Ketanji Brown Jackson
Credit: US District Court for the District of Columbia

February is Black History Month, an annual observance of the achievements and culture of Black Americans. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature Black pioneers in a variety of areas.

As the first Black woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson has an impressive career. She was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 2022. President Joe Biden nominated Jackson to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer. A mother, reporter, lawyer, and judge, Jackson is a role model for many people.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson signs an oath of office on June 30, 2022, as she is sworn in as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
Credit: US Supreme Court

Ketanji Onyika Brown was born on Sept. 14, 1970, in Washington, D.C. Her family later relocated to Miami, Florida. Brown studied at Harvard University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in government in 1992. She worked as a reporter and researcher for Time magazine from 1992 to 1993.

Brown attended Harvard Law School, where she worked as an editor at the Harvard Law Review. She graduated from law school in 1996. That same year, she married the American surgeon Patrick Jackson. The couple shares two daughters.

From 1996 to 1998, Ketanji Jackson served as a law clerk first in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and then in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. In 1999, she served as a law clerk to Justice Breyer. Jackson worked as an associate at several law firms and as a federal assistant public defender.

In 2010, Jackson became a vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, having been nominated to that position by President Barack Obama. On the commission, Jackson worked to reduce federal sentences for certain charges.

In 2012, Obama nominated Jackson to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, a position she held from 2013 to 2021. In 2021, Biden appointed Jackson to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.