While growing up, the girl who became Indiana's first African-American federal judge enjoyed certain advantages, she said.
Both of Tanya Walton Pratt's parents graduated from college. Her father, Charles Walton, was an attorney and state legislator. Her mother, Joan Blackshear Walton, taught kindergarten in the Indianapolis Public Schools district for 40 years.
Still, the Cathedral High School graduate had to rely on her own talents and hard work to achieve her historic designation.
"This is not a position that you can obtain without being qualified," she said.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Pratt on June 15, and President Barack Obama signed her commission. Her formal swearing-in to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana drew judges and politicians Friday to the Birch Bayh Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse.
"I still get goose bumps when I think about the fact that the president of the United States of America appointed me to my job," Pratt said.
Pratt, 51, succeeds Judge David Hamilton, recently elevated to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Several speakers at Pratt's swearing-in, however, found greater significance in the fact that Judge S. Hugh Dillin occupied Pratt's seat on the court before Hamilton.
Dillin, who died in 2006 at age 91, was best-known for ordering the desegregation of Indianapolis schools -- sending thousands of black students from Indianapolis Public Schools to township schools in the early 1980s -- and serving as a champion of equal opportunity.
"Judge Dillin would be so pleased having you as his successor," said Judge Sarah Evans Barker, one of Pratt's colleagues on the court. "Surely his spirit is in this place."
U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., also spoke.
"She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate 95-to-nothing, and the U.S. Senate doesn't do anything 95-to-nothing," said Bayh, who nominated Pratt for the position. "That might say as much about her qualifications as anything."
Though Pratt's parents were successful leaders in the community, she said in her remarks at the ceremony Friday, both were the grandchildren of slaves.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Saturday, October 9th 2010 at 5:15PM
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