The nomination of the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court is a long overdue moment of historic consequence. Another glass ceiling has been shattered — and at the most powerful judicial institution in our country. In its 232-year history, only seven of the 115 justices who have served have not been white men. When she is confirmed, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be the eighth.
For Black women in particular, the powerful symbolism of her nomination runs deep. We felt it as we watched a spectacularly accomplished Black woman with natural hair speak eloquently about her parents — both former public schoolteachers who attended historically Black colleges and universities — and about the strength of her faith and ambition that she needed to overcome the inadequate expectations of many around her.
Judge Jackson comes with unassailable traditional credentials that rival those of the chief justice with whom she will serve. But she also comes with unique perspectives and experiences — as a former public defender, as a member of the United States Sentencing Commission, as a Southerner and as a Black woman — that have shaped her vision of the law in ways that are underrepresented, to put it mildly, on the current court.
Predictably, Judge Jackson’s nomination to the court has not been met with universal praise. Even before she was announced as the nominee, the pledge by President Biden to appoint a Black woman to the court was attacked by many on the right. The familiar weapons of the trade were unsheathed in an effort to discredit the legitimacy of the nominee — whoever she might be.
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