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- )
Donald Dean Haley, was an attorney King County Superior Court judge, one of thirteen founders and past president of the Loren Miller Bar Association, formerly the Loren Miller Bar Club (a black legal association), and a lifelong member and former president of the Seattle-King County … Read MoreDonald Dean Haley (1932-2018)
Medical technician and lawyer, state executive, and judge Alice Athenia Lytle was born on March 2, 1939 in Newark, New Jersey. Her father Lacey Lytle worked as a janitor in a building where she lived. He and her mother Margaret moved the family to Harlem … Read MoreAlice Athenia Lytle (1939-2018)
Justice Adrienne C. Nelson is the first African American justice on the Oregon State Supreme Court, having been appointed on January 2, 2018. Justice Nelson graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville with degrees in English and Criminal Justice and earned her Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University … Read MoreAdrienne C. Nelson (1967- )
James Lopez Watson was the first African American to serve as the head of a federal court in the Deep South. He was born in Harlem, New York City, New York, on May 21, 1922, to Violet and James S. Watson, a New York judge. … Read MoreJames Lopez Watson (1922-2001)
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)
“Image Ownership: Rollin Riggs” D’Army Bailey, founder of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis Tennessee, was a political and civil rights activist whose career spanned over half a century. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 29, 1941, Bailey was one of three children … Read MoreD’Army Bailey (1941-2015)
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Edward Dudley was the first black American to lead a U.S. Mission abroad with the rank of Ambassador. Dudley was born on March 11, 1911 in South Boston, Virginia to Edward Richard and Nellie (Johnson) Dudley. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree … Read MoreEdward Richard Dudley (1911-2005)
Myles Anderson Paige, the first African American to be appointed a New York City Criminal Court Judge, was born on July 18, 1898, in Montgomery, Alabama. Paige was a star football player at Howard University, graduating from the Washington D.C. institution with a Bachelor of … Read MoreMyles Anderson Paige (1898-1983)
Art Blakey, jazz drummer and band leader, was born Arthur William Blakey in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on October 11, 1919. Blakey’s father, Burtrum, who worked as a barber, left his family when Blakey was a newborn. Blakey lost his mother, Marie Roddericker, before his second birthday. … Read MoreArt Blakey (1919-1990)
