Tallahassee’s federal courthouse has been renamed to honor the state’s first Black supreme court justice, Joseph Woodrow Hatchett.
The Florida A&M University graduate was the first Black justice to sit on the state supreme court and later was the first black person to serve on a federal court of appeals.
Former Congressman Al Lawson was behind the push to rename the courthouse to honor Hatchett on the House floor last year.
“We are talking about an individual that gave his career in public service to protect people’s rights, to stand up for those who are less fortunate," said Lawson. "A person that cared not because of the color of an individual but because of the individual themselves.”
The naming ceremony for the Joseph Woodrow Hatchett U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building was held on June 30.
“Judge Hatchett was a role model for both the bench and the bar, a patriot who served the public with honor, humility, and integrity,” said Chief Judge William H. Pryor, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. “Throughout his career, he was a trailblazer. Our court and nation owe him a debt of gratitude.”
The courthouse is located at 111 North Adams Street. The building now is affixed with Hatchett’s name along with a sculpture of him.
He died in April 2021. He was 88.
About Judge Hatchett:
- Former Justice Joseph Woodrow Hatchett was the 65th Justice on the Supreme Court. He served from 1975-1979.
- After graduation from Florida A&M University in 1954, Joseph Hatchett was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. He entered Howard University School of Law in 1956 and earned his LL.B. degree in 1959.
- After admission to the Florida Bar, he entered private practice in Daytona Beach, practicing criminal, civil, administrative, and civil rights law in state and federal courts.
- In 1966, he was appointed assistant United States attorney for the Middle District of Florida, and, in 1967, he was designated first assistant United States attorney.
- In 1971, he was appointed United States magistrate for the Middle District of Florida.
- In 1975, Governor Reubin Askew appointed Hatchett as the first black Florida Supreme Court justice.
- In 1976, in defending his seat on the court, he became the first black person to win a Florida statewide contested election during the twentieth century. He served until 1979, when he was appointed to the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals by President Jimmy Carter, becoming the first black man appointed to a federal appeals court in the Deep South.
- He retired in 1999 and returned to private practice in Tallahassee.
- (Pinellas) [served 3 years, 10 months]
- Served September 2, 1975 – July 18, 1979 as Justice [appointed at age 42]
- b. Clearwater, Florida, September 17, 1932 d. April 30, 2021