Otis Milton Smith became the first black justice on the Michigan Supreme Court in 1961, and served on the court until 1966. Smith was also the first black corporate officer of the General Motors Corporation, where he worked as general counsel, vice president, and leading attorney between 1966 and 1984. Smith … Read MoreOtis M. Smith (1922-1994)
Charles E. Freeman is the first and only African American to serve on the State of Illinois Supreme Court, representing the First Judicial District of Illinois. Freeman was born in 1933 in Richmond, Virginia. A 1954 graduate of Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. Freeman served in the U.S. Army from 1956 to … Read MoreCharles Edward Freeman (1933- )
Myra Consetta Selby has served as both the first African American and first female associate justice appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court. Selby was born in 1955 in Bay City, Michigan. Selby’s father, the late Ralph L. Selby, worked as an attorney; her mother Archie was a fourth-grade school teacher. … Read MoreMyra Consetta Selby (1955- )
James H. Coleman, Jr., is an American lawyer, judge, and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Born on May 4th, 1933, in Lawrenceville, Virginia, Coleman is the son of a poor southern sharecropper. While Coleman has since retired his position as an … Read MoreJames H. Coleman, Jr. (1933- )
Robert Morton Duncan was an American prosecutor, judge, and the first African-American to serve on the Ohio state Supreme Court. Born on August 24th, 1927, in Urbana, Ohio, Duncan is the son of parents Benjamin Austin and Wanda Brown Duncan. Duncan attended a desegregated school in Urbana at a time … Read MoreRobert Morton Duncan (1927-2012)
Born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1950, John Charles Thomas, the first African American to sit on the Virginia Supreme Court, began his higher education at the University of Virginia in 1968, and four years later he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American in … Read MoreJohn Charles Thomas (1950- )
Robert Glass, the Connecticut Supreme Court’s first African American member, was born on November 28, 1922, to M.E. Jackson and Isiah Glass in Wetumpka, Alabama. His parents were young and quite poor when he was born so they were not able to pay for his schoolbooks, which was … Read MoreRobert Davis Glass (1922-2001)
Robert Nix Jr. was the first African American to be elected to statewide office in Pennsylvania, and the first African American chief justice of any state supreme court in the nation. Nix was born on July 13, 1928, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the only child of … Read MoreRobert Nelson Cornelius Nix Jr. (1928–2003)
Oscar William Adams, Jr. was the first African American Supreme Court Justice appointed in Alabama and when he later stood for election to a full term, the first African American elected to a statewide constitutional office. He also litigated many civil rights cases in his … Read MoreOscar Adams, Jr. (1925-1997)
Alan Page is a former professional football player and current Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Born on August 7, 1945 in Canton, Ohio, Page holds the distinction of being the only player to work on the construction of the National Football League (NFL) … Read MoreAlan Page (1945- )
