U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court, will visit North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro next month, the university announced Friday.
Jackson is scheduled to speak on Wednesday, Sept. 3, at 6 p.m. in Harrison Auditorium. Attendance will be limited to NC A&T students, faculty, and staff. The event is part of her nationwide tour promoting her memoir, Lovely One, which was published last year and quickly became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller.
The memoir traces Jackson’s journey from her childhood in Miami to earning both her bachelor’s and law degrees at Harvard University, and ultimately to her historic rise to the Supreme Court. According to the publisher, the book offers an inside look at her professional and personal life — including the challenges of advancing in a legal field where few leaders looked like her, and balancing a demanding career with family life.
Appointed to the Supreme Court in 2022 by President Joe Biden, Jackson, 54, previously served as a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C., and later on the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Although NC A&T does not have a law school, the university emphasized its history of producing trailblazing legal figures. Alumni include Henry Frye (Class of 1953), the first Black chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, and Elreta Alexander-Ralston (Class of 1937), the state’s first Black woman to practice law and its first elected Black judge.
Jackson’s visit marks the second time in recent years that a Supreme Court justice has spoken at a North Carolina university. In 2024, Chief Justice John Roberts appeared at Duke University for a private event honoring the late Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the Court.
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