By Associated Press - Saturday, February 23, 2019

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson is to be honored in March at the 2019 Mid-Year Conference of the National Bar Association.

The state’s highest court said in a Thursday news release that Johnson is slated to receive the association’s Gertrude E. Rush Award on March 9 in Dallas.

The award is named for the first African-American woman admitted to the practice of law in Iowa in 1918.



Johnson is the first African-American to serve as chief justice in Louisiana. She was elected to the Supreme Court in 1994. She became chief justice in 2013.

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