Activism
COMMENTARY: Celebrating Black Women on the Federal Bench
Having a strong contingent of Black women judges on these courts means the lived experience they bring — in addition to their stellar legal credentials — is coming into play in deciding cases that will shape all our lives for years to come.

By Ben Jealous
President Joe Biden’s first year in office has brought both triumphs and disappointments. There’s no question that the administration has work to do on voting rights and on passing the critical social infrastructure pieces of the Build Back Better plan.
But firmly in the “wins” column is the president’s extraordinary success nominating and confirming to the federal bench extraordinarily qualified judges with a demonstrated commitment to civil rights, especially Black women judges.
This is profoundly important to our legal system, to how justice is administered and to how everyday people experience life in our democracy, whether they ever find themselves in court or not.
That’s because even though the Supreme Court grabs headlines when it decides a big case, the high court takes only a few cases every year. The vast majority of federal cases is decided in the lower courts, at the circuit and district levels. This is where rulings are made that affect our right to vote, to not be discriminated against in housing or access to health care, and so much more.
Having a strong contingent of Black women judges on these courts means the lived experience they bring — in addition to their stellar legal credentials — is coming into play in deciding cases that will shape all our lives for years to come.
The numbers tell a powerful story. A full 65% of Biden’s circuit court nominees have been people of color. Three quarters have been women, and 42% have been Black women. These statistics break all previous numbers for inclusion on the critically important circuit courts, whose opinions establish the law in all the states in their region.
The president has shown a similar commitment to diversity on the district courts, as well. And all this comes against a backdrop of record-shattering appointments overall: Biden has had more lower federal court judges (circuit and district combined) confirmed than any other president in his first year, in 60 years.
Probe beneath the numbers and you discover even more compelling stories: the personal histories of the Black women tapped by Biden to serve on our highest courts.
A distinguished Yale Law School graduate, Candace Jackson-Akiwumi had her pick of high-powered legal jobs. She worked for a while at a prestigious law firm, then quit to become a public defender, representing people who could not afford a lawyer.
In that role, she helped expose the government’s use of “phony stash houses,” a way to trap people into committing crimes they would not otherwise commit. Today, she serves as the only Black judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
Similarly, Yale alumna Eunice Lee spent 20 years at Manhattan’s Office of the Appellate Defender, representing poor people in New York City convicted of felonies. Today she is a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.
And Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Harvard Law graduate, devoted years of her career to public service, representing low-income people in Washington, D.C., as a public defender. She also served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, where she worked to end the unjust discrepancy between sentences for crack and powder cocaine. Today she serves on the D.C. Circuit and is often talked about as a future Supreme Court nominee.
The paths to confirmation for these women and their fellow nominees were tainted by attacks, racist and otherwise. The right-wing press criticized these nominees as “radical liberals.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee asked Jackson and Jackson-Akiwumi point-blank at their confirmation hearings if race would play a role in their judicial decision-making. And far-right conservatives did everything they could to delay their confirmation. But all of them prevailed, with dignity, grit and grace, the qualities that so many accomplished Black women have shown in the face of adversity.
And the story is still being written. On the campaign trail, Biden promised to name the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, and Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement paves the way for that to occur. Soon, we may see that Black women take a long-overdue and rightful seat on the nation’s highest court; I look forward to celebrating that beautiful and momentous day.
Ben Jealous serves as president of People for the American Way and Professor of Practice in the Africana Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania where he teaches leadership.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of March 15 – 21, 2023
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 15 – 21, 2023

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.
Activism
Richmond Promise Scholarship Application Deadline Closes March 17
Qualifying applicants can receive up to $1,500 annually for four years toward their post-secondary educational goals at a two-year or four-year college and/or while pursuing a Career Technical Education Certificate at any not-for-profit institution in the U.S.

Calling all high school seniors from Richmond and North Richmond: The Richmond Promise Scholarship Application period for the 2022-2023 school year closes on Friday, March 17.
High school seniors and GED students under the age of 24 who reside in Richmond and North Richmond and attend public, private, or charter schools in West Contra Costa County are eligible to apply for the scholarship.
Qualifying applicants can receive up to $1,500 annually for four years toward their post-secondary educational goals at a two-year or four-year college and/or while pursuing a Career Technical Education Certificate at any not-for-profit institution in the U.S.
Students can also petition for an additional two years of extra funding. Throughout the process, the program provides supportive services to participating scholars from high school through college graduation, including support with identifying and applying for financial aid.
Richmond Promise launched in 2016 with a $35 million, 10-year investment by Chevron Richmond. The funds are part of a $90 million community benefits agreement between the City of Richmond and Chevron connected to the $1 billion Refinery Modernization Project.
To apply for the Richmond Promise Scholarship, go to https://richmondpromise.tfaforms.net/81. Need some help? Reach out to Richmond Promise at scholarships@richmondpromise.org. Learn more about the organization https://richmondpromise.org/
Kathy Chouteau contributed to this report
Activism
Bay Area Native Dr. Terri Jett Honored by Indiana’s Butler University
Terri Jett arrived at Butler University in 1999 to begin her teaching career as an assistant professor of Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies after earning her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Public Administration from Auburn University. Originally from California, Jett was unfamiliar with the Hoosier state, but was drawn to the energy of the faculty and students she met at Butler and the opportunity she saw for connecting her teaching and research with the broader Indianapolis community.

