Ketanji Brown Jackson may not be officially seated on the Supreme Court yet, but that didn’t stop an exuberant block party celebrating her historic nomination from taking place at 14th and S Streets NW on Saturday.
The gathering was held at the site of an in-progress mural depicting Jackson and featured performances by the Howard University marching band, rapper Fly Zyah, and the go-go band Be’la Dona, as well as a slate of speakers. In the closed off streets, people held up signs in support of the judge, wrote chalk messages, and played double Dutch. Several speakers led calls of “When I say Black women, you say lead,” which the crowd eagerly responded to, along with whoops and the ringing of bicycle bells.
The mural project is a joint effort between She Will Rise, an organization that was founded in 2020 to campaign for a Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court, and No Kings Collective, an arts and design group responsible for dozens of murals and creative events around D.C. No Kings Collective previously worked with She Will Rise for a mural project in Shaw, and together they came up with the idea of commemorating the moment once Jackson was confirmed. Local artist Nia Keturah Calhoun was tapped to create the design.
“I’ve been wanting to paint on walls since I was a little girl. I’ve been bugging No Kings to let me paint a mural for a long time,” Calhoun says. “It really feels like it’s a moment that should be celebrated, it’s momentous, it’s joyous. We waited a long time to have a Black woman on the Supreme Court.”
The U.S. Senate confirmed Jackson to the court last Thursday, making her the first Black woman to hold the seat.
Originally, the goal was to unveil the finished mural at Saturday’s event, but Peter Chang of No Kings Collective says, “the weather wasn’t agreeable with us this week.” Such are the perils of trying to create public art in response to the news cycle, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind that her likeness wasn’t yet visible on the mural. Volunteers passed out postcards showing a mockup of the final image. Calhoun says she plans to finish the mural sometime this week.
When completed, the mural will show a portrait of Justice Jackson, along with her father, Johnny Brown, who was also a lawyer, and Constance Baker Motley, who served as the first Black woman federal judge and wrote the original complaint in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. Calhoun says “to put those two people on the mural with her, it feels good to celebrate that history she’s rising from while celebrating this moment.”
Even the backdrop of colorful designs tells a story. Calhoun says the work was inspired by the AfriCOBRA Black Arts movement of the 1960s and 70s, as well as African imagery.
“I think it’s so dope that [Jackson’s] parents named her Ketanji. They really wanted to connect back to her elders and her ancestors, even if that connection was kind of frayed and forgotten,” Calhoun says. “I wanted the mural to do the same thing, to connect back to something that was ancestral.”
Speeches at the event were jubilant, culminating in call and response and cheers. But speakers also reminded the audience of the political implications of Jackson’s nomination and ongoing work to be done.
“[Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell made clear that this would be a different situation if he were in charge. We cannot forget that point,” said Fatima Goss Graves, President and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center.
Other remarks focused on the importance of voter registration, the lack of Black women governors, and the 50th anniversary of Shirley Chisholm’s groundbreaking presidential campaign.
“Black women make up less 2% of the federal judiciary, She Will Rise will continue to advocate for more Black women to be on every level of the federal judiciary,” said Kim Tignor, a lawyer and She Will Rise founder. “There’s still a lot of history to make.”
WPGC radio host Poet Taylor MCed the event and delivered a rousing call to action. “If we’re really about this change, it goes beyond this mural. It’s pretty, but what are we doing for these pockets of women, especially Black women?”
Jennifer Porter, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office on Women’s Policy and Initiatives, highlighted Jackson as a hometown hero. “This is special for D.C. Justice Jackson was born right here. She served right here in D.C., she lives in D.C. And we, her 700,000 neighbors across all eight wards, are so proud of our sister.”
