Black judges in America have served on the bench since 1848, when Macon Bolling Allen was appointed Justice of the Peace in Massachusetts, and today they hold roughly 11.8 percent of active Article III federal judgeships. The arc between those two points covers more than 170 years, three Supreme Court justices, and a state court system where 24 state supreme courts still have no Black justice at all.
The First Black Judges in American History
Macon Bolling Allen became the first Black judicial official in the United States when he was appointed Justice of the Peace for Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in 1848. Allen had already broken ground as the first licensed Black attorney in the country after passing the Maine bar earlier that decade. After the Civil War he moved to South Carolina, served on the Inferior Court of Charleston, and won election to the Charleston probate court in 1874.1Defender Services Office – Training Division. Black History Month Spotlight: Macon Bolling Allen, First Black Lawyer and Judge
Nearly a century passed before the federal bench followed. William Hastie became the first Black federal judge in 1937, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him to the Federal District Court of the Virgin Islands. Hastie later joined the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, becoming the first Black judge on any federal appellate court.
In 1939, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia appointed Jane Bolin to the Domestic Relations Court in New York City, making her the first Black woman to serve as a judge anywhere in the nation.2The New York Public Library. Jane Matilda Bolin Papers Bolin served roughly 40 years before reaching mandatory retirement age in the late 1970s, spending her entire career on family law and child welfare.
Constance Baker Motley broke another barrier in 1966 when she was appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, becoming the first Black woman to serve as a federal judge.
Black Justices on the Supreme Court
Three Black justices have served on the Supreme Court of the United States. Thurgood Marshall was the first, confirmed as an Associate Justice in 1967 by Senate vote.3GovTrack.us. Confirmation of Nomination of Thurgood Marshall He had previously sat on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals after receiving a recess appointment from President John F. Kennedy in 1961.4Federal Judicial Center. Marshall, Thurgood
Clarence Thomas became the second Black justice in October 1991, confirmed by a 52–48 Senate vote. More than three decades later, Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed on April 7, 2022, and took her seat on June 30 of that year, becoming the first Black woman on the Court.
Representation on the Federal Bench Today
As of August 2024, Black judges made up approximately 11.8 percent of all active Article III federal judges, up from 9.5 percent in 2020.5American Bar Association. Judges Article III judges sit on the United States District Courts, the Courts of Appeals, and the Supreme Court. All are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate for lifetime appointments.
The Biden administration appointed 63 Black judges to lifetime federal positions, including 40 Black women. That is more Black judicial appointments than any previous administration, including those that served two full terms, and it is the main reason the overall percentage climbed by more than two points in four years. Whether that trajectory continues depends on the priorities of future administrations, since federal nominations run entirely through the White House.
Where Representation Lags: State Courts
State courts handle the vast majority of legal disputes in this country, from traffic violations to murder trials, and their demographics look quite different from the federal system. People of color make up over 40 percent of the U.S. population but hold only about 20 percent of state supreme court seats. For Black jurists specifically, 24 state supreme courts currently have no Black justice.6Brennan Center for Justice. State Supreme Court Diversity – November 2025 Update
Representation tends to be higher in urban jurisdictions and in states with large Black populations, but even there it often falls short of proportional representation. The selection method matters. In states where governors appoint judges, a single administration can reshape the bench quickly. In states that use elections, campaign funding, name recognition, and local political dynamics all shape outcomes, and those factors have historically made it harder for Black candidates to win judicial seats in many regions.
How State Judges Reach the Bench
State judicial selection is far less uniform than the federal system. Methods vary not just between states but sometimes between court levels within the same state. The main approaches fall into a few categories:
- Gubernatorial appointment, often from a shortlist prepared by a judicial nominating commission, with some states requiring legislative confirmation.
- Partisan elections, where candidates run under a party label.
- Non-partisan elections, where candidates appear on the ballot without party affiliation.
- Merit selection with retention elections, where a judge is initially appointed and then periodically faces voters in a yes-or-no retention vote with no opposing candidate.
Terms for state judges range from six years to fifteen years depending on the state and the court. Six-year terms are the most common length for state supreme court justices, used in 15 states, while the District of Columbia has the longest terms at 15 years.7Ballotpedia. Length of Terms of State Supreme Court Justices Voters rarely remove judges in retention elections, but it does happen, particularly when a controversial ruling draws organized opposition.
The Pipeline to the Bench
Becoming a judge at any level generally requires years of legal practice, but the path starts much earlier. Federal judicial clerkships, where new lawyers spend one or two years working for a judge, are widely regarded as the most important stepping stone. Clerking for a federal appellate judge or a Supreme Court justice opens doors that are difficult to access any other way.8OSCAR. Home
Clerkships remain disproportionately filled by graduates of a small number of schools, which creates a compounding effect: fewer clerkships lead to fewer connections with sitting judges, which leads to fewer judicial nominations later on. The ABA’s Council for Diversity in the Educational Pipeline has tried to address this by pairing law students from underrepresented backgrounds with sitting judges and offering scholarships for incoming law students.
At the state level, the barriers look different. Judicial elections require fundraising, which can be a significant obstacle for candidates who lack connections to traditional donor networks. Even in appointment systems, nominating commissions tend to draw from networks that have historically underrepresented Black lawyers. The result is that Black representation on state benches has grown more slowly than on the federal bench, where a single president’s priorities can shift the numbers in just a few years.
Professional Networks for Black Judges
The Judicial Council of the National Bar Association, founded in 1971, is the largest and oldest association of Black judges in the world.9Judicial Council of the National Bar Association. About Us Its membership includes state, federal, local, and administrative judges from across the country.10Judicial Council of the National Bar Association. Membership The Council offers continuing legal education through webinars and conferences covering judicial ethics, emerging legal issues, and court administration. Among its core objectives is the elimination of racial and class bias from the judicial and law enforcement process.11National Bar Association Judicial Council. History and Mission
The organization was formed with financial support from the Ford Foundation after judges within the National Bar Association expressed interest in having a dedicated forum. Annual dues are $100 for active judges and $50 for retired judges, with the membership year running September through August. For Black judges serving in jurisdictions where they may be the only judge of color, the Council provides a professional network that does not readily exist elsewhere in the legal system.