Ketanji Brown Jackson’s parents -Ellery Brown and Johnny Brown- are Miami natives.
They were raised in the Jim Crow South, attended segregated primary schools, before graduating from historically Black colleges and universities.
They settled in DC and both worked as public school teachers.
Her father, Johnny Brown, was a lawyer who ultimately became the chief attorney for the Miami-Dade County School Board; her mother, Ellery, served as school principal at New World School of the Arts.
“When I was born here in Washington, my parents were public school teachers, and to express both pride in their heritage and hope for the future, they gave me an African name; ‘Ketanji Onyika,’ which they were told means ‘lovely one,’” Jackson recalled in her opening statement.
“My parents taught me that, unlike the many barriers that they had had to face growing up, my path was clearer, such that if I worked hard and believed in myself, in America I could do anything or be anything I wanted to be.”
After Jackson was born, the family moved back to Miami so Johnny could get his law degree from University of Miami Law School.