Legal professionals from all over the nation are gathering in Chicago this week to attend the National Bar Association’s centennial convention.
Founded in 1925, the National Bar Association is known as one of the nation’s oldest and largest networks of predominantly Black attorneys and judges.
More than 1,400 attendees filled Chicago’s Hyatt Regency Grand Hall and three overflow rooms to hear U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s remarks.
Judge J. Michelle Childs, who was also on President Biden’s Supreme Court short list, interviewed Jackson about her memoir, “Lovely One.”
Judge J. Michelle Childs, right, who serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, interviews Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson about her memoir, “Lovely One,” that traces Jackson’s rise from her childhood in Miami to Harvard to the highest court in the land.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
Jackson, the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, spoke about her upbringing in Miami, the difficulties she faced at Harvard and her journey to the Supreme Court.
She also shared some advice for aspiring judges.
“We know from history that Black people have faced difficulty and danger, and we see how much progress we have made. I continue to think about Constance Baker Motley and Thurgood Marshall and the work that they did to bring us to this point,” Jackson told the crowd.
“I see that as a charge for us today, all of us, lawyers, judges, we now have to prepare ourselves and future generations for the next great push toward equal justice under law, and I know that we can do that because others have done it before us.”
Childs thanked Jackson for joining the convention after “a very mighty and fierce Supreme Court’s term.”
“Let’s thank our sister on the bench,” Childs said to the crowd as applause filled the room.
Victoria Gumbs Moore, a judge in Long Island, New York, and a National Bar Association member for 27 years, expressed her excitement about attending the convention’s 100-year celebration. Gumbs Moore is the same age as Jackson and said she was inspired by how much Jackson has accomplished in a short amount of time.
“She’s not letting this opportunity pass her by. The fact that she had experience as an appellate and federal judge. She worked as a law clerk on three different levels, she was a federal prosecutor. She’s bringing a lot to the table, and I think it’s also a blueprint for the younger people to know that it’s good to get on the court when you’re in your 50s.
National Bar Association president Wiley S. Adams said Jackson’s remarks about the forces that shaped her, including that she was inspired by one of her idols, civil rights lawyer and judge Constance Baker Motley, is what led her to where she is today.
“If you can see it, you can be it,” Adams said.
He added there will be more highlights and historic moments throughout the convention. He said for the first time in the convention’s history a former president will give remarks.
“We have President Joe Biden joining us. Joe Biden was the one responsible for breaking that glass ceiling and putting Ketanji Brown Jackson on the bench, Adams said. “We are humbled and honored to have him before us. So this centennial convention, in all its aspects, is shaping out extremely well in a fitting occasion for the National Bar Association.”
Biden will address the group’s awards gala Thursday.
Other guest speakers include U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat, and attorneys general from various states, including Illinois’ Kwame Raoul.
Adams said the event underscores the organization’s role in civil rights and its continued relevance in addressing current legal and social issues.
“I think Dr. King said at some point ‘we must accept finite loss, but we must never lose infinitely,’ and that’s what we’re about,” Adams said.
“That is what this bar association has always been about, regardless of the times, what we’re going through, we’ve been through worse. We’ll come through this. We stand on shoulders of titans, and so we’re looking forward to joining the battle and making sure we get the outcomes that we deserve.”