INSTITUTE INDEX: New N.C. Supreme Court chief justice makes history
Cheri Beasley will become North Carolina's first black woman Supreme Court chief justice in March. (Photo of her speaking at a 2015 event at Wake Forest University School of Law is from the school's Flickr page.)
Date on which Justice Cheri Beasley, a former public defender, will become the first black woman to serve as chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court: 3/1/2019
Of the seven seats on the N.C. Supreme Court, number held by black justices: 3
Number held by black women: 2
Of the 13 Southern states, number that will have chief justices who are black once Beasley takes office: 5*
Number that will have chief justices who are black women: 2**
Besides North Carolina, number of Southern states that will have chief justices who are former public defenders: 0
Year in which Beasley became the first black woman elected to statewide office in North Carolina without having been first appointed by the governor: 2008
Year in which North Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature ended the judicial public financing program she used in her run for the court: 2013
Year in which Beasley was re-elected after lamenting the program's repeal, stating, "Justice ought not be for sale": 2014
Number of times Beasley dissented when the court's former conservative majority upheld 2011 redistricting maps that federal courts found to be racially discriminatory: 2
As of 2017, percent of state supreme court judges nationwide who were black women: 1.7
Of all state appellate judges nationwide, percent who are women of color: 8
Date on which the first black woman to serve as chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court retired: 1/7/2019
Number of black justices who now sit on Florida's seven-member high court: 0
Percent of Florida's population that's black: almost 17
Of President Trump's more than 150 federal judicial nominees, number who are black: 3
Number who are black women: 0
Number of seats on the North Carolina Supreme Court, which has a Democratic majority, that are on the ballot in next year's election, including Beasley's: 3
* Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia
** Louisiana and North Carolina
(Click on figure to go to source.)
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Billy Corriher
Billy is a contributing writer with Facing South who specializes in judicial selection, voting rights, and the courts in North Carolina.