1:17 PM on Apr 7, 2022 CDT
The Senate confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday, adding a Black woman to the nation’s highest court for the first time.
President Joe Biden vowed during the 2020 campaign that his first pick in case of a vacancy would be a Black woman. That promise aided in securing a win in the South Carolina primary, a crucial turning point in his run for the White House.
Just seven of the 115 justices ever on the Supreme Court are not white men. Three of the five female jusrices are now on the court. One of the two Black men to ever be a justice is now on the court.
Here’s what Dallas County’s Black female judges have to say about Jackson’s confirmation.
Dream to reality
“I have a 13-year-old daughter. And I’ve always told her she could be anything that she wanted to be. I always say that but now she can see that. And so what was a dream to me gets to be a reality for her.”
— Criminal Court Judge Carmen P. White said.
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‘She looks just like me’
“It gives me hope … I think that’s every judge’s dream, to be nominated to the highest court … She looks just like me so now I know that it’s attainable. I can do it. It’s not just a dream.”
— State District Judge Audra Riley
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‘Amazing’
“When I think about her breaking barriers and breaking chains, I can’t help but to think about my ancestors … Throughout our lineage, throughout society, Black women have always been the most disrespected and the least protected and so the fact that people see her in a manner where she gets to sit on the highest bench in this land – it’s amazing.”
— Dallas County Criminal Court Judge Shequita Kelly
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‘Another ceiling broken’
“It is historic for the African American community in that it’s another ceiling broken.”
— State District Judge Tammy Kemp
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Krista M. Torralva, Staff writer. Krista Torralva first joined The Dallas Morning News as an intern on the business desk in 2013. She returned to The Morning News in 2021 as a reporter covering primarily Dallas County criminal courts. Krista graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a major in journalism and a minor in criminal justice.
