It is done.
History has been rewarded.
A dream has now been fulfilled. Welcome to the 116th United States Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. She will be the first Black woman to sit and serve on the highest court in the land. By a vote of 53 to 47, her confirmation comes after a most contentious and obstructive barrage of mis-representations, mis-interpretations, and a missed obligation to do what is right on the part of those whose actions were indeed wrong.
We shall remember the words of a Lindsey Graham for his vitriolic and nauseous pledge not to even give “a hearing to the likes of a Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson if Republicans were in charge.”
We pause with a deep, piercing realization of the racial and absurd comments by Senator Tom Cotton.
“The last Judge Jackson left the Supreme Court to go to Nuremberg and prosecute the case against the Nazis. This judge Jackson might have gone there to defend them.” The pain expressed by Hamlet can still be felt by us today when he cried, “to be or not to be? Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and to oppose them.”
While we remember the rancor and resentment of most Republicans who fought against this nominee, we are heartened by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer who said, “this is a great moment for Judge Jackson, but
it is an even greater moment for America as we rise to a more perfect union.”
Senator Mitt Romney called Justice Jackson, “a well-qualified jurist and person of honor who more than meets the standard of excellence and integrity for a Supreme Court justice.” Thank you, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, for instilling within our consciousness, “it’s important to move people beyond just dreaming into doing. They have to be able to see that you are just like them, and you made it.”
Many of us have had our souls set on fire, ignited by the flames of justice inspired by Thurgood Marshall. Perhaps these flames can be further enhanced by the presence of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in the continuation of a legacy. When describing moments such as this, Thurgood Marshall said, “sometimes history takes things into its own hands.” After 233 years of Supreme Court Justices, the ascension of the first Black woman jurist to the court was presided over in the U.S. Senate by the first Black woman Vice President of the United States. Vice President Kamala Harris said, “I am overjoyed. I am feeling a deep sense of pride in who we are as a nation.”
A page of opportunity into a chapter of diversity has now been folded into the novel called American history.
Wouldn’t you know it, the spirit of our sister Maya Angelou has been compelled to stir for a fleeting moment
just to remind each of us once again, “you may write me down in history, with your bitter twisted lies. You may
trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise.” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, this poem is also meant for
you. After all of the trials and tribulations, and “Still You Rise.”
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