Appointment of African American U.S. Circuit and District Court Judges: Historical Overview and Current Data Page: 2 of 3
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Of the 21 active African American judges, 14 (67%) are men and 7 (33%) are women. The first female circuit court
judge, Amalya Lyle Kearse, was appointed in 1979 (30 years after Judge Hastie's appointment). Of the 8 African
American women ever appointed as circuit court judges, 7 (87%) are currently serving (each appointed since 1994)-
showing that the appointment of African American women as circuit court judges is a relatively recent phenomenon. In
contrast, for example, of the 31 African American men ever appointed as circuit court judges, 14 (45%) are currently
serving.
At present, there are African Americans serving as judges on 12 of the country's 13 circuit courts (the exception is the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit).
Note that Figure 1 reports the number of African Americans serving as judges and not the percentage of circuit court
judgeships to which African Americans were appointed. As of January 1 during the years listed in the figure, the
percentage of such judgeships held by African Americans ranged from a low of 1.5% in 1960 to a high of 11.7% in
2016.
U.S. District Courts
The first African American to serve as a U.S. district court judge was James B. Parsons, appointed by President
Kennedy in 1961 to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago). Figure 2 shows the number
of African Americans serving as U.S. district court judges at the start of every four-year period from January 1, 1960,
(the year prior to Judge Parson's appointment) to January 1, 2016.
The largest increase in the number of African American district court judges, over the four-year periods displayed in the
figure, occurred from January 1, 1992 to January 1, 1996. During this period, the number of African American district
court judges increased from 35 to 58, a 66% increase.
Since Judge Parson's appointment in 1961, there have been a total of 185 African Americans appointed to district court
judgeships. As shown by Figure 2, of the 185 ever appointed, 85 (46%) were still serving on the bench as of January 1,
2016.
Figure 2. Number of African American U.S. District Court Judges(Serving on January 1 of Years Indicated)
25
2021
20
1 13
11 11
9 9 10 0
1Y601 1964 1968 19l72 19J76 1980 1984 1999 19&)2 1996 2000 20W14 2008 2012 201-0
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McMillion, Barry J. Appointment of African American U.S. Circuit and District Court Judges: Historical Overview and Current Data, report, February 12, 2016; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc824720/m1/2/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.