The state's first African-American Supreme Court justice has died. He was 91.
James H. Coleman Jr. was "a towering figure in our state's history," Attorney General Matthew Platkin said.
Coleman was born to a sharecropper during the Great Depression, near Lawrenceville, Va., on May 4, 1933, delivered on the family's kitchen table with his paternal grandmother — who was born into slavery — acting as midwife.
Coleman shared his history and work in a 10-part video series produced by the N.J. Judiciary in 2017.
He talked about the racism he encountered and the obstacles he overcame.
At that time, Coleman also said he had two quotes that were important to his journey.
"Heaven is not reached at a single bound but we build the ladder by which we rise from the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, and we mount to its summit round by round," he said quoting Josiah Gilbert Holland.
The other was by Booker T. Washington: "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which they have overcome
"Justice Coleman was not just a legal giant but a beacon of fairness, integrity and perseverance," Platkin said.
Coleman was appointed to the state's top court in 1994, and retired in 2003.
"Throughout his career, he authored groundbreaking opinions that dismantled barriers of racial discrimination and championed the rights of all individuals under the law," Platkin said. "His legacy includes landmark rulings on jury selection and cross-racial identification, which continue to shape our legal landscape today. Our thoughts are with his family and all who had the privilege of knowing and working with him. Rest in peace, Justice Coleman. Your legacy will forever inspire us."
“Justice Coleman’s life story – the self-described son of a ‘southern dirt farmer’ and grandson of a slave, who grew up in the racial segregation era of Jim Crow – will continue to serve as an inspiration for generations to come," Chief Justice Stuart Rabner said. "He was without question a pioneer in New Jersey’s court system: the first African American to serve as a workers’ compensation judge, the first to serve as an appellate judge, and the first African American to serve on the state Supreme Court. "His legacy lives on through his work."
Coleman authored more than 2,000 opinions in his 39-year career/
"As Justice Coleman eloquently described in an essay after his retirement, he ‘looked for the opportunity in every difficulty rather than the difficulty in every opportunity,’" Rabner said. "In doing so, he marked a path that has helped create a fairer system of justice.”
Coleman was nominated Oct. 3, 1994, by then-Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, and sworn in by then-Chief Justice Robert N. Wilentz on Dec. 16, 1994.
At the time of his nomination, he was serving as a presiding judge of the Appellate Division of Superior Court.
His judicial career in May 1973, when he was appointed a judge of the Union County Court. He served in that capacity until December 1978, when he became a Superior Court judge.
In March 1981, he went to the Appellate Division, where he became presiding judge in May 1987.
He was a 1956 cum laude graduate of Virginia State University, and received his law degree in 1959 from Howard University School of Law, Washington, D.C.
He was admitted to the bar in 1957. Six years later, he was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.
He served in the U.S. Army Reserve and was discharged in February 1962.
Coleman and his wife, Sophia, were married in 1962. He is survived by his two children Kairon Mullins (Dr. John Mullins, Jr.) and James III, and four grandchildren, Amber, James IV, Sierra (Perry Meyers), and John IIIhad..
