New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Acting Governor Tahesha Way have issued a joint statement on the passing of New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice James H. Coleman, Jr., who died recently.
“We are saddened by the passing of Associate Justice James H. Coleman, Jr., a lifelong trailblazer who served for nearly a decade as the first Black Justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court," they stated.
Justice Coleman was born in racially segregated Virginia to a sharecropper father. His life reflects both the history of inequality and the quest for progress in America. Despite growing up amid white supremacy, he served as a U.S. Army Reservist and earned degrees from two historically Black universities: Virginia State University and Howard University School of Law. He then moved to New Jersey, where he established his legal career in private practice and at the New Jersey Department of Labor. Coleman's judicial career included serving as a workers’ compensation judge and holding various judgeships, often as the first African American in those roles.
In 1994, Governor Christie Whitman nominated Coleman to the New Jersey Supreme Court. Upon Senate confirmation, he became an inspiration for many in New Jersey's communities of color by breaking new ground on the state's highest court. During his nine-year tenure on the court, he significantly influenced New Jersey's jurisprudence.
“Our prayers are with his wife Sophia Coleman, children Kairon and James, and his beloved grandchildren, as well as everyone who knew and loved him," Murphy and Way said in their statement. "New Jersey will be forever grateful for Justice Coleman’s extraordinary life.”
