The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., (LDF) welcomed today’s historic votes by the U.S. Senate to confirm the first African-American female judges ever to serve on Georgia’s federal judiciary.
The Senate confirmed Leslie Abrams to the Middle District of Georgia and Eleanor Ross to the Northern District of Georgia. President Obama had previously nominated two African-American females to the Northern District of Georgia, but the Senate refused to act and the nominations were withdrawn.
Leslie Proll, Director of LDF’s Washington Office, stated: “This day is a long time coming. Of 18 federal judgeships, Georgia had only one active African-American federal judge. Today’s confirmations advance judicial diversity in Georgia but more progress should be made. Significantly, the State gains its first African-American women on the federal bench. Since 1979, when President Jimmy Carter first integrated Georgia’s federal courts, all African-American judges have been male.”
