Cheri Beasley is the first African American woman to serve as Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. She has served as Vice-President of the North Carolina Bar Association Board of Governors. Born in 1966 in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, and … Read MoreCheri Beasley (1966- )
Raymond Lawrence Finch, a Federal District Court and contributor to the development of the Virgin Islands Legal System was born on October 4, 1940, in Christiansted, St. Croix, to Wilfred Christopher Finch and Beryl Esther Bough Finch. His siblings were Gordon A. Finch, a former … Read MoreRaymond Lawrence Finch (1940-2023)
On January 2, 2019, Melody J. Stewart became the first African American woman sworn in to serve on the Ohio Supreme Court. Justice Stewart was born on February 19, 1962, in Cleveland, Ohio. Growing up in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland, Stewart was raised by … Read MoreMelody J. Stewart (1962- )
The Honorable Tamika R. Montgomery-Reeves is a lawyer and the first African American to serve as an Associate Justice on the Delaware Supreme Court. Justice Montgomery was born on April 29, 1981 in Jackson, Mississippi to Bettye Cribbs and Dewery Montgomery. She attended the University … Read MoreTamika Montgomery-Reeves (1981- )
Livingston Leroy Wingate was a Harlem civic leader and a state supreme court judge in Manhattan, New York. Wingate was born on September 2, 1915 in Timmonsville, South Carolina, a small town of two thousand residents. Wingate lived with his father, a barber, and his mother, who did domestic work. In … Read MoreLivingston Wingate (1915-1995)
Wiley William Manuel, the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the State of California, was the son of a railroad dining car waiter, and a domestic worker. He was born on August 28, 1927 in an impoverished area of Oakland, California and attended public … Read MoreWiley W. Manuel (1927-1981)
With his appointment in 1955 as the first African American to serve on the New York State Supreme Court, Harold Arnoldus Stevens continued a string of firsts that began in 1950 when he was elected to the New York Court of General Sessions, becoming the first African … Read MoreHarold A. Stevens (1907-1990)
Franklin Dorrah Cleckley, the first African American to serve as a justice on the West Virginia Supreme Court, was born on August 1, 1940, in Huntington, West Virginia. His mother was Vivian Wood. After graduating from high school, he attended Anderson College and earned his bachelor’s degree in … Read MoreFranklin D. Cleckley (1940-2017)
Morris Overstreet was the first African American in Texas state history to be elected to a statewide office and the second (after Judge Louis Sturns) to sit on one of the two highest courts in the state, the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals. Overstreet was born on … Read MoreMorris Overstreet (1950-2024)
Mississippi attorney and jurist Reuben V. Anderson had a series of “firsts” in his career. On January 16, 1985, he was sworn as the first African American Supreme Court Justice in the state of Mississippi, a position he held until his retirement from the bench in 1991. Anderson … Read MoreReuben V. Anderson (1943- )
