Leading South Florida Organizations Gather to Support the Senate Confirmation Hearing of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
(Miami, FL) The official watch party for the Senate Confirmation Hearing of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was held at The Carrie Meek Foundation in Opa-Locka FL on Monday. “It is a privilege and an honor to host this group of accomplished women for this important moment in our nation’s history,” said Lucia Raiford, CEO of the Carrie Meek Foundation. The Win With Black Women Organization along with The Black Women’s Leadership Collective gathered in support of Judge Jackson, with some of South Florida’s leading organizations to witness history in making. “This moment sends a message to little girls and young Black women attorneys who look like her that they can also be a Supreme Court justice – The most important thing is that she is a qualified jurist,” said Miami-Dade attorney Yolanda Cash Jackson who was among a group of Black women attorneys in attendance.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High before graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1992. She then attended Harvard Law School, where she graduated cum laude in 1996. After law school, Jackson was a law clerk for several judges, including Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, whom she would replace if confirmed by the Senate. She was also an assistant federal public defender in Washington, D.C., from 2005 to 2007.
In 2013, Jackson was confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after she was nominated by former President Barack Obama. Eight years later, in 2021, she was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after she was nominated by President Joe Biden. In both instances she received bipartisan support, the White House said.
Jackson is also fair and impartial, said Nakia Ruffin, an attorney and president of the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association. “We need somebody who can see both sides and come to a fair conclusion according to the rule of law,” she said. “Our bench needs to reflect the community that it serves.”
Organizations in attendance at the watch party included GMC Links, Incorporated, Pi Delta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Dade County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Miami Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta, Gwen Cherry Black Women, Equal Ground, and Florida Rising.
(Source: The Miami Herald)
