The history of black judges in Michigan dates back to 1892 when D. Augustus Straker became the first Black judge in the state. Fifty-eight years would pass before Charles W. Jones, a former assistant prosecutor was appointed as a judge in July 1950. In 1954 Wade H. McCree, Jr. became the first black judge appointed to the Wayne County Circuit Court. Judge McCree went on to become the first black judge to win a county wide election by winning not only in 1955 but again in 1959.

Judge Elvin L. Davenport was appointed to the Common Pleas Court in December of 1956; he won election the following year and was later appointed to Detroit Recorder’s Court. That same year, Harry G. Hackett was appointed the first black bankruptcy referee in Michigan and thus the second in the United States. Two years later, John T. Letts became the first black judge elected by popular vote in Kent County; later he was elected to the Kent County Circuit Court. In 1961, Otis M. Smith was appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court.  Justice Smith became the first black judge to sit on a state supreme court since Reconstruction. Nearly 25 years would pass before Dennis W. Archer would be appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1985 followed by Justice Conrad Mallet in 1990 who was succeeded by Justice Robert Young in 1999. Upon his retirement Governor Rick Snyder appointed Justice Kurtis Wilder in 2017. Justice Wilder lost his retention election in 2019 and therefore today there are no Black Justices on the Michigan Supreme Court and there has never been a Black Woman on the state’s highest court.

In 1966, George W. Crockett, Jr. and Geraldine V. Bledsoe Ford were elected to Recorders Court, Geraldine V. Bledsoe Ford becoming the first black woman judge in the state. On the federal court, Judge Wade H. McCree, Jr. was elevated to the United States 6th circuit Court of Appeals and Damon J. Keith was appointed to the Federal District Court. In the 70’s the number of black judges taking the bench, either by appointment or election, quickened. Among them: Judge Damon J. Keith was elevated to the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit; Julian C. Cook and Anna Diggs Taylor were appointed to the Federal District Court; Harold Hood and Myron H. Whals were appointed to the Michigan Court of Appeals and Claudia H. Morcom and Lucile A. Watts to the Wayne County Circuit Court.

In 2002 Hon. Karen Fort Hood was the first Black woman elected to the Michigan Court of appeals and in 2020 she became the first Black woman to serve as chair of the Judicial Tenure Commission   In the year 2022 the state of Michigan is still seeing historic firsts as Judge Stephanie Dawkins was appointed by President Joe Biden to the 6^th Circuit Court of appeals making her the first Black woman from Michigan and the second African American woman in history, to serve on the Sixth Circuit.   And Hon. Teri Dennings was appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer to the 16^th Circuit Court making her the first Black Judge Ever to serve in the Macomb County Circuit Court

With faith and prayer, the black judiciary has come a long way since 1892, but we should not be satisfied with where we are. In the last 60 years there have been more than 230 black judges;  while the number in some ways may appear to be unique and impressive, it is far less than .5% of the total number of available judgeships in that period.  One doesn’t have to look much farther than the metropolitan Detroit area to see just how underrepresented Black Judges are in the state of Michigan. For example while nearly 40% of the residents of Wayne County are Black, of the 58 judicial seats on the court there are currently only 15 or 25% Black judges. Of the 15 Black judges on the court, only 4 of them are Black men.  This means that while Black men make up 22% percent of the population they only represent 7% of the Third Circuit Court bench.  In Macomb County while Black people make up 13% of the population there is only one Black Judge in the entire county and in Oakland County where approximately 15% of the residents are Black, there are only two Black judges on the 6th Circuit Court this is a reduction from the 3 black judges that were on the court in 2021.  The statistics in the metropolitan Detroit Area highlights why there is still much work to be done by the ABJM to sustain the number of Black Judges and build the pipeline of future Black Judges in the State of Michigan.

(This section is an updated version of our organizational History drafted in 2014 by Hon. Terrance A. Keith, Former President, ABJM)