By Jennifer Gunnels
Butler University Stories
Bay Area native Terri Jett was received a Distinguished Faculty Award at Indiana’s Butler University.
Terri Jett arrived at Butler University in 1999 to begin her teaching career as an assistant professor of Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies after earning her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Public Administration from Auburn University.
Originally from California, Jett was unfamiliar with the Hoosier state, but was drawn to the energy of the faculty and students she met at Butler and the opportunity she saw for connecting her teaching and research with the broader Indianapolis community.
More than 20 years later, Jett has excelled at the work she set out to do. Last year, she was named a 2021-22 Distinguished Faculty Award recipient for her profound contributions to Butler University over the course of her career.
In many ways, Jett has been a trailblazer at Butler, including becoming the first Black female to earn tenure, and in 2020 becoming the first Black female to be promoted to full professor. Along with her teaching responsibilities as a member of the faculty, Jett has taken on numerous additional roles over the years including faculty director of the Hub for Black Affairs and Community Engagement (the Hub), member of the Steering Committee of the Race, Gender, Sexuality Studies Program (RGSS), faculty senator, and Faculty Fellow at the Desmond Tutu Peace Lab Think Tank. She also served as Department Chair from 2007-2014, a role she has currently resumed as interim while the current Chair is on sabbatical.
Jett has developed almost two dozen courses — core, departmental, honors, and even taught in our Washington D.C. Semester Program — and is always eager to seize on opportunities to take her students beyond the borders of campus. She has led students on numerous occasions to Selma, Alabama with the Honors course Voting Rights in Black and White: The Case of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March. She says walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge is always a moving and eye-opening experience for her students that brings the Civil Rights Movement to life in new ways.
Of the many courses she has taught, Jett says one of her favorites to teach is the Politics of Alice Walker, which she teaches nearly every summer. Prior to the pandemic, Jett also offered the course several times at the Indiana Women’s Prison and was able to bring some of her Butler students to visit her class in prison.
Jett is committed to doing good things in the world herself and is known in the Indianapolis community for her service and activism. She currently serves on the board of Indiana Humanities and is appointed by Mayor Joe Hogsett to the Indianapolis Land Improvement Bond Bank Board. She also moderates a series on local PBS station WFYI called Simple Civics, which provides short civics lessons and was nominated for a Great Lakes Region Emmy in 2020 and again in 2021.
Jett says her community activism is inspired in part by a desire to demonstrate how to be an engaged citizen for her students as well as a desire to connect her teaching and research to issues happening within the community.
“And I do it because it’s fulfilling,” she said.
Though Jett has various roles within and outside of Butler, she finds satisfaction in discovering ways to integrate her teaching, research, and service. For instance, her research focuses on agriculture and food justice, and last year she leveraged her area of academic expertise and her role as Faculty Director of the Hub to partner with Indy Women in Food in hosting the organization’s first conference on Butler’s campus focused on food insecurity in the city.
“I’m thrilled when I’m able to do that,” Jett said. “All of the hats that I wear are sort of constantly engaged at the same time, and I like that I get to work like that. I’m not running from one thing to the next, I feel like my work is layered with multiple connection points.”
This article is part of a series honoring the 2021-22 recipients of the Butler University Distinguished Faculty Award. Printed with permission.
-
Activism6 days ago
Oakland Post: Week of March 15 – 21, 2023
-
Activism2 weeks ago
Oakland Post: Week of March 8 – 14, 2023
-
Activism3 weeks ago
Oakland Post: Week of March 1 – 7, 2023
-
Activism4 weeks ago
Oakland Post: Week of February 22 – 28, 2023
-
Bay Area2 weeks ago
Help Save North Oakland Missionary Baptist Church, the 2nd oldest Black Church in Oakland
-
Bay Area2 weeks ago
Deadlocked OUSD Board Fails to Approve Proposed Budget That Would Cut Programs, Lay Off Teachers, Close Schools
-
Bay Area2 weeks ago
Alameda County Supervisors Will Allow Tenant Eviction Protections to Expire at End of April: Oakland’s eviction moratorium remains in effect for local residents
-
Activism2 weeks ago
Reparations: California Legislative Analyst’s Office Proposes “Paths” For Payments