A review by jaduhluhdabooks
Lovely One by Ketanji Brown Jackson

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

Of course, at the time Hamilton wrote Federalist 78, he was focused on the fitness, character, and motivation of only certain people. Neither he nor his fellow framers could have foreseen, that the lifetime appointments, they ultimately authorized, might one day be bestowed on anyone other than white men of high social positions and means. 

I highly doubt any of them could’ve envisioned me, the descendant of enslaved Africans, the offspring of parents raised in the Jim Crow era, and a post Civil Rights daughter, dawning a borrowed robe to take her oath of judicial office, and join the ranks of that esteemed branch of government. But that is the very genius of the framers foundational guarantee of liberty and justice for all.”

Justice Brown-Jackson is truly one of the most extraordinary humans and I’ve never been more grateful than to listen to her story and her voice. I often forget that I am living proof of my ancestors dreams and that in living in such an age where that truth becomes more apparent in the age where the first Black and Asian American woman VP is the currently democratic presidential candidate and the appointment of the first Black woman Supreme Court Justice. 

I feel lucky to know the intricacies that Justice Brown Jackson described. The grueling realities of academia and the work of law and her journey to this moment in time was not easy. I see how human she is. She is a friend, a daughter, a mother, a wife, and a leader. She is someone who loves the arts and theatre and speaking. She is wise and gentle in her instruction and her directing and I could feel her joy in moments of celebration and her anguish in turmoil. 

She is the dream of so many and I realized through reading this that she was even sorta of my own dream. 

I feel encouraged by her words and her faith and commitment to seeing a system work justly for all those who are in need of liberation. 

I remember reading and listening into her hearings and tearing up at her words and the faith in which she spoke them with. It was healing and after facing what felt like some of the most tumultuous of years with President Trump’s election and administration, I remember feeling hopeful again. 

I think about the picture snapped of her tear shed while listening to Senator Jackson speak life over her and I cried with her. It was such a powerful moment for all Black women everywhere. Black woman who built the foundations of movements and freedom on their backs. Black women who raised power and smart Black men. Black women to loved and cared for the communities from which they came. Black mothers. Black sisters. It was a single tear that carried the weight of so many unshed tears. Moments where we couldn’t cry. We couldn’t shout. We couldn’t be weak. We couldn’t show our brokenness. 

We couldn’t be tired. We couldn’t be burdened. We had to be strong. And we could never crumble. And that single tear was worth it. 

She is a symbol. She is a person. She is a Supreme Court Justice. She is a Black woman. She is Ketanji, The Lovely One, for whom God called and she answered and I am grateful to have listened to her story thus far.