“When I was born here in Washington, my parents were public school teachers, and to express both pride in their heritage and hope for the future, they gave me an African name: 'Ketanji Onyika,' which they were told means 'lovely one.'”

American lawyer and jurist, Supreme Court justice

Ketanji Brown Jackson is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Born Ketanji Onyika Brown, she was nominated to the Court by President Joe Biden in 2022 and confirmed later that year. She is the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court, the first former federal public defender to do so, and the sixth woman in the Court’s history. Her public profile is closely tied to her role on the nation’s highest court and to the significance of her appointment in American legal history.