Supreme Court Justice Jackson makes history at UVA

In a special event celebrating UVA’s Education Rights Institute, Ketanji Brown Jackson made a historic visit to Grounds last week for an address to about 800 students, faculty, staff, and community members at Old Cabell Hall. Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, spoke of how the education she received from her parents, teachers, and mentors throughout her career shaped her journey to the highest court in the country.

She was invited to Grounds by professor Kimberly Jenkins Robinson, her former roommate at Harvard Law School and long-time friend. Robinson founded the Education Rights Institute at the School of Law in 2022; she is the White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs and also holds appointments in the Batten School and the School of Education and Human Development.

“This is her first visit to our 206-year-old university,” Robinson said in her introduction. “I imagine Thomas Jefferson, who developed the visionary plan for this university, and those enslaved laborers who brought his vision to life could not imagine a night like tonight. So together, we are all making history.”

Their conversation touched on the importance of public education, the challenges of racism, and the value of life’s lessons — all themes reflected in Jackson’s best-selling 2024 memoir, “Lovely One.”  The title is the translation of her African name, Ketanji Onyika, given by her parents to ground her in her cultural heritage, she said.  

Early memories with lasting impact

Growing up in the 1970s and 80s, Jackson said she felt different not only because of her name, but also because she was often the only Black child or one of a few in her classrooms. But she learned that being different made her memorable to would-be mentors. “I may be unique, I may be different … but I have unique and special gifts to offer. I think it was that mentality that helped me,” she said.

Another uncomfortable childhood memory seeded one of Jackson’s lifelong core values. When she was eight and already a grade-A student, Jackson saw a handwritten note in her grandmother’s kitchen one day with misspellings and incorrect grammar. She laughed about it and told her mother.

“She was livid,” Jackson recalled. “She said, ‘Who do you think wrote this? You have no right to make fun of somebody who didn’t have the same educational opportunities as you.’ And of course then I understood it was my grandmother, and I was very, very disappointed in myself.”

The lesson she offered to students in the audience is to be grateful for the opportunities one has, and to be kind, especially to those who don’t have those opportunities.

At Harvard, new challenges

Jackson attended Harvard-Radcliffe College as an undergraduate, graduating magna cum laude in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in government. But it was academically strenuous, and her time there was complicated by conspicuous racism. During her sophomore year, a fellow student hung a Confederate flag from a window facing the student quad, she said. Jackson and many of her friends were active in the Black Student Association, which launched a protest campaign.

Over time, Jackson noticed fewer students attending classes because of their protest activity and she recalled a comment from author Toni Morrison that the function of racism is distraction. “Her point was you really just need to focus and succeed, and that would be the best response,” Jackson said.

The experience strengthened her commitment to working hard, another point of advice she imparted to her audience last week.

She also encouraged students to seek out mentors who not only offer guidance, but who can also become supporters in one’s career. Jackson’s journey is a case in point. She has represented corporations and indigent clients as a private attorney, clerked for judges at all three levels of the federal system, including a clerkship for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, served as a federal public defender and member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and now serves on the U.S. Supreme Court.

“All those opportunities came to me in part because mentors, people who were interested in my development, opened doors for me,” she said. “It takes a village to raise a judge.”

A role model

After the event at Old Cabell Hall, the local NBC affiliate station interviewed two Batten students about their impressions of the justice’s story.

Abby Anger (MPP ’26) said that learning history helps make the path forward possible for “the next generation of leaders and individuals hoping to fill these spaces and walk in their same path.”

Stephen Kelly (MPP ’26) said he felt a sense of responsibility. “Living up to what your ancestors couldn’t have, or even could have hoped to imagine, speaks volumes to how far we’ve come as a nation, and also what more we have to do to make this a more equitable nation for some.”

Education as the foundation for success

In an interview earlier in the day, Professor Robinson reflected on the importance of equal opportunity education to ensure that people like her friend Ketanji Jackson can achieve the success they deserve and fulfill the public service for which they are destined.

“Education is really a pillar of democracy, the economy, and society,” yet it is “deeply unequal along lines of socio-economic status, race, national origin, and geography,” she said. The Education Rights Institute was established to address these gaps, she said, and she encouraged Batten students to consider education policy as a career path.

“There is so much room for improvement in what is typically a very broken system,” Robinson said. “We need innovative thinkers and leaders. We need policymakers that are well trained in both social science and legal analysis. It’s a rich and rewarding field, please join us in this work.”

###