The confluence of Black History Month and the Supreme Court upending the Trump Tariffs led me to move Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s memoir to the top of the READ REAL SOON stack.
Ketanji Brown Jackson is the first Black woman appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States. Lovely One tells the story of a family that went from segregation to a seat on the Supreme Court in one generation. It really is an American success story.
From the start with the naming of a little girl–she was named “Ketanji Onyika,” meaning
“Lovely One,” based on a suggestion from her aunt–to being raised by parents who were teachers, the path to success was set at an early age. Jackson excelled in school which led her to graduating magna cum laude from Harvard.
The typical struggles of a woman in the legal profession, the tortured path to becoming a skilled lawyer while juggling marriage and motherhood should inspire all of us.
If you’re looking for a memoir with insights and inspiration, Lovely One celebrates justice, equality, and the American Dream. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Preface: A sacred trust — xiii
Part One: Bringing the gifts
The dream — 1
Black studies — 20
No place like home — 31
The deep end — 42
Warrior hearts — 59
Mighty spirit striving — 69
Force of nature — 85
The secret — 104
Beloved community — 122
In circle square — 141
Our people — 143
A more perfect union — 165
Love changes everything — 183
Part Two: Grit and grace
A year like no other — 219
African homecoming — 228
The culture of big law — 239
What is justice? — 258
Call of duty — 271
Parenthood — 291
The bench — 311
Life support — 331
From Leila’s lips (to God’s ears) — 344
America the beautiful — 354
We are the dream — 362
Epilogue: Lovely life — 381
Acknowledgments — 387
Notes –– 391
Photograph credits — 407
Relevantly enough, I finally watched the AMERICAN MASTERS (PBS) episode about jazz pianist and singer and civil rights activist Hazel Scott in the overnight, and can highly recommend it (it’s apparently a free stream from one’s primary PBS station in the area till April Fools Day, if you didn’t/don’t or can’t catch it on broadcast). About the only flaw I spotted was an academic, toward the end, who erroneously referred to Hazel Scott’s pioneering Dumont Network tv series (with Max Roach and Charles Mingus as her backing musicians…a hell of a trio) was syndicated, instead, and that her series’ surviving kinescopes were uniquely dumped in harbors adjacent to NYC to free up warehouse space (this was actually the fate of a large number of Dumont Network series and specials kinescopes–filmed from video monitors for West Coast and repeat showings, in the days before reliable videotape and when cross-continental feeds to stations still cost the Earth). Metromedia, the corporate heir to Dumont, probably could’ve gotten a huge tax break, at least, by donating the kinescopes to the various television-producation archives at universities and associated with Los Angeles-based curation nonprofits, but I guess somebody’s brother had a trucking and waste-disposal concern.
It was not lost on me, as well, that Scott was felled by genetic illness at age 61, my own current tally. She packed a lot of impressive work and standing up for others into her years. (I shall endeavor to determine what “producation” vs. production archives outlets might be.)
Todd, Diane reads the obituaries in our newspapers each day. Every death at ages under 76–our current ages–saddens us.
Todd, I’m a fan of AMERICAN MASTERS, too. Although things are bleak, stories like these give us hope.
Is it a coincidence that the three most erudite and legally skilled justices on the court are female? Or is that just my liberal bias showing?
You’re not wrong, Fred. The only problem is they’re generally outnumbered by the others, including oafish toadies like Kavanaugh and billionaires’ puppets like Thomas and Alito.
Deb, putting Kavanaugh, Alito, and Thomas on the Supreme Court will go down in History as Big Mistakes.
Deb, instead of TEAM OF RIVALS, a good name for Trump’s Cabinet would be OAFISH TOADIES
Jeff, even Trump is pissed at Kash Patel’s antics at the Olympics!
Jerry, no, your observation is spot on. Women on the Supreme Court are producing the most clear and insightful opinions.
She’s admirable. Mitch McConnell has a lot to answer for by preventing democratic presidents supreme court nominations which allowed bozos like kavanaugh to be appointed. I remember the Designing Women episode about Clarence Thomas’s appointment. He was rated not qualified and of course his sex scandal was ignored.
Maggie, Mitch McConnell and Newt Gingrich have a lot to do with our current political mess. They set the stage for someone like Trump.
Mary, you mean the sex pest behavior of Thomas was ignored on the sitcom, or in the hearings? Thomas whined about suffering a “high-tech lynching”, after all…how dare he be called on his incontinence?
Meanwhile, of course, Drumpf has jumped into another war to revenge himself on the world. The Iranian regime are no heroes, either, but of course more civilians will be killed, and have already been, than the regime’s unsavory crew. That it will probably raise oil prices does’t upset Drumpf’s accountants, either.
Todd, the Iran War is another “Wag the Dog” strategy to deflect attention from the missing Epstein Files with Trump involvement.
No, the show was where I learned about his not qualified rating. They referenced his sex scandal and compared his “equipment”
to a coke can.
Thanks. We’ll see how long HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU (US) and THE DAILY SHOW last under Ellison/Paramount control, much less any commentary like that on CBS sitcoms going forward.
Todd, when Paramount (aka, Ellison TV Network) gets control of CNN and THE DAILY SHOW, more news sources will be silenced.
Good luck for future Ketanjis. Three more years of Trump, and the path for success for people of color will be a barbed wire minefield. We may already be there with the GOP onslaught against public education, attacks on academic freedom, and the insane assaults against half-century old civil rights laws.
Fred, I’m hoping for Good Things in the Texas primaries.
I should add, unless the person of color is a Clarence Thomas or Tim Scott who sucks up to the right wing money machine.
Fred, both Clarence Thomas and Tim Scott have shown that they’re all about free RV campers and political opportunism.
Small favor that Scott finally Called Drumpf on his posting the cartoon babbon images of the Obamas.
Todd, Tom Scott’s protest against Trump’s racist AI Obamas as apes cartoon was mild.
My point as well. And slow. (And all humans Are apes, just not vaguely gorilla- or chimp-ish or baboon-like (though baboons are monkeys) apes. Though Drumpf is definitely one to throw excrement when challenged0.