She Will Rise, the nation’s first-ever campaign supporting the nomination of a Black woman U.S. Supreme Court Justice, held a virtual roundtable Monday discussing the absence and importance of Black women serving on the highest court in the land. The roundtable discussion was moderated by journalist Demetria L. Lucas and featured passionate experts. Monday’s event came days after the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.
In a statement detailing the importance of racial inclusion on the U.S. Supreme Court, Kim Tignor, the executive director of the Institute of Intellectual Property and Social Justice and an advisor to Demand Justice, highlighted the intensity of the 2020 calendar year, it’s connection to universal human rights, and the devastating effects racism has had on the country.
“…while eyes have been on the president, it is the courts that have the final say in which of these right will remain, but the courts are only as powerful as our faith in it’s decisions and our faith is drawn for the nose chin that the collective body of the courts understands the diversity of our shared experience as Americans. So how is it that one of the most engaged voting demographics, Black Women, is still underrepresented in every branch of the government? The answer: the intersection of sexism and racism just hits different. It hits harder, it hits uglier, and from all angles,” said Tigor.
She Will Rise has dedicated itself to advocating for the implementation of a Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. Tigor states that the disparaged community offers a necessary viewpoint that is currently missing.
“Black women are masters of seeing whose perspective is not in the room, whose voice was marginalized or silenced, whose contribution was ignored or erased. Our exclusion has made us masters of inclusion and that is what is needed on the court…,” said Tigor.
Other panelists are of the same belief system.
“The impact of Supreme Court decisions has never been more critical and critically important to Black women, who, for the entire 231 years of the Court’s existence and the 40 years since the first woman was nominated and confirmed, have had no representation on the highest court in the land,” said Donna Hylton, author and activist. “This fact is in direct contrast to our heroic investment as voters and civic participants and our considerable numbers of qualified potential nominees.
Some believe systemic racism is the blame for the racial disparities seen across the courts.
“There’s a reason that Black people, for most of the history of this country, were not allowed to sit on juries, were not allowed to bring cases before courts themselves, were prohibited from going to the law schools across the South because there’s an understanding of how important the courts are to pursuing justice and they set the law of the land,” said NikoleHannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Creator of The 1619 Project. “When you don’t have representation on those courts then your communities are not receiving the equal justice that we deserve.”
Hannah-Jones says now is a better time than any for the supreme court to appoint a black woman as a justice.
“It’s just time. We’ve been here for 401 years now and you cannot have institutions that are reflective of your democracy if they are not reflective of your democracy. It is not that there’s never been a qualified Black woman in the 200-something year history of the Supreme Court, there have been many qualified Black women, they’ve just never received a chance,” said Nikole Hannah-Jones.
While the numbers are alarming to many, Hannah-Jones says they are not surprising.
“Black women sit at the intersection of all oppression. Black women are among the most marginalized, they face both race discrimination and gender discrimination, said Hannah-Jones. “The Supreme Court, which is highest court in the land, you serve on it for life, there have been very few women, there have been very few people of color, only three people of color in the entire history of the Court; it should not be shocking that there has not been a black woman, but it should be unacceptable.”
One guest featured during Monday’s event noted that racial inequities also exist in direct correlation to America’s justice system.
“Black women in our society are disproportionately subject to object trauma as well as early and unjust criminalization,” said Hylton. “The rate of growth of female incarceration of predominantly Black and Brown women has exceeded 750% in a quarter-century.” Hylton went on to discuss her own trauma in connection to the justice system.
The virtual conversation is the first initiative of many created by She Will Rise, designed to “foster greater equality in America by ensuring the nomination of a Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States for the first time since it was established over 230 years ago” as written in the organization’s news release. She Will Rise will be hosting an event Tuesday, Sept. 22 featuring valued contributor, April Rain. The event will be held virtually at 6 p.m. EST.
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