Louisiana Supreme Court issued the following announcement on July 24.
Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson received the William H. Hastie Award in New York. The award, presented by the National Bar Association (NBA) Judicial Council recognizes excellence in legal and judicial scholarship and demonstrated commitment to justice under law.
The William H. Hastie Award, the NBA Judicial Council’s highest award, was presented to Chief Justice Johnson at the organization’s 94th Annual Convention during its Thurgood Marshall Awards Luncheon. Judge William H. Hastie for whom the award is named, served as a United States District Court Judge as well as Governor for the United States Virgin Islands, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and Dean of Howard University Law School. Upon accepting the award at the annual convention, Chief Justice Johnson said, “I’d like to express my deepest appreciation to the National Bar Association and my colleagues for this distinguished award.”
The National Bar Association is the oldest and largest national network of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges. It represents the interest of approximately 65,000 lawyers, judges, law professors, and law students. The National Bar Association Judicial Council is an independent autonomous section of the National Bar Association formed in 1971 to eradicate racial and class bias from every aspect of the judicial and law enforcement process.
Chief Justice Johnson serves as the first African-American Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. She is one of the first African-American women to attend and earn a Juris Doctorate degree from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University and the first woman elected to serve on the Civil District Court of New Orleans where in 1994, her colleagues elected her Chief Judge. She was elected to serve on the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1994 and was re-elected without opposition in 2000 and 2010. As the senior justice on the Court, she was sworn in as Chief Justice on February 1, 2013.
Original source can be found here.