The Legacy of Joseph Woodrow Hatchett

By Cass Jacoby, RCS Reporter.  

Celebrating the achievements of first Black Supreme Court appointee. 

Joseph Woodrow Hatchett passed away on April 30, 2021 at age 88. He was the first Black person appointed to the Supreme Court since reconstruction, serving from 1975-1979. Hatchett was also the first Black person ever elected to public office in a statewide election in the South.  

The Miami Herald reports that Hatchett grew up in Clearwater, Florida during a time of heavy segregation. When he took the Florida Bar Exam in 1959, the hotel the test was administered in did not allow him to stay there because of Jim Crow regulations.  

The Florida Bar recognizes him as “the first African American to serve in a federal circuit that covered the Deep South at the time.” And in January, Hatchett received the Florida Supreme Court Historical Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award. 

He graduated from Florida A&M University in 1954 and Howard University School of Law in 1959. By 1975 Hatchett was appointed to Florida’s highest court by Governor Reubin Askew. The Tallahassee Democrat reports that 1979 was when President Jimmy Carter named Hatchett to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.  

He retired by 1999 but continued to work with the NAACP as “lead attorney in the fight to preserve statewide preference programs for minorities and women in Florida,” the Miami Herald reports.   

Attorney H.T. Smith, the founding director of the Trial Advocacy Program at Florida International University College of Law told the Tampa Bay Times, “His whole philosophy was that group of Black lawyers in Florida in the 1960s and 1970s, we had a responsibility to open the vaults of opportunity for ourselves and for people coming behind us.” 

Today, the path that Hatchett paved for Black lawyers and attorneys is walked by his grandson, Roscoe Green, a partner with Cotney Attorneys and Consultants and the head of their Construction Practice Group. 

“Anytime the going gets tough, I think about how Papa did it, and how my grandfather was able to navigate and become what he became,” Roscoe told WCTV. 

Roscoe’s legal practice has been dedicated to construction law, namely representing contractors from around the country. His law practice and career have been shaped and inspired by his grandfather.  

“He was the first African-American to win a statewide election in Florida, and appointed by President Carter to the 11th circuit. I would talk to him all the time and he would tell me about his meetings with President Carter. He literally learned how to practice law from Thurgood Marshall,” Roscoe said in a RoofersCoffeeShop podcast.  

“As sad as it was that he passed, it really opened my eyes to all the people he touched... I hope one day I can end my days in a similar fashion where I'm well-respected, treat people fairly and humbly and fight for equality and justice for all.” 

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