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Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson makes history

By DeAnna Tisdale Johnson

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Feature

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July 10, 2022

Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the first Black woman U.S. Supreme Court Justice on June 30, 2022.

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On June 30, 2022, Ketanji Brown Jackson officially made history as the first Black woman U.S. Supreme Court Justice during her swearing-in ceremony. Justice Brown Jackson’s judicial oath will allow her to sit on the country’s highest court just a week after SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade.

Justice KBJ was sworn in with two bibles – her family Bible and a 1906 King James version of the Bible known as the Harlan Bible – by her husband, Dr. Patrick Jackson, who looked lovingly and proudly upon her as she swore her oath.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., administered the Constitutional Oath in the West Conference Room of the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. “On behalf of all the members of the court, I’m pleased to welcome Justice Jackson to the court and to our common calling,” said Chief Roberts.

Additionally, the court will still be conservatively leaning by a split of 6-3 since Justice Brown Jackson will be replacing liberal-winged Justice Stephen G. Breyer who is now retired. She was once his law clerk during her early years as a lawyer in 1999 to 2000.

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Of Justice Breyer, Brown Jackson shares that he “has been a personal friend and mentor of mine for the past two decades, in addition to being part of today’s official act. In the wake of his exemplary service, with the support of my family and friends, and ever mindful of the duty to promote the Rule of Law, I am well-positioned to serve the American people.”

This will also be the first time in U.S. history that four women will sit on the Supreme Court at the same time.

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Author

DeAnna Tisdale Johnson

DeAnna Tisdale Johnson is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Jackson Advocate newspaper. Johnson joins a short list as one of the youngest publishers in the history of Black newspapers.

Johnson oversees a small staff and is diligently working to grow the newspaper to its former glory and beyond by digitizing the medium. She has been a published writer since the age of fourteen for the publication, where her father Charles Tisdale was owner and publisher until his death. Her mother, Alice Tisdale, is now publisher emeritus.

She is also a lyric soprano, lauded for her warmth and richness of voice. Her performances include a concert as the premier vocalist with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, Anna Maurant in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, with lyrics by Langston Hughes; chorus and Prilepa (cover) in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades with Harvard’s Lowell House Opera; Foreign Princess from Dvorak’s Rusalka (Halifax Summer Opera Festival); Forester’s Wife and Fox (cover) in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, among other roles.

She took part in a groundbreaking, immersive theatre production of Britten’s Turn of the Screw in the role of Miss Jessel (Opera Brittenica) and has studied role preparation with the world-renowned Martina Arroyo in her Prelude to Performance program. Johnson has received a few honors over the past few years, including a grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission and the Leadership Award from the Mississippi Jazz Association.

She looks forward to continuing her passion for music by facilitating a summer classical music festival in her hometown within the next couple of years. She is most proud of her move back home to Jackson, Mississippi to be of service to the place she grew up.

DeAnna Tisdale attended Murrah High School, a school known for its diversity and prestigious academic programs, she was selected in both the academic and performing arts components of the Academic and Performing Arts Complex (APAC) program.

She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music/Vocal Performance from Tougaloo College and her Master of Music (M.M.) degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Southern Mississippi, where she graduated both magna cum laude. She also graduated from the Boston Conservatory, where she received a Graduate Performance Diploma in Vocal Performance.

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