Kathy Castor: “I thank the gentlemen for yielding time, and I thank my colleague and friend from Florida as well. Madam Speaker, I rise…”

“I thank the gentlemen for yielding time, and I thank my colleague and friend from Florida as well. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of S. 2938 to name the Federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida, for Judge Joseph Woodrow Hatchett. It is so appropriate for us to honor his life and legacy by naming the Federal courthouse in Florida's capital city for Judge Hatchett as he was a champion for fairness and justice. He did have a hardscrabble background, being born to a maid and a fruit picker in the Tampa Bay area. He grew up in Pinellas County, but he was the pride of his family and his community through his graduation from Florida A&M University and with a law degree from Howard University. He served in the Army. He was one of the first African-American Federal prosecutors--I believe the first in the Middle District of Florida. He was a Federal magistrate and served with distinction. Then he was tapped as the first African-American supreme court justice in the history of the State of Florida, and then on the circuit court of appeals, where he then served as chief judge. Here is how various commentators, former clerks, and colleagues describe Judge Hatchett: he was unbelievably smart, he was a pioneer, a man of utmost integrity, a fine and decent judge who stood for racial justice and fairness, and a lifetime of work for ethics in government and justice in the courts.…”