Anna Diggs Taylor made history in 1979 when she became the first African-American woman to serve as a federal judge.

On November 15th, 1979, a milestone was achieved in the United States. On this day, Anna Diggs Taylor became the first black woman to be appointed to the United States District Court as a federal judge for the Eastern District of Michigan. After being sworn in, the 46-year-old Washington D.C. native began her career as a civil rights advocate, later presiding over a number of high-profile cases.

Taylor was a graduate of Barnard College and Yale Law School, working as a staff attorney for the city during the 1970's. In 1984, she sentenced Ronald Ebens for his fatal beating of 27-year-old Chinese American Vincent Chin. Later, in 2006, Taylor issued an order to halt the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program after the September 11th, 2001 attacks.

In 1996, Taylor made history once again when she was appointed as the first black woman Chief Judge for Michigan’s Eastern District. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel remembered Taylor in a tweet from February 13th, 2023, saying, “She paved the way for many others behind her.” The Eastern District of Michigan saluted Taylor for her work in defending civil rights workers who were jailed for registering Blacks to vote. Taylor and her team faced angry racists during a 1964 mission. She later said, “We were afraid we were going to be killed.”

Taylor was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from Marygrove College in 2001 and recognized with the Wolverine Bar Association’s Bench-Bar Award of 1990, the Sojourner Truth Award of the National Negro Business and Professional Women of 1986, and the 1981 National Bar Association Women Lawyer’s Division Award. She was also involved in a number of organizations, such as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Receiving Hospital, the Henry Ford Hospital System, the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan and Community Foundation of Michigan.

Taylor married Michigan congressman Charles Diggs Jr. in 1960, and had two children with him before they separated in the 1970s. Her legacy lives on, as she was the trailblazer for many to come. The Eastern District of Michigan released their statement on November 17th, 2017, the day Taylor died in Grosse Pointe Woods. Court employees remembered the retired 84-year-old for her service in the judicial system, calling her “an all-around beautiful person” and noting that she was “gracious and kind, but not in a way that allowed herself to be diminished by people because she was a woman or a minority.” Her contribution to the judicial system was nothing short of remarkable.

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