Lovely One

Lovely One is a 2024 memoir by Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Jackson first takes the reader on a journey through her life, from her birth in Washington, DC, to her childhood in Miami, Florida, and education at Harvard University. Jackson then recounts her career and how she came to make history as the first Black woman to serve as a US Supreme Court justice. Through anecdotes, she also offers a glimpse into her personal world, from her lasting friendships with college friends to her relationship with her husband and her experiences as a mother. In reflecting on these experiences, she explores themes including Ambition and Resilience as Keys to Achievement, The Importance of Representation, and Confronting Racism. 

This guide refers to the 2024 Kindle edition. 

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, and racism.

Summary

Jackson recounts her swearing-in ceremony as a Supreme Court justice. She reflects on the Supreme Court’s past approval of laws that cruelly oppressed Black Americans, making her ascent to the position of justice especially meaningful to her. In Part 1, “Bringing the Grace,” Jackson covers her family history, childhood, and early career. In Chapter 1, “The Dream,” Jackson explains how her maternal grandparents, Euzera and Horace Brown, moved from Georgia to Miami, Florida, during the height of the Jim Crow era. Her grandparents raised five ambitious and hardworking kids, including Jackson’s mother, Ellery Brown, who became a school principal. 

Jackson explains how her parents met in high school and began dating while in college. Both of her parents were active in the civil rights movement and continued their anti-racist work in their careers as high school teachers, with Johnny Brown developing a Black studies curriculum for his school district. Jackson reflects on how her parents raised her to feel a sense of pride in her African roots and actively supported her education and self-confidence.

Jackson recalls looking up to Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Constance Baker Motley in her preteen years, seeing these trailblazing women as role models in the same way that she would later become a role model for a new generation.

Jackson reminisces about her high school experiences, sharing her fond memories of excelling in her speech and debate club and of achieving her goal of being admitted to Harvard University. Jackson remembers feeling enthusiastic about attending Harvard even as she experienced intense homesickness and imposter syndrome during her first semester. In Chapter 9, Jackson describes meeting her future husband, Patrick Jackson, a sociology major with a passion for social justice.

When she met Patrick’s family for the first time, Jackson felt anxious about the future of their relationship: Patrick’s white, New England family had been wealthy for generations, and she worried that their very different backgrounds and ambitious career plans would get in the way of their relationship. Meanwhile, Jackson’s internship at the Neighborhood Defender Service in Harlem, New York, helped her understand how poverty and the criminal justice system affected the residents there, inspiring her thesis on how the law can be misused as a tool of oppression. 

Jackson attended Harvard Law School and served on the board of the Harvard Law Review. She reflects on a joyful and productive time in her early career as she graduated law school, got married, and began two federal clerkships. Though she had to work extremely hard throughout this period, she remembers the work as rewarding and is grateful for the mentorship she received. In Chapter 14, Jackson remembers her difficult year living alone in Providence, Rhode Island, as she completed her second federal clerkship before moving to Washington, DC, with her husband. Her dreams came true when she was unexpectedly offered an opportunity to become a clerk at the Supreme Court.

In Part 2, Jackson reflects on her personal and professional journey from her Supreme Court clerkship in 1999 to the present day. In describing her experience clerking for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, she emphasizes the intense demands of the job, which were made worth it by the valuable experience of working for such an intelligent and optimistic justice. She and Patrick traveled together to Kenya, a trip that was especially meaningful to her as a person of African descent. The couple welcomed a daughter, Talia, and Jackson reflects on the struggle to balance her demanding career with the challenges of new parenthood.

Jackson took a job at the United States Sentencing Commission, working to reform sentencing guidelines for judges in order to ensure more equitable outcomes. Jackson’s work on sentencing guidelines became personally important to her when she learned that her uncle Thomas had been incarcerated for life for his role in drug trafficking. Jackson was relieved when President Obama pardoned her elderly uncle, freeing him after years in prison. As Talia grew, her epilepsy and learning differences made her schooling difficult. Meanwhile, President Obama nominated Jackson for a position as a federal judge, and after a rigorous vetting process, she was confirmed in his second term. Jackson then refocuses on her family life, explaining how she and her husband tried to support their daughters’ different needs and maintain their own careers. Jackson’s younger daughter, Leila, wrote a personal letter asking President Obama to nominate her mother to the Supreme Court. While Jackson was hopeful, it was not her time.

She came a step closer to her dream job when President Biden appointed her to the Court of Appeals. In her final chapter, Jackson recounts her nervous excitement at being nominated and sworn in as a Supreme Court justice, and she credits the support of her family, friends, and mentors for making this incredible achievement possible. In her Epilogue, the author reflects on how the Supreme Court, like other American institutions, must be representative of its people, a famously diverse population. She shares her delight at serving in her important position and her determination to make a positive contribution to justice in the US.