First Black man on Florida Supreme Court, Joseph Hatchett, has died
Joseph Hatchett. Image via Florida Supreme Court.
The first Black man to serve on the Florida Supreme Court, former Justice
Joseph
W. Hatchett, has died at 88.
Hatchett made history becoming the first African-American to serve on Florida’s highest court. He was appointed by former Gov.
Reubin Askew in 1975, according to a news release from the court.
Hatchett continued to break barriers in his career after former President
Jimmy Carter appointed him to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1979. He became the first Black man to serve in a federal circuit that covered the Deep South.
Former Florida Supreme Court Justice Joseph W. Hatchett, who marked many milestones in a legal career spanning more than a half century, died in Tallahassee Friday. He was 88.
He opened opportunity. First Black Florida Supreme Court Judge Joseph Hatchett dies at 88 Howard Cohen, The Miami Herald
May 1 When a young Joseph W. Hatchett took the Florida Bar exam in 1960, he could not stay in the Miami hotel in which the test was given because of Jim Crow regulations.
Within 15 years, Hatchett would become the first African American to serve on the Florida Supreme Court.
Former Florida Supreme Court Justice Hatchett died in Tallahassee on Friday, April 30, Florida Supreme Court spokesman Craig Waters said in a post Saturday morning. Hatchett was 88 and Florida s 65th justice since statehood was granted in 1845.