President Joe Biden and his Supreme Court nominee, Justice Appointee Ketanji Brown Jackson, leaned heavily on the historic nature of her confirmation as the first African-American woman to sit in that court of law in her 232 years of history, during a celebration outside the White House.
Biden called it “a real game-changing moment in American history” while enjoying a triumph that has energized the base of his party.
The first African-American woman to be a judge of the US Supreme Court celebrated her confirmation for the position on the White House lawn this Friday, an outcome that would have been unthinkable for her grandparents.
Today is a good day forAmerica. A day that history will remember. Tune in as the Vice President, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, and I deliver remarks on the Senate’s historic, bipartisan confirmation. https://t.co/sRxo0MpkcX
—President Biden (@POTUS) April 8, 2015
A classic poem in African-American culture allowed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to explain -and perhaps finish fully assuming- that his family has gone from slavery and racial segregation to the leadership of the United States judiciary, after being confirmed for the position on Thursday.
Bringing with me the gifts that my ancestors bequeathed me, I am the dream and the hope of the slave”.
Ketanji Brown Jackson, Justice of the Supreme Court
Those words borrowed them from the poem “Still I rise” (“And even so, I rise”), by the famous poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou , but illustrated bi in the weight that history has had on his family, coming from the south of the United States and with roots in slavery.
“He has worn 232 years and 115 appointments prior to a Black woman being elected to serve on the Court United States Supreme. But we did it”, smiled Jackson.
He owes this achievement to his own “references” in life and in the judicial profession, and to “generations of Americans who never had anything like this type opportunity,” he stressed, wiping away tears with a handkerchief.
President Biden commented on Twitter: “When I pledged to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, I was able to see this day. I could see it as a day of hope. A day of promise and progress. A day when once again the moral arc of the universe tilts a little more towards justice.”
When I made the commitment to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, I could see this day.
I could see it as a day of hope. A day of promise and progress. A day when once again the moral arc of the universe bends just a little more towards justice. pic.twitter.com/hy4CUvTz5j
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 8, 2022
“ They have paved the way for me”
Hundreds of people attended the ceremony at the White House interrupted several times with applause and cheers the speech of the judge, who was flanked by President Joe Biden, and by the first woman African American who has been vice president of the country, Kamala Harris.
Among that audience were Jackson’s proud parents, Johnny and Ellery Brown, who grew up in a racially segregated South and attended African-American schools and colleges before becoming public school teachers.
The judge inherited her father’s passion for law, who when she was little studied law with voluminous books while her h ija was coloring by his side in his apartment in Miami.
“I have worked hard to get to this point in my career, and I have achieved something that goes far beyond anything you could have imagined my grandparents. But nobody achieves something like this on their own: they have paved the way for me so that I can rise to the occasion”, stressed Jackson.
The judge trusted that her promotion to the Supreme Court, which will take place in the middle of this year, will be something “of which all Americans can be proud” , despite the fact that the majority of Republican senators opposed his confirmation in Thursday’s vote.
Before of Jackson’s speech, Biden himself condemned the Republicans’ attempt to distort Jackson’s record as a judge with “baseless” accusations and “verbal abuse” during the confirmation hearings, something she endured, she said, with “patience” and “integrity”.
The poem that Jackson quoted in his speech precisely describes the perseverance of the population. An African-American woman who manages to “rise up” again and again despite racism, and many African-American women were reflected in the resistance that the judge demonstrated during those hearings.
With information from EFE
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