DIVERSITY ONTHEBENCH
Ohio Black Judges Association has a mission
Ohio got its first Black judge in 1942 when Perry Jackson was appointed to the Cleveland Municipal Court, beginning a judicial career that spanned three decades of being returned to the bench by voters.
But 79 years after his appointment, the number of Black judges now on the bench in Ohio has grown to just 56.
That’s less than 8% of the 723 judgeships in a state whose population is more than 14% Black.
And those 56 Black judges sit on the bench in just nine of the state’s 88 counties.
More than half of the Black judges are in the state’s three largest urban counties: 19 in Cuyahoga, 13 in Franklin and 10 in Hamilton.
‘Underrepresented in the judiciary, but ... overrepresented among those involved in the criminal justice system’
The newly formed Ohio Black Judges Association is making increased diversity on the bench one of its primary goals.
“We’re underrepresented in the judiciary, but we’re overrepresented among those involved in the criminal justice system,” said 10th District Court of Appeals Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt, referring to the disproportionate number of Black people who are arrested and incarcerated in the state.
Beatty Blunt, a member of the appeals court that serves Franklin County, and Franklin County Domestic Relations/juvenile Court Judge Terri Jamison are among the founding members of the state association, which held its inaugural meeting in April.
This month, Beatty Blunt swore in Jamison as a new judge for the 10th District Court of Appeals, a job Jamison formally assumes on July 1.
Judge Emanuella Groves, of the 8th District Court of Appeals in Cuyahoga County, co-chair of the association, was heartened by the image of one Black judge swearing in another.
“It makes a statement, doesn’t it?” she said. When Jamison transitions from county
Domestic Relations/juvenile Court to her new appeals court judgeship, she, Beatty Blunt and Groves will comprise half of the six Black appeals court judges in Ohio. That’s six out of 69 appellate court judges statewide.
Jamison’s move to the 10th District bench also will mark the first time that two Black judges have sat among the Franklin County appellate court’s eight judges.
Diversity on the bench, Jamison said, “increases public confidence that there is someone there who has had similar life experiences and can have some empathy for their situation.”
The idea of forming an Ohio Black Judges Association was inspired in large part by the 50th anniversary of the national Black judges’ organization, the Judicial Council of the National Bar Association, being celebrated in 2021.
Groves serves on the executive committee of the national organization and said creating an Ohio affiliate was overdue.
“As a collective, we have shared experiences that will be helpful in talking about or supporting changes to improve the administration of justice,” she said.
That perspective is becoming increasingly important after a year of social unrest and protests surrounding
“issues with the relationship between Blacks and the police,” Groves said.
The call for diversity has to extend beyond the judiciary, Beatty Blunt said.
“Blacks are underrepresented in law enforcement broadly,” she said. “We need Black judges, lawyers, police officers, probation officers. We need that perspective throughout the entire system.”
An organization of Black judges, she said, “is no different than the Ohio
Women’s Bar Association or the Women Lawyers of Franklin County. It’s a group of people with similar experiences, coming together to network, advocate and educate, and to make the whole better.”
Need for more Black law students
The effort will include encouraging more Black students to enter law school — another area where Blacks are underrepresented. According to statistics compiled by the American Bar Association, the percentage of Black students in the nation’s law schools in 2020 was 7.74%, down from 7.94% in 2019 and 8.11% in 2018.
Locally in 2020, Blacks made up 6.2% of the students at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law and 7.8% at Capital University Law School, according to the Internet Legal Research Group.
“We don’t want the numbers to go down,” Jamison said. “And we need to be mentors to young attorneys who might want to become judges. If there’s no one coming behind you, you don’t have a succession plan.”
Beatty Blunt, who was appointed to the Franklin County Common Pleas bench in 2009 and won her appeals court seat in 2018, said she is optimistic about what the Ohio Black Judges Association can accomplish through education and advocacy.
“I’m enthusiastic about this, not just for Black judges, but for the whole judicial system,” she said. “And not just criminal justice. Judges need to realize how racism can even come into play in a civil case.
“Issues of race, class and gender impact the justice system, period. The better educated we all are, judges and lawyers included, the better the justice system truly will be for everybody.” jfutty@dispatch.com @johnfutty