Photo: Getty Images North America
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson kicked off this year's annual Martha's Vineyard Black Book festival with a discussion about her new memoir.
On Saturday (August 9), Jackson was greeted by a crowd of nearly 200 people as she stepped into a tent at the Island Inn in Oak Bluffs to speak about her memoir, "Lovely One", at Martha's Vineyard Black Book festival, per the MV Times.
The Supreme Court justice was the first speaker at the festival, which featured 22 authors, including Reverend Liz Walker, filmmaker Malcolm D. Lee, Former Secretary of Education John B. King, and Emory professor Karida L. Brown.
Jackson read from the preface of her memoir before sitting down for a conversation with festival founder Traci Wilkes Smith.
When asked about the title of her book, Jackson explained that her name, Ketanji Onyika, was chosen by her mother with help from an aunt in the Peace Corps in West Africa. “She selected Ketanji Onyika, which she was told meant ‘lovely one.’”
Jackson said she was inspired to become a judge after learning at a young age that she shared a birthday with Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman to serve as a federal judge.
“I always thought I wanted to be a lawyer,” she said. “But then I come across this revelation... and I just thought, you know, maybe I could be a judge... When you see other people doing the kinds of things that you were interested in, who are like you... you really start to dream bigger.”
The "Lovely Ones" author encouraged attendees to remain civically engaged amid "challenging times."
“I don’t know that I have any particular words of wisdom,” Jackson said, “other than to say we are obviously going through pretty challenging times right now. And it’s very important that people stay tuned into what is happening in our government and in our society... because this is your government, this is your society, this is your life. And we live in a democracy where the people are supposed to be the ones that decide what happens.”
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