TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Jul 16, 2024

The Memphis City Council on July 9 approved the renaming of a portion of Front Street between Poplar Avenue and Beale Street in honor of Bernice Donald, who retired from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals last year as the first Black woman to serve on the court. Donald became the first Black woman judge in Tennessee when she was elected to the Shelby County General Sessions Criminal Court in 1982, and the first Black female bankruptcy judge in the nation when she was named to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Tennessee in 1988. She also was the first Black woman to serve as a federal judge in the state after she was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee by former President Bill Clinton in 1995. She now practices at Burch, Porter & Johnson. Tannera Gibson — Memphis’ city attorney and chief legal officer and attorney at Burch, Porter & Johnson — spoke about the path Donald has set for Black women, saying, “Walking a path like this one, to have someone like you blaze the trail ... you’ve always done it with such grace, such even temperament in a way that I strive [for].” The Daily Memphian has the story.