Justices to be honored with portraits – Houston Chronicle: www.chron.com/news/article/Justices-to-be-honored-…4.php
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Portraits of four former Supreme Court justices are to be unveiled Sept. 1 at the Carroll Gartin Justice Building in Jackson.
The portraits are of former chief Justice Lenore L. Prather of Columbus, former Presiding Justice Fred L. Banks Jr. of Jackson, former Justice Reuben V. Anderson of Jackson, and the late former Justice William Campbell McLean of Grenada.
Prather, Banks and Anderson are expected to attend the ceremony.
The former justices and members of their families presented the portraits to the Supreme Court earlier this year. The portraits were put on display shortly before the May 20 dedication ceremony for completion of the Gartin Building.
The portrait ceremony was scheduled for later so the Supreme Court could publicly acknowledge the additions to its gallery of portraits of former justices.
Among speakers are Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. of Jackson and Mississippi Bar President Hugh D. Keating of Gulfport.
"Each of these justices made significant contributions to the advancement of justice, equality and the improvement of the legal system. We are delighted to be able to memorialize their careers of public service," Waller said in a statement.
Prather was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, and was the court’s first female chief justice. She began her judicial career as West Point municipal Judge in 1965. She served for 10 years as a chancery judge in Chickasaw, Clay, Lowndes, Noxubee, Oktibbeha and Webster counties. She was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1982. She served as chief justice from January 1998 to January 2001. She served as interim president of her alma mater, Mississippi University for Women, after she left the Court.
Anderson was the first African-American member of the Supreme Court, serving 1985-1991. He was the first African-American president of the Mississippi Bar, serving 1997-1998. He served as a Jackson Municipal Court judge 1976-1977, Hinds County Court judge 1977-1982, and as a circuit judge in Hinds and Yazoo counties, 1982-1985.
Banks was town attorney for the Town of Fayette 1970-75. He served in the Mississippi House of Representatives 1976-1985, chairing the House Ethics Committee, a Judiciary Committee and the Legislative Black Caucus. Banks twice followed Justice Anderson into judicial positions. He was appointed to the circuit judgeship vacated by Anderson in 1985, and was appointed in January 1991 to the Supreme Court position previously held by Anderson. Banks, the second African-American justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court, served until October 2001.
McLean served on the Supreme Court 100 years ago. He was appointed in 1911 and served through 1912. He was admitted to the bar in 1875 and spent most of his career in private law practice. In 1890, he was a delegate to the Mississippi Constitutional Convention. He died in 1928.
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