Black women feel sting of ‘traumatizing’ Jackson hearings

By AARON MORRISON and LISA MASCARO
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson had to endure hours of public scrutiny from skeptics during her Senate hearings this past week, and that’s something familiar to many Black women. The Harvard-educated Jackson is making history as the first Black woman nominated for the high court. But during questions before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jackson faced insinuating attacks from Republicans about her credentials, qualifications and character. For Melanie L. Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, “It was really traumatizing to watch.” Jackson’s supporters saw yet another example of highly qualified Black women having to endure indignities and distortions even as they shatter racial barriers in American society.