Henry Ell Frye is the first African American Assistant United States District Attorney, the first African American elected to the North Carolina General Assembly in the twentieth century, and the first African American Chief Justice for the North Carolina Supreme Court. Frye was born on August 1, 1932 in Ellerbe, … Read MoreHenry Ell Frye (1932- )
Justice Michael Douglas is the first African American Justice of the Nevada Supreme Court. He was first appointed in 2004 and has twice served as Chief Justice of the court. Justice Douglas was born in Los Angeles, California and graduated from California State Long Beach in 1971 and Hastings Law School in 1974. … Read MoreMichael L. Douglas (1948- )
Roderick L. Ireland was appointed to serve as Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in 1997, becoming the court’s first justice of African American descent. In December 2010, Justice Ireland was appointed to serve as Chief Justice of the court. Justice Ireland retired from the court … Read MoreRoderick L. Ireland (1944- )
George Howard, Jr. was the first black justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court and the first black federal judge in Arkansas. As a lawyer, he litigated cases that resulted in the desegregation of Arkansas public schools. As a federal judge, he presided over the politically-charged Whitewater cases that involved Bill and Hillary … Read MoreGeorge Howard Jr. (1924-2007)
Robert Benham is the first African American justice to serve on the Supreme Court of Georgia. Benham was born September 25, 1946, in Cartersville, Georgia, to Jesse Knox and Clarence Benham. He is the great-grandchild of enslaved people. After graduation from Summer Hill High School in 1963, Benham … Read MoreRobert Benham (1946- )
Louis Sturns was the first African American to serve on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court. Sturns was born to Robert L. Sterns and Emma Sturns on August 6, 1949 in Henderson, Texas, located in Rusk County. He was raised in Rusk County … Read MoreLouis E. Sturns (1949- )
George Henry Brown, Jr., the first African American appointed to serve on the Tennessee Supreme Court, was born on July 16, 1939 and grew up in in Memphis, Tennessee. Brown’s father Alfred was a car cleaner for the Illinois Central Railroad, and his mother Sara was a teacher for the … Read MoreGeorge Henry Brown, Jr. (1939- )
Louis Bennett Butler, Jr. became the first black justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2004 and served on the court until 2008. Butler also became Wisconsin’s first Public Defender to ever argue before the United States Supreme Court in 1988 during the trial of McCoy v. Wisconsin Court of … Read MoreLouis B. Butler, Jr. (1952- )
Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on December 30, 1949, Tom Colbert was the first African American Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Raised by his single mother, Edith Colbert, with four other siblings, he grew up in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, a small town near Oklahoma City, and graduated from … Read MoreTom Colbert (1949- )
David Lewis is the first African American to serve on the Criminal Court of Appeals in Oklahoma. Born to Sylvia Lewis on April 30, 1958, in Ardmore, Oklahoma, he graduated from Ardmore High School in 1976. He got a bachelor’s degree in business economics at the University of Oklahoma in … Read MoreDavid B. Lewis (1956- )
