KETANJI BROWN JACKSON (b. 1970)
Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson is the first Black woman and first former public defender to be serve on the Supreme Court.
Jackson was born in Washington, D.C. in 1970 and grew up in Miami, Florida. In high school, Jackson served as class president and excelled at debate and speech competitions. In her college applications, Jackson declared her intention to be the first Black female Supreme Court justice.
Jackson earned her undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University. While in law school, she served as the supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review. Following law school, Jackson completed 3 prestigious federal clerkships and then held positions in both private law firms and public-service positions within the federal government.
Jackson was appointed to the federal district court of Washington, D.C. in 2013. In 2021, Jackson was nominated by President Biden to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and in 2022 she was nominated to be the 116th Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
Jackson’s interest in the law stretches back to her childhood, where she often sat with her father and colored while he was studying to become a lawyer.
During her speech following her Supreme Court confirmation Jackson said, “It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, but we’ve made it! We’ve made it — all of us.”
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