For many schools around the country, homecoming is usually celebrated in the fall, typically in late September or early October. Harvard University got an early start this year when they welcomed one of their own back for a very special book discussion at the Sanders Theatre.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson returned to her alma mater to chat about her new memoir “Lovely One.” The book’s title comes from the English translation of Justice Jackson’s first name.
“Lovely One” covers her and the path that led to her ascension to America’s highest court.
After Justice Jackson’s reading of an excerpt from her book, Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean of Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute led the evening’s conversation. Before getting started Nagin encouraged the sold out crowd to listen to the audio book for some very special surprises.
“I want to say to members of the audience that the audiobook is a whole other experience. You can hear the Justice sing and recite poetry. I highly recommended it as a compliment to the hard copy of the book,” Brown-Nagin shared.
She then went on to ask Justice Jackson about her motivation for writing the book.
“I actually started a little over two years ago, not long after the confirmation hearings. I was actually really, really grateful just to get through that experience successfully. And I felt as though I really wanted to take the time to pay tribute to the people and the circumstances that I thought were really most responsible for that accomplishment,” Justice Jackson said.
That sense of gratitude was an overarching theme for the evening. The Supreme Court Justice shared heartwarming stories about her mother, father, husband, daughters and one story about her grandmother that she couldn’t wait to share with the Harvard audience.
“Can I tell the story about my grandmother? And so I get into Harvard from high school, and I’m so excited, but again, this is not on anybody’s radar screen, really, in my family. And I go to my grandmother, and I say, Grandma, grandma. I got into Harvard. I’m so excited. And she says, ‘Oh, sweetheart, Howard. How wonderful!’ I say, Grandma, I know I told you I wanted to go to D.C., but this is, this is Harvard. It’s in Massachusetts. It’s in Cambridge. And she said, ‘Oh, well, I guess Harvard is a wonderful school too,’” she shared.
