Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson delivered a stirring speech connecting her historic confirmation as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court to many Black Americans’ origin in the United States with a simple phrase: “We’ve made it.”
Ms Jackson made the remarks at the White House the day after the Senate voted to confirm her 53 to 47, with only three Republicans voting with every Democrat to vote for her.
“It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States,” she said. “But we’ve made it.”
Ms Jackson also invoked the late poet Maya Angelou in her speech on the South Lawn on Friday.
“The path was cleared for me so that I might rise to the occasion,” she said. “And in the poetic words of Dr Maya Angelou, ‘I do so now while bringing the gifts my ancestors gave. I am the dream and the hope of the slave.’”
The judge noted that her confirmation was a day in which all African Americans could celebrate.
“In my family, it took just one generation to go from segregation to the Supreme Court of the United States,” she said. “And it is an honour, the honour of a lifetime to have this chance to join the court, to promote the rule of law at the highest level and to do my part to carry our shared part of equal justice under law forward into future.”
Ms Jackson invoked the memory of her grandparents, saying she achieved something they could not have possibly imagined.
The celebration at the White House came after a contentious confirmation process in which many Republicans – such as Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas – accused Ms Jackson of being too lenient on people convicted of possessing child sex abuse images.
Others such as Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and ranking Republican Chuck Grassley frequently interrupted her or complained about previous judicial nomination fights.
President Joe Biden denounced her treatment when he introduced her.
“It was verbal abuse,” he said. “The anger, the constant interruptions, the most vile, baseless assertions & accusations. In the face of it all, Judge Jackson showed the incredible character & integrity she possesses.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman to hold her position, introduced both the president and the judge and spoke about how when she presided over the vote, she wrote a note to her goddaughter.
“I told her that I felt such a deep sense of pride and joy, and about what this moment means for our nation and for her future,” she said. “And I will tell you, her braids are just a little longer than yours, but as I wrote to her, I told her I knew what this would mean for her life and all that she has in terms of potential.”
