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)
As a young activist, Allen Broussard fought for racial justice, equal opportunity, and civil liberties. Those campaigns inspired him to study the law. He connected with the community throughout his career as an attorney, judge, and committee member. Broussard authored key opinions on the death … Read MoreAllen E. Broussard (1929-1996)
Judge George Neves Leighton and his twin sister, Georgina, were born in New Bedford, Massachusetts on October 22, 1912, to Cape Verdean immigrants Antonio Neves Leitao and Anna Silva Garcia Leitao. His last name was changed, with his parents’ permission, to Leighton by an elementary … Read MoreGeorge Neves Leighton (1912-2018)
Judith Ann Wilson Rogers, law clerk, attorney, judge, and corporation counsel, was born on July 27, 1939 in New York City, New York. Her mother is unnamed, but her father was John Louis Wilson, Jr., an architect who passed away in 1989. Judith W. Rogers married in 1968. … Read MoreJudith Ann Wilson Rogers (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- )
Harry Cole, the first black justice on the Maryland Supreme Court, was born on January 1, 1921, in Washington, D.C., to a tailor and his wife. Shortly after his birth, Cole’s father died, and his mother moved him and his four siblings to her hometown, Baltimore, Maryland. Cole attended Douglass High School, … Read MoreHarry A. Cole (1921-1999)
William Eugene McAnulty, Jr. was the first black justice to serve on the Kentucky Supreme Court and the first black person to ever hold a cabinet level position in Kentucky state government. Justice McAnulty was appointed to the state Supreme Court in June 2006 by Kentucky … Read MoreWilliam E. McAnulty, Jr. (1947-2007)
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- )
