The Office of the State Attorney Fourth Judicial Circuit celebrated Black History Month by hosting an inaugural Historical Black College and University Day honoring African American HBCU graduates in the legal profession. Staff was educated on many leaders that have left their mark on U.S. History, who were graduates of HBCU’s. Historians celebrated included Justice Thurgood Marshall, U.S. First African American Supreme Court Justice (graduate of Lincoln University, 1930 and Howard University School of Law, 1933) and Florida’s First African American Supreme Court Justice and Jacksonville attorney, Justice Leander Shaw (graduate of Howard University, 1957).
Historical Black Colleges and Universities alumni account for 80 percent of black judges and 50 percent of black lawyers. The event was held in the ceremonial courtroom where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. testified in front of a grand jury after being charged with inciting a protest in St. Augustine, FL. Judge Sampson ruled in Dr. Kings favor and the decision led to the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Shown l-r Octavius Holiday, Ashleigh Brooks, Vironica Brown, Kiaira Nixon, Porsha Glover, Nerresa Posey, Brian Jefferson Nike Campbell-Fatok
