By D. Kevin McNeir
Special to the AFRO
The Bar Association of the District of Columbia (BADC) and the BADC Foundation continue to embrace diversity and pay tribute to unsung leaders within the District’s legal profession as illustrated.
BADC held the 153rd Annual Leadership Awards Banquet on Dec. 7 The black-tie gala took place in the Presidential Ballroom of the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C. with BADC president Rawle Andrews Jr., Esq. presiding over the event.
“We are honored to recognize and celebrate the 2024 honorees of the BADC’s 153rd Annual Awards Banquet,” Andrews said in a statement. “The purpose of the BADC Honors is to recognize judges, attorneys and community leaders who have distinguished themselves by and through their commitment to the rule of law, civility across the Bench and Bar, and equal access to justice. This year’s honorees are legends, shining stars, or servant leaders within our legal profession and the Washington metropolitan community who have demonstrated professional excellence, integrity, agility and resilience.”
BADC, founded May 23, 1872, represents the first bar association in the District and is the third oldest bar association in the U.S. Andrews, who bears the distinction as the organization’s only living two-term president, noted that BADC has come a long way since its formative years when its membership was limited to Whites.
“We must continue to teach future generations the history of Washington, D.C. and the BADC which didn’t allow integration within its ranks until 1958 – four years after the historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education,” Andrews said. “Just think – Thurgood Marshall and his colleagues, who successfully argued that historic case, were prohibited from becoming members of BADC during the time that they were breaking down the walls of segregation in America.”
He added that this year’s honorees, many of whose names may be unknown to some Americans, truly deserve being recognized as trailblazers and living legends.
“We’re talking about soldiers and servants within the legal profession,” he said. “Students of history need to know and should never forget,” he said.
“The awards committee recognized a group of African-American attorneys and judges who have served with distinction and have earned the respect of their colleagues, race notwithstanding.
Elaine R. Jones, Esq., 80, who learned the lessons of Jim Crow during her formative years in Norfolk, Va., received the Honorable Annice M. Wagner Pioneer Award during the gala event,” said Andrews, noting that Jones followed in the “footsteps of the Honorable Thurgood Marshall.”
“She joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1970 and in 1993, became the organization’s first female director-counsel and president,” said Andrews. “After graduating from Howard University with honors in 1965, she enrolled in the University of Virginia School of Law and was the first African-American woman to graduate from the School of Law.”
Those in attendance for the ceremony will forever remember the honor bestowed upon Jones.
“Elaine both understood and accepted the assignment time and time again throughout her storied career and when many said she didn’t have to, or need to– she did,” said Andrews. “She’s never played it safe and was even threatened more than once by the Ku Klux Klan. When a majority-White bar votes unanimously to honor an individual like Elaine Jones, it speaks volumes,” Andrews said.
Other honorees included: Hon. James E. Boasberg, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; Shirley Ann Higuchi, Esq., who will succeed Andrews as BADC president in June 2025 and become the first Asian American to assume the helm; Sanchita Bose, JD, MPH, Esq.; Hon. Pauline Newman, Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; David F. Grimaldi, Sr., Esq. (Posthumously); and R. Scott Oswald, Esq.
To learn more about BADC, visit www.badc.org.
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