Mississippi Getting First Black Woman Chief Federal Judge

GREENVILLE, Miss. (AP) — A Black woman, for the first time, will become a chief federal judge in Mississippi.

Court officials said in a news release Monday that U.S. District Judge Debra M. Brown will become the chief judge of the state’s northern judicial district during a ceremony Friday in Greenville.

She will receive the gavel from U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock, who remains on the federal bench but is ending a seven-year term in the top spot in the district.

Brown was nominated to the federal bench in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama. She will be the first Black woman to serve as a chief judge in either of the state’s two federal court districts.