‘Nobody Can Steal Our Joy'

Michigan Advance

April 12, 2022

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic confirmation last week as the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court was widely hailed by African American women leaders in Michigan.

“It’s hard to be what you cannot see,” state Rep. Kyra Harris Bolden (D-Southfield) tweeted. “Thank you Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson for showing us what’s possible!”

Two days later, Bolden was nominated by the Michigan Democratic Party (MDP) for a seat on the Michigan Supreme Court. If elected in November, she would be the first Black woman to serve on the seven-member body. She likely will face incumbent Brian Zahra, a Republican-nominated justice.

“We are going to make sure liberty and justice for all means something to every person in Michigan. Because I want Michigan to be a great place where justice is accessible to all. For your children, for your grandchildren and also for baby Bolden to grow up in,” Bolden said at the convention Saturday.

On Feb. 25, President Joe Biden nominated Jackson, a U.S. Courts of Appeals D.C. Circuit judge, to the nation’s high court. Jackson, 51, is a Washington, D.C., native who grew up in Florida. She attended Harvard University and the Harvard School of Law.

The final U.S. Senate confirmation vote was 53-47, with Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) joining Democrats to back Jackson. Romney, who was raised in Michigan, is a son of George Romney, a moderate Republican who served as governor during the 1960s.

MDP Chair Lavora Barnes said Jackson’s ascension to the high court will be inspirational for Black women.

“Nobody can steal our joy as we usher in a new chapter of this country’s history because now little Black girls will come of age with a Supreme Court Justice that looks like them, making decisions that will impact the rest of their lives,” Barnes, the party’s first Black woman to serve as chair, tweeted on Thursday.

Erika Lorraine Bryant, an African American lawyer in Detroit, said Jackson’s U.S. Supreme Court confirmation means that “there aren’t any more barriers to us in the legal profession.”

“It took over 200 years, but now we have representation on every court in the land,” said Bryant. “To be clear, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is not the only Black, brilliant, female mind in this country. She is just the first that the country has been willing to acknowledge as deserving of a seat on the Supreme Court. We have been here all this time.”

Qiana Lillard is an African-American Wayne County Circuit Court judge who was appointed to the bench nine years ago by GOP former Gov. Rick Snyder. She lamented over parts of the 30 hours of hearings, as the questioning from Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee was, at times, contentious.

“Watching what she endured as a part of the nomination process served as a painful reminder of what many Black women, especially in the legal field, go through every day,” said Lillard. Unfortunately, no matter how smart we are or how hard we work we are never seen, by some, as good enough for the success that we earn.”

During the March 22 confirmation hearing, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), presented a poster-sized, blow-up of a children’s book called “Antiracist Baby” by Ibram X. Kendi. He then pointed to a cartoon from one of its pages of an infant in diapers taking their first walk.

“Do you agree with this book … that babies are racist?” Cruz asked Jackson.

“I don’t believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist or not valued, or less than, that they are victims, oppressors,” said Jackson after a long pause.

Cruz later cited a passage for another Kendi book, “Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You.” Jackson pointed out that she had not reviewed the books that Cruz had presented.

“They don’t come up in my work as a judge, which I’m respectfully here to address,” said Jackson.

State Sen. Erika Geiss (D-Taylor), executive vice chair of the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus, called Cruz’s line of questioning “disrespectful.”

“Those of us watching the confirmation hearings saw what many Black women experience in professional settings, but on a world stage — and it was nothing new to us,” she said. “Through their disrespectful behavior and her impeccable, irreproachable ability to muster through a visual lesson in professional survival was offered that will resonate with young Black women and girls and show that they, too, can handle the slings and arrows levied at them.”

Afeni McNeely Cobham, the chief equity and inclusion officer at Grand Rapids Community College, agreed that Black women are often subjected to the harsh treatment that Jackson endured during the hearings.

“For me, the entire process is bittersweet,” said Cobham. “I am delighted about this historical moment and the potential it may provide for future Supreme Court nominations. However, I am also dismayed that the vitriolic behavior she endured during the confirmation hearings is not an uncommon reality for Black women.”

Mayowa Lisa Reynolds, principal at Detroit Schools of Arts, told the Advance that while Jackson’s confirmation process in an evenly divided Senate was often tense, African-American students are nonetheless inspired to achieve in the same way that Jackson has.

“They know that they have to be prepared for opportunities and prepared for the pushback,” said Reynolds.

The Michigan Advance, a hard-hitting, nonprofit news site, covers politics and policy across the state of Michigan through in-depth stories, blog posts, and social media updates, as well as top-notch progressive commentary. The Advance is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.