Delaware State University will feature Tamika Montgomery-Reeves – an associate justice on the Delaware Supreme Court and the first African American to serve on the state’s high court – as its keynote speaker during its May 7 Commencement Ceremony for its master’s degree and doctoral graduates at the Tubman/Laws Residential Hall Courtyard.
The Friday 10 a.m. Commencement will be open to only the graduates’ family members who have tickets to the ceremony. However, the Commencement will be video streamed at
In assuming her place of the State Supreme Court in January 2020, at age 38 Justice Montgomery-Reeves became the youngest jurist to sit on the First State’s high court. She is also only one of two African American females currently serving on a state Supreme Court in the country, joining Justice Adrienne C. Nelson of the Oregon Supreme Court, appointed in 2018.
She is the third African American female in the history of U.S. jurisprudence to serve on a state Supreme Court – the first, Myra C. Selby served on the Indiana State Supreme Court from 1995 until her retirement in 1999.
Justice Montgomery-Reeves grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, and later earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Mississippi and a law degree at the University of Georgia Law School. After practicing corporate governance and securities litigation law at the New York firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, she moved to Delaware in 2011 to join the Wilmington firm of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati.
She first broke Delaware’s judicial color line by being appointed vice-chancellor on Delaware’s Court of Chancery in 2015 – the first African-American and the second female to serve on that state’s equity court.
Dr. Harry L. Williams, President/CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and former president of Delaware State University (2010-2017) will be the keynote speaker for the five undergraduate Commencement Ceremonies to be held on campus on May 8.
