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2 FIRSTS: DEMS ARE 1ST AFRICANAMERICAN ELECTED TO DELCO COUNCIL, COUNTY BENCH; ALSO FIRST MUSLIM WOMAN JUDGE IN PA.
When voters picked Nusrat Rashid and Monica Taylor for victories Tuesday, they did more than select a judge and county councilwoman.
In January, when Taylor takes her seat on the Delaware County Council dais, she will be the first AfricanAmerican to do so. Rashid, on the other hand, will be the first African-American female on the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas — and the first Muslim judge in the entire state.
Based on U.S. Census population estimates from 2018, 22.4 percent of the county’s 564,751 residents are African-American, 66.3 percent are white, 6.1 percent are Asian, 3.9 percent are Hispanic or Latinx, 2.2 percent are two more races, and 0.2 percent are Native American.
Both shared what reaching this benchmark in Delaware County’s history means to them.
“Government should represent the people,” Rashid said. “If the government doesn’t look like the people, the people will not trust it. For me, it’s a simple one plus one equals two equation. It’s the same for women. Why was it so important for women to have the right to vote, to have representation in legislatures, to sit on federal courts? Because women make up half the population and how can you trust that people that don’t know your experiences or share your values are going to make the right decisions for you? That’s not representative government, that’s a dictatorship.
“So,” she explained, “for decades now, over a century, people of color and women have fought and are still fighting to be equally represented in government. We need to see that.”
Taylor said, “It’s far overdue. I’m honored to be the one that’s going to be the first one. I’m just so glad that the people of Delaware County thought that I was enough to vote for me. I think that representation means a lot and not having representation for this long is an issue. I think I just bring a different perspective because being an African-American female, I bring that perspective to the table.”
Rashid spoke of diversity in the courts, “People who administer justice see the things they want, so that’s why we need more diversity and more balance and more inclusion, so that justice can move further from one end – whatever that end may be – to a more blind standard. You have to have that.”
Rashid and Taylor voice their commitment to represent all people, regardless of race, gender, religion, hometown or any other characteristic.
“Diversity on the bench, specifically racial diversity on the bench, not only increases public trust and confidence, but it can balance out and improve and enhance judicial decision making,” Rashid said. “To African-American communities that unfortunately have experienced higher levels of targeting and those kinds of things from law enforcement – I don’t think anybody would deny that – when I say that I will be fair, I will be fair. I will be fair to you whether you are from Chester or whether you are from Ridley, Collingdale to Chadds Ford, I will be fair because I understand from working with people and working for people and advocating for people from so many different communities, that fairness and a fair shot are all most people want. They just want a fair shot.”
And, she said every person, every person could have a societal standard working against them.
“There are so many communities out there, there are people in low-income areas, there are people in high-income areas who may think that the system isn’t going to give them a fair break because of their income level or where they live in the county,” Rashid said. “There’s immigrant communities. There’s the LBGTQ community. There are women who may feel like it’s a male-dominated court system and they’re not going to get a fair break. I believe that every demographic has some stereotype against it. Every demographic. And every demographic deserves to not have any stereotypes or bi
“It’s far overdue. I’m honored to be the one that’s going to be the first one . ... I think that representation means a lot and not having representation for this long is an issue. I think I just bring a different perspective because being an African-American female, I bring that perspective to the table.”
— Dr. Monica Taylor
ases or impartiality – even the perception of those things – used against them in court.”
She explained it’s crucial to have a judge or an attorney who understands the special needs, the challenges and the strengths of each individual.
“Unfortunately, the history of how many different groups have been marginalized and left out of the loop, the perception of public trust and confidence is low in the courts and that’s not due to any one person,” Rashid said. “It’s just due to a systemic, system-wide abuses of power by people, by the system over centuries. So, unfortunately, in urban communities or minority communities, there’s a feeling of marginalization and that the system, the court system or the criminal justice system doesn’t understand.”
However, she added, “If the judge can, from the bench, clearly make it obvious to everyone who comes before him or her that they’re listening, they hear you and that they have considered all the evidence along with the law before they make their decision, then that is the best that our system can offer you – and that’s what I intend to do 100 percent.”
Being an African-American woman assuming this judgeship means “everything,” she said.
