She is the first African-American female federal judge in West Virginia's history.

One is a former assistant to Kenneth Starr, the other an African-American judge best known for a major ruling against affirmative action.

Two of them are sitting federal judges, both African-American, who were first nominated by President Clinton.

African-American judges, doctors and teachers have become commonplace on prime-time shows, which once limited blacks to playing maids and clowns.

Today will be racism day, and an African-American judge whose leniency he opposed will be used to stir the pot of resentment.

A legal scholar, author, historian and one of the most prominent African-American judges, he was 70.

Beaty would have been the first African-American judge on the Fourth Circuit.

When he became President in 1977, there were only two African-American judges on the Courts of Appeals.

Female African-American judges were no longer a novelty.

But several black legislators insisted that an African-American judge be appointed before a Hispanic.