Despite all of the darkness radiating from that person, I’m happy to share with you one positive accomplishment from my part of the world. Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon announced yesterday that she will appoint Adrienne C. Nelson, a trial judge in the Portland area, to the Oregon Supreme Court. Nelson will become the first African-American to serve on the court, where she will join Justice Lynn Nakamoto, the first woman of color and first Asian-American to serve on the Oregon Supreme Court. Nelson’s appointment will take place immediately.
Nelson was born in Arkansas, where she graduated from high school in Gurdon, Arkansas. Her mother sued her school district for refusing to permit an African American student to be recognized as valedictorian, & was successful. Nelson then worked for the lawyer who represented her, & decided she wanted to be a lawyer too. Nelson got her legal education at the University of Texas. She worked in Portland as a public defender, as well as in private & public practice.
When Nelson was appointed a a Multnomah County Circuit Court judge in 2006, she was then the first African-American judge in Oregon.
Oregon has been criticized for having a disproportionately small number of minority judges. In a 2007 article, the Oregonian newspaper noted there were so few of them at the time they could be listed by first name: Adrienne is the African American judge, Michael and Jim are the Asian American judges, and so on. "If there were more of us, believe me, we'd know it," Nelson was quoted as saying at the time. "I'm it."
I honestly don’t know how much that has changed in the last 10 years, although the Family Court judge who handled the case that led to our youngest daughter’s adoption is Hispanic, & did IMHO a very professional job. But this is a sign that despite that person’s clear support for Nazis & racists, progress is being made.