WASHINGTON, D.C., March 1, 2024 – Black History Month has drawn to a close, but Alliance for Justice continues the work of highlighting the contributions of Black judges and justices in a new report detailing the role that they have played on state courts. It’s the first in a series that will showcase the important role of diversity in the justice system.
Fifteen states have never had a Black justice serve on their state supreme courts, showing just how much work there still is to do in diversifying these important judicial institutions. This is not simply because there are fewer Black people proportionally living in those states; indeed, as the report shows, some of the states with the densest Black populations have had the least representation on their state courts.
As for the other 35 states, the report highlights the history of Black justices on those courts and lays out the timeline of when each of the first Black justices began serving. Four of those states only saw Black justices join the bench in the last decade.
Alliance for Justice President Rakim H.D. Brooks issued the following statement:
“We still have so much Black history to write. At both the federal and state level, we have too many courts that have never had a single judge or justice who resembles a significant population that those courts serve. To fix such a problem, it must first be identified, and this report shows the work we still must do and points to how we can achieve those goals. This is just the beginning of our research into the diversity of our state courts. We will not stop this important work until this disappointing legacy becomes a historical anecdote.”
Click here to read The Faces of Justice: Black State Supreme Court Judges.
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Zack Ford
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