Consider This from NPR - Ketanji Brown Jackson chronicles her path to the Supreme Court
Episode Date: September 3, 2024When Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson entered the national spotlight, she found praise and also criticism.In her new book, Lovely One, Jackson describes how she endured her confirmation hea...ring, along with her multi-generational path to becoming the first Black woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court — a branch which she tells NPR remains ready to offer credible opinions on the most contentious issues facing the nation, even in the face of waning public confidence.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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Ketanji Brown Jackson will forever occupy a place in history as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
I, Ketanji Brown Jackson, do solemnly swear.
I, Ketanji Brown Jackson, do solemnly swear.
And at a time when so many Americans have questions about the integrity of the nation's highest court,
Jackson believes fiercely in the institution of which she is the newest member,
especially when it comes to issuing opinions on the issues that divide Americans the most.
I think that's our responsibility. That's our duty. That's what the court's role is in our
system of government. That doesn't mean reaching those decisions is easy. I think being on a panel of nine judges is a little challenging.
You know, when I was most of my judicial experience came from the district court where I was by myself, one judge in the courtroom, your own courtroom, you control everything.
And so collective decision making, I think,
is a little challenging. And so having to kind of navigate that is surprising.
Alongside navigating her role as the newest justice,
Jackson has been chronicling her path to the Supreme Court.
I also was struck by the curiosity that lots of other people had about me after the confirmation
process. And there were even
biographers who approached me wanting to write my story even that early on. And I thought, well,
if anybody's going to write my story, I want it to be me. Consider this in her new book,
Lovely One. Justice Katonji Brown Jackson shares the story of family who shaped her
and how she navigates family alongside her job.
From NPR, I'm Juana Summers.
It's Consider This from NPR.
Ketanji Brown-Jackson has this memory of her entry into the national spotlight just about two years ago.
I had been through what I thought was a pretty treacherous time for those who remember the confirmation hearings. Senators on the Judiciary Committee made remarks and suggestions
about her judicial philosophy, experience, and identity that at times got pretty hostile.
When it is about philosophy, when it's somebody of color on our side,
it's about we're all racist if we ask hard questions. It's not going to fly with us.
Your public comments about, and I'm going to quote you, the transformative power of progressive education, end quote.
These are deeply concerning.
Why wouldn't you want to sentence that person to more time rather than less?
Why isn't that rational?
Senator, I've answered this question and I'll stand on what I already answered. And despite a brutal partisan confirmation process, Jackson's overriding emotion at the end was gratitude.
I was just so grateful to get through that process and to have this opportunity to serve the American people.
The associate Supreme Court justice turned that feeling into a memoir.
Lovely one.
I wrote the book out of gratitude. Before I started
this new chapter in my life, I really wanted to take a moment and pay tribute to the people and
the circumstances that I felt were most responsible for this accomplishment. As I say in the preface
of the book, no one reaches the highest of heights on their own. When I spoke with Justice Jackson last week, she told me about some of the people who helped her reach those heights, including her beloved grandmother, Uzira Ross.
I talk in the book about how I recall going to church with her and with my mom and with my aunts. And it was really spiritually grounding for me as a young African
American girl going to school in predominantly white spaces. We went to a black church in Miami,
and it was wonderful. And so seeing the other black people there, I think really was very
affirming for me.
There's the story that you tell in your book about your grandmother, Yuzira, and it has
to do with this note that you'd written, though you didn't know it at the time.
And I would love to just hear you tell that story for us.
Well, this is a story that is burned into my memory.
I was probably eight years old or so, and this one particular Sunday in my grandmother's kitchen, you know, I went in to wash my hands, and I see in the sink a note written on a napkin.
In misspelled English, it says something to the effect of broke sink, wait for repair, but it's misspelled. And I'm eight years old and I thought
it was really funny. Who doesn't know how to spell, you know, wait or repair? And so I bring my mother
in and I'm laughing and I'm going, mom, look at this note that I found. And she was irate. She was
irate because she saw me as making fun of someone. And she said, you know, even though you have all the opportunities and you, you know, have learned how to spell, you're not one bit better than anybody else. And I thought I raised you better than this. And I was devastated. wouldn't come back in and then eventually came back in and apologized. And it made me feel like,
you know, so much of what I have and what I've been given is by the grace of God in a lot of ways.
And that doesn't make me any better than anyone else and that everyone should
be kind and have that kind of empathy for others.
You also write about your journey into parenthood and the struggles of parenthood.
And one thing that you talk about in some detail in the book is your eldest daughter's
autism diagnosis.
And I'd love to know more about that.
But first, I just want to ask you, is this something your family has disclosed publicly
before?
It has not been something that we disclosed publicly before.
And this is so much a part of who we are as a family and who I have become as a human being.
And this was something that we focused on when I decided to accept the president's nomination,
because I felt that if I were to go forward and be the nominee for
the Supreme Court, this might be something that reporters would find out. It would be
something that was reported. And if my daughter was uncomfortable with it, I might have chosen not
to pursue this position. But she encouraged me. And that gave me the courage, I think, to disclose it not only part of the
confirmation process internally, but publicly now as a part of the book.
It was challenging, though, throughout her upbringing. And I just wanted to be honest,
in part, because I wanted people to understand that as a working parent, you can manage even when you have challenging circumstances in terms of your family. And my daughter said, I'm not your book, so I'm going to go there, and it is about your hair. It is something that I immediately noticed about you,
perhaps because I spent so many years agonizing over whether to lock my own hair, wrestling with
questions of, will I be seen as professional when I show up to interview someone or show up on their
television? Will they see me as credible or will they respect me? So I want to ask you about that
journey, because especially as I flipped through the photos in your book, it wasn't always sister
locks. There was a journey that came into that, and I'm sure a lot of thought. Oh, absolutely.
And the questions that you said that you wrestled with were 100% resonant with me in terms of how I also thought, especially being a lawyer, being at big law firms at times, wanting to be taken seriously and seen as a professional. Because there wasn't enough time to do what I traditionally did with straightening my hair and curling my hair and doing all the self-care that is necessary to maintain.
It is work.
It is work.
And when I saw a woman who had, I didn't even know the name, Sister Lux.
And I've had my hair locked now for, I think, 15 years.
But back then, you know, it wasn't all that popular.
But I saw this woman
and I was like, I want that. And I asked her, I chased her down and I said, you know,
who does your hair? What is it? And she gave me the name of her lactation. And I have used only
this one woman for 15 years. That's incredible. I want to bring it back now, if I can, to someone
we talked about early in our conversation, and that is your beloved grandmother, who you wrote, That's incredible. how do you think she would feel about where you are today?
Oh, I think she would be so incredibly proud of me,
knowing how much she prayed for me,
knowing that she used to say all the time,
you know, you are a blessed child.
And I felt that way.
And it was so much, I give so much tribute to her,
not only in the book, but in my life. And I think she would
have been enormously proud of me. Justice Katonji Brown-Jackson, her new memoir is a lovely one.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Juana. It was a pleasure to be here.
This episode was produced by Tyler Bartlum with audio engineering by Jay Aziz. It was edited by Ashley Brown and Courtney Dorning.
Our executive producer is Sammy Yannigan.
And one more thing before we go.
You can now enjoy the Consider This newsletter.
We still help you break down a major story of the day,
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team. You can sign up at npr.org slash consider this newsletter.
It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers.