courtroom to community

This article first appeared in the Winter 2005 edition of She Shines magazine. O. Rogeriee Thompson currently serves as a Circuit Judge for the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Appointed by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Judge Thompson is the first African-American and the second woman to serve on the First Circuit Court of Appeals. In order to avoid compromising her position on the bench, Judge Thompson respectfully declined our invitation to compose an opinion paper.

by Deborah L. Perry

On Wednesdays, Superior Court Associate Justice O. Rogeriee Thompson meets with lawyers in her chambers, hoping to settle cases. She listens, mediates, and tries to resolve as many as 25 civil cases in a single day. This process is intended to save litigants and taxpayers millions of dollars a year by eliminating the costs associated with lengthy, formal trails. It also frees up courtrooms and allows judges to concentrate on more serious civil and criminal cases. Thompson says without this process, it would be impossible for the system to handle its caseload efficiently. “If we did not settle, we could not try them all.”

Sitting with her arms folded, listening intently to lawyers arguing their perspectives, Thompson draws from her memory for many of the cases before her. She is thoughtful in her comments, and she says she takes a common-sense approach to the law.

“I encourage attorneys to analyze and weigh their case by determining the benefits versus the risks to their clients if the case is to go to trial.”

The rest of the week, Judge Thompson is in her Kent County courtroom adjacent to her chambers in the Leighton Judicial Complex on Quaker Lane in Warwick. She has served in three of the state’s four county jurisdictions. In Superior Court, felony proceedings and civil matters for suits of more than $10,000 are heard. The court hears appeals from district, local and probate courts. It also shares some jurisdiction with the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

When asked how she handles the pace of the court, Thompson is quick to reply that she enjoys her work, loves the legal system and has accomplished much.

Courting Change. Born in Greenville, S.C., Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson says she thought her future was predetermined and believed she would follow in her parents’ footsteps: She would remain in the South, attend a black college and become a schoolteacher.

In the 1950s and 60s, Greenville was a segregated community. Even after the 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, mandating the desegregation of public schools, Greenville, as much of the South, would not be in full compliance until well into the 1960s.

As a young teenager, Thompson spent her free time at what was called the “Black YWCA”. There, she learned of the summer studies program at Knoxville College in Tennessee.

During this six-week program, she was offered an opportunity to attend high school in Scarsdale, N.Y. Young Rogeriee knew she wanted to expose herself to more of the world because, she said, she knew there are limitations to segregation.” With her mother’s “trust and confidence” she headed north, only to discover that Scarsdale High School, like Greenville, lacked diversity.

At Scarsdale, she was one of two black students. For Thompson, it was culture shock. “I’d never been around white folks,” she said.

After graduating high school, Thompson headed to Brown University, where she majored in English. In 1973, she entered Boston University Law School during a time, she said, when the university was making an intensive effort to attract female law students. One third of her class was female, Thompson said. Only thirteen of her classmates where people of color, she said.

Pioneering Voice. In 1997, Thompson was appointed associate justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court by Governor Lincoln Almond. She is one of 21 associate justices and is the first African American woman appointed to the court, as she was nine years before, when she was appointed to District Court.

When asked about the state of the judicial system, Thompson says she is “surprised people are not in an uproar about the lack of diversity on the court. The system should represent all the people.”

On the topic of race and the legal system, Thompson has always been forthright.

“I look to my right and see a white clerk and white sheriffs. I am the only person of color in the entire courtroom – until they open the cell block and bring in fourteen people in chains and manacles. Thirteen of them are black,” Thompson said during a speech at Brown in 1999, according to the university’s alumni magazine.

Part of the Whole. When not in the courtroom, Thompson prioritizes community involvement. She serves on the Nellie Mae Education Foundation’s grants, policy and audits committees, and on the boards of directors of the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, where she is co-chairwoman, the Children’s Crusade, where she is chairwoman, and the YMCA, among other volunteer efforts. She is a trustee emeritus at Brown, and at Bryant University.

Thompson is married to District Court Judge William C. Clifton. They have three grown children.

When asked what she feels is the key to success, Thompson says “Have goals, common sense, wishes, and stay focused. And always remember you are part of greater society.”