Benita Pearson knew at age 8 she wanted to be a judge.
She held onto that dream as she grew up one of six children raised by a single mother in Cleveland. She earned a scholarship to Hathaway Brown, taking a bus to Terminal Tower each morning and then a Rapid train to the all-girls college preparatory school in Shaker Heights, Ohio.
On December 3, 2009, President Obama formally nominated Pearson to serve on the Northern District of Ohio. Her nomination was confirmed by the Senate on December 21, 2010 by a vote of 56-39, with George Voinovich of Ohio casting the lone Republican ‘aye’ vote.
Pearson, 47, is the first black woman to hold a federal judgeship in Ohio.
The confirmation was part of a rapid series of Senate judicial approvals, following a deal reportedly struck by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to break a logjam caused by GOP obstructions.
As the first black female federal jurist in Ohio, U.S. District Court Judge Benita Y. Pearson said it wouldn’t have happened without those who blazed the trail before her. “I will carry the torch; I will pick up the mantle,” Judge Pearson said at her swearing-in ceremony.
And she also vowed to “be a role model” to those who follow.
Many of the speakers at the ceremony talked about the historic appointment of Judge Pearson, a process that took well over a year.
“It is one more step along the way to have a federal judiciary reflect the face of America,” said retired Judge Nathaniel R. Jones of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and a Youngstown native who lives in the Cincinnati area. “This is an event so special to me that I was compelled to come and witness the oath being administered and offer my congratulations.”
Judge Pearson graduated from Georgetown University and received her law degree from Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. She worked for more than seven years as an accountant before becoming a lawyer.
Her career included stints at the Jones Day and McDonald Hopkins law firms in Cleveland. She became an assistant U.S. Attorney in Cleveland in 2000.
(more)