black judges

  The late Robert N.C. Nix Jr. was destined for his path early on as his father was Pennsylvania’s first Black member of the U.S. House or Representatives. Nix became in the first chief justice of a state’s highest court in 1994, which also made him the first Black statewide official for the commonwealth of […]

Reuben V. Anderson made history this month in 1985 when he was sworn is as the first Black Supreme Court Justice in Mississippi. Born in 1942, Anderson was raised in the city of Jackson. As a young man, he befriended the son of NAACP lawyer Jack H. Young. SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER:  Young, who […]

The Hon. Bernice B. Donald made history twice in the ‘80s, first by becoming the first Black female judge in Tennessee, and later becoming the first Black female federal bankruptcy judge in the country. The Mississippi native was born on September 17, 1951. Donald attended undergrad at Memphis State University in 1974, and earned her […]

The late Wade H. McCree Jr. was the first Black judge appointed in Michigan, and the first Black federal judge appointed in the Eastern District of the state as well. Wade Hampton McCree Jr. was born July 3, 1920 in Des Moines, Ia. His father, Wade Sr., was the first Black pharmacist in Iowa who […]

Judge Genece E. Brinkley, who is a Black woman, is making Meek Mill's life a living hell.

The city of Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin is in mourning after news that the trailblazing Vel Phillips passed this past Tuesday (April 17). Among the several firsts she accomplished, Phillips was the first Black judge in Milwaukee, and the first Black Secretary of State for Wisconsin. Born Velvalea Hortense Rodgers on February 18, […]

Oregon’s governor appointed Judge Adrienne Nelson to the state Supreme Court.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWbLh2tjyyP/?tagged=hilarygreen Texas judge Hilary H. Green was suspended for allegedly sexting her bailiff and using him to buy drugs, hiring prostitutes and buying marijuana seized from a defendant, TheWashingtonPost reports. Despite public knowledge of some of Hilary’s misconduct, she was reelected to a Harris County justice of the peace. Ronald Green, Hilary’s ex-husband, made the […]

If you thought the possible suicide of a New York judge seemed suspicious last week, you may be right. Now the NYPD thinks so, too. Sheila Abdus-Salaam, 65, was the first Black female judge to the New York Court of Appeals. She was found dead last week in the Hudson River, and at first the […]

NEW YORK (AP) — The first black woman appointed to the state’s highest court has been found dead on the bank of the Hudson River. Sheila Abdus-Salaam’s body was discovered along the riverside near Harlem on Wednesday, a day after she was reported missing, police said. Police said her body showed no obvious signs of […]

Leah Ward Sears achieved several historical marks in the legal field in her home base of Georgia. She is the first African-American woman to be named Chief Justice in the United States, and the first woman to sit on the bench for Georgia’s Supreme Court. Mrs. Sears, an Army brat, was born June 13, 1955 […]

Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong is currently the Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Since 1970, Judge Armstrong has made epic strides in her career both as a policewoman and as an attorney with a couple of historic achievements along the way. Mrs. Armstrong was born in 1947 […]