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Courtroom's lack of diversity causes protest
Published:
Thursday, April 3, 2003
Stephen Henderson
Knight Ridder Newspaper
WASHINGTON -- It was a discussion about race and opportunity and how this country's most elite educational institutions can fulfill the American promise of equality.
And it took place in a courtroom whose own lack of diversity reflects the very problem at issue.
One of the most striking truths in the U.S. Supreme Court's consideration of the University of Michigan's affirmative action cases is the fact that the court remains one of America's least integrated public forums.
Much like Michigan or the other premier American colleges and universities, the high court is an elite institution that historically has been out of reach for blacks - and the current-day reminders of that history have yet to fully dissipate.
Outside of Clarence Thomas, the court's sole black justice, and one black assigned to cover the court full time, the high court's regal, marble-adorned courtroom is usually mostly devoid of black faces.
On most days, it doesn't take more than a glance to assess the room's diversity.
Tuesday brought a formidable throng of blacks to the courtroom - both those who played important roles in the cases and folks who are just concerned about the issue. But it was a day that departed from the norm, and was notable as much for how different the courtroom looked as it was for anything else.
Rarely, for example, does a black lawyer appear at the Supreme Court to argue a case. John Payton, who argued on behalf of the university, is the first black lawyer to appear before the court this year.
Only occasionally are there blacks among the lawyers who come to watch court proceedings each day, or among those who are sworn in to the Supreme Court Bar each morning. During the arguments Tuesday, there were black faces sprinkled throughout the rows of seats reserved for lawyers at the front of the courtroom.
Even those who sit in the public section of the courtroom, normally filled with school groups and tourists, are mostly white. But on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr., a Democrat from Tennessee, was among the black dignitaries who gathered in the court's public section to hear the cases, as were the Rev. Jesse Jackson and congresswoman Maxine Waters, a California Democrat. Black lawyers from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People legal defense fund were there, as were other notable blacks.
There are a fair number of blacks among the marshals who keep order in the courtroom and shuttle visitors in and out. There are also several blacks among the workers who attend to the justices while in the courtroom, bringing them water or pushing in their chairs when they leave their seats.
Outside the courtroom, there are many blacks working in the cafeteria and in the other service-oriented parts of the Supreme Court building.
Just as is the case in the rest of official Washington, the court's service work force is much more integrated than its professional contingent.
Each day at the court, some of the nation's sharpest minds -on both sides of the bench -shape the law and our culture. They debate what the constitution says, what it promises and what it protects. And yet, that process unfolds nearly all the time without much of a tangible black presence.
Tuesday's difference wasn't lost on Ted Shaw, associate director of the NAACP legal defense fund, who has argued several cases in front of the high court.
"I think you had to notice," he said after the Michigan cases concluded. "It was overwhelmingly different."
And the justices? Will they take note of Tuesday's differences and make the connection between their own struggles with diversity and those of the University of Michigan?
"I'm sure they saw it, but I don't know how much it will matter to them," Shaw said.
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