- Kimberley Guillemet
Bridget “Biddy” Mason was born into slavery on August 15, 1818, in Hancock County, Georgia or Mississippi. At an early age, she was taken from her parents and moved to the plantation of a different slave owner. During her teenage years, she learned domestic and agricultural skills. Additionally, she developed skills in herbal medicine and midwifery taught to her by other female slaves. These skills were passed down from African, Caribbean, and Native American traditions. Her knowledge benefited both the slaves and the plantation owners.
Ms. Mason was forced to travel west with slave owners Robert and Rebecca Smith when they joined the Mormon migration to Utah. Ms. Mason had three children: Ellen born in 1838, Ann born in 1844, and Harriet born in 1847.
In 1848, Ms. Mason, then 30, walked 1,700 miles behind a 300-wagon caravan. Along the route, Ms. Mason was responsible for setting up and breaking camp, cooking the meals, herding cattle, and serving as a midwife. She also took care of her three young daughters, aged 10, 4, and a newborn.
In 1851, Smith moved his family once again. This time a 150-wagon caravan headed for San Bernardino, California. While California was supposedly a “free state,” Smith continued to hold Ms. Mason and her daughters captive.
While in California, Ms. Mason and her children befriended free Blacks who informed the L.A. County Sheriff that Smith was illegally holding slaves. Soonthereafter, Smith made plans to move to Texas, a state where slavery was still legal. The sheriff was alerted that the Smiths planned to illegally force Ms. Mason and her daughters to move to Texas with them. The sheriff gathered a posse and apprehended Smith’s wagon train in Cajon Pass, California, and took Ms. Mason and her family into protective custody under a writ of habeas corpus.
Ms. Mason challenged Smith for her freedom utilizing the court system. Judge Benjamin Hayes circumvented racist testimony laws that prevented Blacks from testifying against whites by interviewing Ms. Mason in his chambers. There, she said that she did not want to go back to the south with the Smiths. As a result, on January 21, 1856, Judge Hayes granted the writ, ruling “it further appearing by satisfactory proof to the judge here, that all of the said persons of color are entitled to their freedom, and are free and cannot be held in slavery or involuntary servitude, it is therefore argued that they are entitled to their freedom and are free forever.”
Ms. Mason became a doctor’s assistant and ran a midwifery business. She accumulated a fortune worth about $7.5 million in today’s dollars, making her one of the richest women in Los Angeles at that time. She established a homestead in what became downtown Los Angeles. Ms. Mason used her wealth to establish a daycare center for working parents and created an account at a store where families who lost their homes in flooding could get supplies. She also co-founded and financed the First African Methodist Episcopal (FAME) Church, which still thrives to this day. Known as Grandma Mason, she died in 1891 and is honored through the Biddy Mason monument in downtown Los Angeles.
Ms. Mason was fond of saying, "If you hold your hand closed, nothing good can come in. The open hand is blessed, for it gives in abundance, even as it receives."
This text is excerpted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biddy_Mason, https://www.aclunc.org/sites/goldchains/explore/biddy-mason.html and https://www.nps.gov/people/biddymason.htm.
- Kimberley Guillemet
― Paul the Apostle
Over the past few months we have weathered the storms of various legal battles, wars, civil unrest, extreme acts of violence, hate and racism, in addition to our daily stressors and challenges. It has been a lot to process. And in the midst of it all, we are somehow expected to conduct ourselves as if it’s business as usual. The reality is that we’re human, and this level of trauma, whether we’re experiencing it on a primary or secondary basis, is a lot to bear.
I just want to leave a few words with you that get me through challenging times: “Be anxious for nothing, but in all things, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” (Philippians 4:6-7) This sage advice from Paul the Apostle reminds me that many of the things that make me anxious are outside of my control and that remaining in a place of anxiety and worry doesn’t help me resolve them. The best thing that I can do is to make my requests known to God and leave them there. There is no quick fix for the tumultuous terrain that we are navigating these days, but I want to remind you that you are not walking through this season alone.
Many of the things taking place these days are difficult to stomach and to witness. We often can’t fix them, which makes them all the more disturbing. However, not being able to fix them is OK; that’s not your job. Give yourself the liberty of leaving these worries and anxieties at the feet of someone who can.
Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Miami, Florida, Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson was raised by her parents, Johnny Brown, a lawyer, and Ellery Brown, a school principal. Her parents wanted to honor their ancestry and asked a relative serving in the Peace Corps in West Africa for a list of African names for their daughter. The name they selected, Ketanji Onyika, means "lovely one."
Despite excelling in school, being nominated the “mayor” of her high school and earning the designation of “most likely to succeed,” Justice Brown Jackson’s guidance counselor discouraged her from setting her sights on Harvard University. Notwithstanding the discouragement from her counselor, Justice Brown Jackson attended Harvard University for college and law school, where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Prior to law school, she spent a year working for Time magazine and serving as an intern for the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem.
Justice Brown Jackson began her legal career with three clerkships, including one with U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. Prior to her elevation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, she served as a district judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from 2013 to 2021. Justice Brown Jackson was also vice chair of the United States Sentencing Commission from 2010 to 2014. Since 2016, she has been a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers.
Justice Brown Jackson and her husband, Patrick, have two daughters: Talia and Leila. In 2016, Leila wrote a letter to President Obama recommending her mother for the Supreme Court vacancy that was a result of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death.
Nominated by President Joe Biden in 2021, Justice Brown Jackson succeeded Justice Breyer upon his retirement from the court on June 30, 2022. Upon her swearing in, she became the first Black woman and the first former federal public defender to serve on the Supreme Court.
After her confirmation, Justice Brown Jackson was quoted as saying the following: “It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, but we've made it! We've made it — all of us."
This text is excerpted from: https://www.biography.com/law-figure/ketanji-brown-jackson,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketanji_Brown_Jackson and https://people.com/politics/ketanji-brown-jackson-most-inspiring-quotes/.
