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DC block party celebrates Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic confirmation

A block party at 14th and S streets celebrated the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. (WTOP/Dick Uliano)

Neighbors from around D.C. came together Saturday for a block-party celebrating this week’s historic U.S. Senate confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.

The event, which assembled at 14th and S streets in Northwest, was billed as a Block Party and Mural Kick-Off by its organizers, which include the NAACP and the Alliance for Justice.

“I have nine grandkids, five girls and four boys,” said Queen Lucy Pearl Lucas, a District resident. “I’m doing this for my granddaughters so they know that, as they get older, they can be anything they want to be.”

People waved large signs, including some that read “Black Women are Supreme.” Parents brought their children to the rally, which featured a performance by the Howard University Showtime Marching Band, the Cheerleaders and the Ooh La La Dance Line.

“When I was in law school in the 1980s, never in a million years did I think that, in my lifetime, I would see a Black president, a Black vice president and a Black Supreme Court justice,” said attorney and D.C. resident Erie Sampson. “It’s real progress.”

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