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Norma Holloway Johnson (L’62) 1932-2011  |
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Georgetown Law mourns the loss of Norma Holloway Johnson (L’62), a former chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia who died September 18 at the age of 79. “Judge Johnson was not only a great judge, but a pathbreaker and a pioneer at Georgetown Law and beyond,” said Dean William M. Treanor. “Her example has had a profound influence on generations of women, African-Americans and on the legal profession in general.” Johnson entered Georgetown Law as an evening student in 1957, teaching in the D.C. public school system while attending law school. She is among the first African-American women to graduate from the Law Center. “I did not find working and attending law school to be difficult or a problem,” Johnson reminisced at a 2001 celebration of women here. “The only uneasiness I felt was the size of the law books and the difficulty in carrying them.” She was a pioneer, nevertheless, and the theme of firsts would continue throughout her career. After seven years in private practice and government service, she was appointed to the Court of General Sessions (later the D.C. Superior Court) in 1970 and to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 1980. She was the first African-American woman to be appointed to the federal bench in Washington, D.C., and the D.C. Court’s only female chief judge, according to news reports. “She didn’t want to be singular in that regard, but she was,” said June Jeffries (L’78), who served as a former assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia from 1983 to 2008. “I believe her feeling was, the court should be reflective of America, the court should be reflective of the District of Columbia, the court should be reflective of the bar. Not that there should be black and white judges or male and female judges.” Johnson is perhaps best known for presiding over the grand jury investigation into the Clinton/Lewinsky affair in the late 1990s. Other accomplishments included helping to found the National Association of Black Women Attorneys and the National Association of Women Judges. Johnson also assisted in organizing the William B. Bryant American Inn of Court in D.C. and served as the organization’s first president, according to Professor Sherman Cohn (F’54, L’57, LL.M.’60). “She was highly respected as a judge and as a person,” Cohn said. Richard Daschbach (L’62), chief judge and chairman of the Employee’s Compensation Appeals Board, was Johnson’s classmate and a fellow Louisianan. He stayed close to Johnson over the years, chatting with her frequently in person or over the phone. “She wasn’t born with a silver spoon in her mouth,” Daschbach said. “Her father was a laborer; her mother was a grocery store clerk. But she bubbled up to the top.” September 23, 2011 News obituaries for Norma Holloway Johnson:
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