exceptionally qualified and highly respected and will make the supreme court look just a bit more like the country it serves. this is who we are today. and that have lucian matters. it matches to the country and specifically to the black women who will now stand on judge jackson s shoulders as they become tourists, working to help make the union more perfect. the new york times spoke to women who are members of the harvard black law students association, where judge jackson is an alumni. it s a small group, and 84 students are black women, out of a total 1700 students enrolled in the law program. one of those 84 students, mariah watson, told the times, quote, i m grateful for the hard steps and all that shipping away that judge jackson is doing right now, so that the path is cleared or at least a little clearer for those who seek to come after
and specifically to the black women who will now stand on judge jackson s shoulders, as they become jurists, working to help make this union yet more perfect. the new york times spoke to women who are members of the harvard black law students association, where judge jackson is an alumni. it s a small group. fewer than 140 harvard law students are black, 84 are black women, that s out of about 1700 total students enrolled in the law program, one of those 84 students, mariah k. watson told the new york times says quote, i am grateful for the hard steps and all of the chipping away that judge jackson is doing right now so that the path is cleared or at least a little clearer for those who seek to come after her. joining us now is mariah k. watson, a third year law student at harvard, and president of the harvard black law students
2019. she came to speak to the black law students association in a lunch. and she talked to us about diversity in the judiciary. and she answered every single question that we, as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed had about what it meant to be here and how she persevered in her classroom, when she didn t feel like presenting or felt like she could not speak on things that she really cared about. or, how did she make herself known on campus? she talked about the importance of legal writing. she talked about the importance of understanding the law and having an intimate command of the doctrine. she talked about how to show up, even when you do not feel like you can. and she talked about how she did it. it is just an amazing opportunity. she also talked to us about court competition, and ways we could show our beautiful, brilliant, black community in spaces and not just in our organization. what an experience to have
absolutely. judge jackson now justice jackson, or soon to be, regularly visited harvard law school, and i have the good fortune of meeting her in the fall of 2019, she came to speak to the black law students association, in a lunch, and she talked to us about diversity in the judiciary. and she answered every single question that we as bright-eyed bushy-tailed students had about what it meant to be here and how she persevered in her classroom when she didn t feel represented or felt like she couldn t speak on things that she really cared about, or how did she make herself known on campus. and she talked about the importance of legal writing, she talked about the importance of understanding the law, and having an intimate command of the doctrine. and she talked about how to show love. even when you don t feel like you can. and she talked about how she did it. and it s just an amazing opportunity. she also talked to us about moot
senator alex padilla, of california, that as a harvard student, she once asked herself, do i belong here, can i make it in this environment, it s a lot of language we re hearing now about who belongs in spaces, and that includes the supreme court, or where you are, at harvard law school, places where there are relatively few black women who needs to see that people who look like judge jackson belong in those spaces. the woman who might follow her path, or is it the 47 senators who voted against her? who needs the proof that she s had to provide? it s both. i think it s the women who are trying to follow in her footsteps, as we look across the classroom, or even walking down the halls and seeing the portraits of professors that don t look like us, and we re reading opinions by people who did not live our lives, and don t reflect who we are. and you re wondering, am i meant to be here, is this the right place to me, and where does success lead? so i think part of it is, it is