‘This is where I got my start.’ Supreme Court Justice Jackson returns home for an honor

David Goodhue

Three years ago, Miami-Dade County proposed that the state rename a stretch of U.S. 1 after abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

Now, local leaders have renamed a county road after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who grew up in South Florida.

The link between the two is more than symbolic.

“There will be a connection right here, across centuries of American history, when people drive on Harriet Tubman Highway to get to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Street,” Miami attorney Stephen Rosenthal, a childhood friend of the justice, told a crowd gathered Monday for a ceremony at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center in Cutler Bay.

The renamed street is on Eureka Drive, or Southwest 184th Street between Caribbean Drive and Old Cutler Road in Cutler Bay.

For Jackson, Monday’s honor was a homecoming. It was her first public appearance in her hometown since her confirmation last year.

Jackson grew up in Cutler Bay and graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High before moving on to Harvard Law. She was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court last April, becoming the first Black woman justice.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson waves to the crowd during the street-naming ceremony held at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center in Cutler Bay on Monday, March 6, 2023.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson waves to the crowd during the street-naming ceremony held at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center in Cutler Bay on Monday, March 6, 2023.

‘A celebration of us’

Jackson, 52, called Monday’s honor “as much a celebration of us as it is of me.”

“I grew up among all of you,” she said. “This is where I got my start.”

Jackson made it a family affair on Monday. Her parents — Johnny Brown, an attorney who became chief legal counsel to the Miami-Dade County School Board, and Ellery Brown, a principal of the New World School of the Arts — were in the audience.

She said her parents “are responsible for everything I am and everything that I have done.”

Justice Jackson said she was grateful to the Miami-Dade public education system and a supportive community as a whole that helped lay the foundation for what was to come.

“My experience confirms what we know to be true — which is that this is a wonderful place to grow up,” she said. “And, I think it also means that people from here as elsewhere, really can follow their dreams. I hope that is the takeaway from all of you from this wonderful street-naming event.”

Also on Monday, Jackson’s alma mater, Miami Palmetto Senior High School, inducted her and 15 others into the school’s Hall of Fame. During that ceremony, Jackson said that her professional journey all began during her time on the school’s debate team, and with its coach and teacher, Fran Berger.

Both honors come a month after Miami-Dade Public Schools inducted Jackson into the school system’s Alumni Hall of Fame “for their post-secondary and professional achievements.”

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said of Jackson’s South Florida roots: “We are very proud to claim her.”

“She gives us all hope, as the first Black woman Supreme Court justice, someone from our home, someone who is going to stand up for justice, we know, each and every day,” Levine Cava told reporters after the event. Jackson did not take questions.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, right, and Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, with the street sign during the street-naming ceremony held at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center on March 6, 2023.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, right, and Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, with the street sign during the street-naming ceremony held at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center on March 6, 2023.

Street-naming sponsor

Miami-Dade Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, who sponsored the county legislation to rename the street in October, which passed unanimously, said it’s fitting to officially honor Jackson in March — Women’s History Month — “because today we are celebrating trailblazing, glass-ceiling breaking woman who made history in a very big way.”

Cohen Higgins said she began thinking of ways to honor Jackson during her March 2022 Senate confirmation hearings before she was eventually confirmed in April on a 53-47 vote.

“It was a few months ago that the entire country was watching the confirmation hearings, and many of us, especially women, particularly women of color, watched very closely as our new justice was asked incredibly difficult questions,” Cohen Higgins said.

“We weren’t sure if she was going to be confirmed. And, on that historic day when she was confirmed, we had our very first Black female justice on the United States Supreme Court, and she was from our community here in Miami-Dade County,” she said. “It was of tremendous significance.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks during the street-naming ceremony held at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center on March 6, 2023.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks during the street-naming ceremony held at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center on March 6, 2023.

South Florida ties

Not only has Jackson broken barriers as a Black woman on the Supreme Court, after some research, she also realized that she made history in the judicial branch as someone who was raised in the Sunshine State.

“This street naming,” Jackson said, “will also serve as a testament to what is possible in this great country.”

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