and, in 2011, he authored and self-published his autobiography, "From a Label to a Brand" (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform).

Wright did not have success handed to him. He came from a low-income and abusive home, and he experimented with gang activity before finding a more positive activity: football. "Sports gave me a foundation of how to be respectful of myself, how to work with others," he says. Wright added that sports taught him the rewards of perseverance and discipline, a skill that would prove vital later in his life.

Wright played football at Provine High School, Hinds Community College and, until his senior year, at Jackson State University. Then, on Feb. 2, 1996, Wright was riding back from a trip to Memphis when a tire blowout caused the driver to lose control of the car.

The car flipped eight times, and Wright was ejected from it on the third roll.

"I landed over 150 feet from where the truck stopped rolling," he says.

While the driver walked away without a scratch, Wright suffered two fractured vertebrae and twisted his spinal cord. He was paralyzed to his upper thighs.

Two days following Wright's release from the hospital, his younger brother was shot and killed. That event cast his life in a new light.

"The reality of my brother being gone forever was more real than not being able to walk," he says. "I could not compare the pain or the hurt to the difficulty of knowing I can never see him again."

Spurred on by a new sense of gratitude for his survival, Wright tackled rehabilitation with renewed vigor. Within a month he was driving, and within two months he was playing wheelchair basketball, swimming and power lifting. "I was already positive, but (my brother's death) made so simple," he says. "Life is so fragile."

Wright set out to become the best person he could be regardless of his physical condition. "I made my mind up very quickly to stay within the game of football," he says. "I was going to coach, and I was going to overcome the stereotypical label of being disabled."

Wright went on to coach football for nearly 20 years at the high-school and college levels before retiring and starting MACE in 2011. The organization shows disabled athletes that there can be more to life in a wheelchair than sitting at home and channel surfing, and it teaches various wheelchair sports like basketball, tennis, softball and waterskiing.

"We wanted to create a wheelchair recreation program that provided all kinds of opportunities," Wright says. In its first year, MACE provided 16 sports clinics.

Wright has been married to his wife, Mahalia, for 15 years. The couple lives in Jackson.