A little bit of history was made at 401 West Trade
Street Friday, but Charlotte didn’t seem to notice much. The Fourth
Circuit Court of Appeals held a session of oral arguments at the federal
courthouse here for the first time in more than 50 years. Lawyers and law students showed up in numbers
to watch and note the event, but the rarity is not what struck me.
I sat in the gallery in the courtroom where Swann
v. Board of Education – the seminal Charlotte school desegregation case
– got its start. Overlooking the
courtroom are eight large portraits of white male federal judges who have held
court in the last 100 years. As
best I can tell, in 140 years all of the federal district judges here have
been white men. If I’m wrong, please let
me know.
At 9:30 sharp, court began and the three appeals
court justices walked in: Allyson Kay Duncan,
an African American, Albert
Diaz, a Hispanic American, and James A. Wynn, Jr., an
African American.
I have been practicing in that courtroom for 17
years. For me, it was a jarring, surreal
but welcome moment.
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