“I have a really personal connection with the struggles of black people in this country,” Rashid said. “I am very proud that my ancestors were able to persevere and draw strength from wherever it is they needed to, whether it was faith or family and I feel that I owe them a debt to act with dignity and to conduct myself with pride in their struggle. And because of that, I feel like attaining this position could be an example to people of all demographics, regardless of what they are, it doesn’t have to be racial, that when you recognize the strength and the power that you have in generations for generations before you to do good and to be good and to always promote good, you can bring about change.”
Returning to her Chester law office after getting measured in Media for her robe, Rashid spoke about being the first Muslim to sit on any court in Pennsylvania.
“As a Muslim, I believe in justice,” she said. “I believe in empathy. I believe in compassion and I believe in forgiveness. I also believe in accountability, personal responsibility and free will. So all of those things, I think are absolutely 100 percent mirrored in our Constitution and in the laws and in the appellate cases and the case law that comes from our Constitution.”
Born in York, Pa., the oldest of five, Rashid credits her parents with placing an emphasis on education and encouraging her to go to Swarthmore College, where she majored in history with a concentration on Black Studies. After obtaining her law degree from Temple, she married a man from Chester and they had three children together before he died in 2015. After working more than a decade in personal injury, she decided to open her own criminal defense and family law practice in Chester to see how she could help her community.
The first thing she did was hire an administrative assistant from the city, India Blackwell, who’s been with her ever since.
“I do have an extreme sense of pride just working for a black woman,” Blackwell said, “and then, being from Chester, having personally been in Family
Court in Media, the thought of anybody from now on, going out there and seeing a woman of color, not that she would be biased, but it gives you some kind of sense of a little more fairness, (of) somebody that would understand.”
Blackwell said she absolutely feels more represented.
“She’s not born in Chester but her business is here, her kids go to school here so I feel like she’s a Chester girl,” she said, adding that her boss is very hard-working. “She earned it. Nobody gave it to her. Listen, she worked for it. She did everything she needed to do. It was no back door flimflam. I am glad to see the fruits of her labor.”
Taylor grew up in a multi-generational home with much support in Wilmington, Delaware. Her mom was a single mother. Taylor began playing basketball at 5 years old and played for Bill McDonough of Blue Chip Basketball and Mountain MacGillivray, so all of her teammates were from Delaware County. After playing professionally in Europe and getting her master’s and doctoral degrees, she and her husband decided to settle in Upper Darby and raise their family here because of the memories and friends she had here.
A University of Sciences professor who designed the Kinesiology program, she decided to get more involved in her own community after the 2016 election and was elected to Upper Darby School Board in 2017.
“I really wanted to try and focus on our kids who are graduating and going directly into the workforce for whatever reason,” she said, adding that about 33 percent of Upper Darby’s graduating class, or more than 300 kids, go right into the workforce. Many of them, she said, were going into retail jobs that don’t provide family-sustaining wages.
So, she said she wanted to find a way to connect them with the unions and the local businesses and technology companies. As she tried to work with the county, she said she found services siloed and different departments not communicating with each other.
That was a major driver in her campaign for County Council and something she hopes to continue to pursue when there, especially that sometimes the population of high school graduates who aren’t going to college for a variety of reasons can be a higher minority percentage.
She talked about how that impacts society overall.
“When somebody’s economically stable, their family life is stable and then they become better resi
“F iversity on the bench, specifically racial diversity on the bench, not only increases public trust and confidence, but it can balance out and improve and enhance judicial decision making.”
— Nusrat Rashid
dents, better community members, all of those things,” Taylor said, “and we have lower crime rate, we have lower drug use rate ... Looking at the research, it’s like all of these things go back to that. When people are financially stable, it’s better for everyone.
“I was brought up to believe that when everybody succeeds, then we all succeed and trying to make sure that it’s not just me that’s OK, it’s everybody around me that’s OK,” Taylor said.
With a deep love for this country, the Constitution and the rule of law, Rashid is hopeful more people will participate civically after this election, especially by voting and by jury duty.
“Voting and jury duty are the really basic two ways that regular average people like you and me can influence how justice is applied and distributed throughout our community ... Maybe knowing that things are moving in the right direction right here in our county will inspire people to say, ‘You know what? I will go out and vote’ or ‘I will do these things I thought were impossible or open to me based on whatever demographic I belong to,’” she said.