Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., right, administers the Constitutional Oath to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, left, in the West Conference Room of the Supreme Court Building. Dr. Patrick Jackson holds the Bible, on Thursday, June 30, 2022. Photo: Fred Schilling/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States
In the movie “Moneyball,” the owner of the Boston Red Sox tells Billy Bean (played by Brad Pitt) that “the first guy through the wall—he always gets bloody.” All too often in any profession, we fail to acknowledge the contributions made by those who were “the first ones through the wall.”
When Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson spoke on the occasion of her historic confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court, she noted that she “stood on the shoulders” of those who laid the foundation for her achievement: people like Constance Baker Motley, the first Black female federal judge. But I would argue that we need to look even further into the past in acknowledging the “forgotten firsts”—the first minority lawyers—because the walls they broke through were formidable, indeed. And, yes, they got bloody.
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