Lovely One

by Ketanji Brown Jackson

Having benefitted from Black educational settings from elementary school through college, my father and mother were united in their determination to start me in a program that they believed would nurture me culturally, foster my sense of curiosity, and put me on the right path academically.

These words, spoken by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, represent an underlying principle in her memoir Lovely One (Random House, 2024). The narrative portrays her growth from an inquisitive young girl full of self-confidence, aware of her cultural heritage, and determined to excel at any task she undertook to her appointment as the first Black female Supreme Court Justice.

Justice Brown Jackson’s appointment to the United States Supreme Court in April 2022 sealed President Biden’s promise to appoint a Black female Supreme Court Justice and launched her into the limelight as she prepared for her Senate confirmation amidst staunch support and a Senate that challenged her with tough questions.

Ketanji Oniyka means “lovely one,” an African name given to Justice Brown Jackson by her aunt Carolynn who had been working in the Peace Corps in West Africa when Ketanji was born. Justice Brown Jackson would continue this tradition of attaching cultural meaning to the names of her daughters. She and her husband, Patrick Jackson, who was White, met at Harvard in a class called “The Changing Concept of Race in America.”

They purposefully named their eldest daughter, Talia Aenzi Jackson, and their youngest daughter, Leila Abeni Jackson. Talia means “rain from heaven” in Hebrew, and Aenzi means “to exalt, glorify and invest with power” in Swahili. Leila means “belonging to God’ and “dark beauty” in Hebrew and Abeni, her African name, means “girl prayed for.”

Lovely One highlights Justice Jackson’s aspirations and goals and her parents’ determination to instill within their daughter a knowledge of self and culture and the confidence to exceed her own expectations.

Her parents came of age during the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements and had first-hand knowledge of the impact of the Jim Crow laws on their own parents. After their marriage, they moved to Miami to ensure that they had the support of their parents and grandparents.

Jackson’s first school was a Black-Owned nursery school. After nursery school, her parents enrolled her in an integrated elementary school. At home, her parents surrounded her with books, art, fabrics, memorabilia, and images of the Black experience in America.

When her mother enrolled her in a public speaking contest when she was in elementary school, she chose Margaret Walker’s classic poem, “For My People,” as her daughter’s presentation. Ketanji won the contest and subsequently entered debating teams throughout her years in junior high school and high school.

Justice Brown Jackson underscores the importance of staying connected to her community throughout her memoir. Her experience as one of a small number of Blacks at Harvard emphasized the value of this. She recounts: “But it was my engagement with the Black Student Association that nourished me in ways I hadn’t even consciously understood I had been craving.”

She also formed a reading circle with a group of Black women who would become her lifelong friends. In her words, she had felt included in various circles in high school but with her new cohort of Black friends in college, she felt a new sense of belonging in a beloved community.

Lovely One also highlights Jackson’s marriage to her husband, a surgeon and the challenges of balancing a professional career with marriage and raising children. Her response and subsequent actions upon learning that her eldest daughter Talia had autism will resonate with many who have discovered this neurodevelopmental disorder in their family.

Although Justice Brown Jackson worked for several private law firms, most of her legal career was spent as a public servant. After graduating from Harvard, she clerked for two federal judges and for Supreme Court Justice Breyer from 1999-2000. She also worked as a public defender for the U.S. Sentencing Commission and as a federal judge for the US District Court and later the US Court of Appeals.

Justice Brown Jackson’s service on the current Supreme Court is critical during this time in our country. It is likely that we will see turmoil, no matter the outcome of the election. Supreme Court justices will be called upon to examine new challenges to the constitution.

When you examine the trajectory of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s lifelong preparation to become a Supreme Court Justice, it is evident that her careful, measured, and well researched deliberations and strong dissents will be a basis and foundation for interrogating the legality and constitutionality of the nation’s laws and for recommending how these laws should be applied in defense of the people.

Justice Brown Jackson’s memoir illustrates that she is ready to be a formidable force as Supreme Court Justice.

Dr. Brenda M. Greene is Professor of English, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Black Literature, and Senior Special Assistant to the Provost at Medgar Evers College, CUNY.