In this book, I tell you that my race has played a significant role in my personality and my personality. I start the book by talking about my family and especially my grandparents who moved from rural areas of Georgia during the time of legal segregation. The impact that it had on my parents’ lives in their lives really contributed to my own situation. My parents I think saw it as an opportunity. If they didn’t have anything to do, I could handle things on my own. So they encouraged me to participate and take full advantage of the freedoms that African Americans had gained. A lot of this book is very personal and you have talked about your family. Your husband and your two daughters. You also mentioned for the first time that your eldest daughter is very much into Leah’s artistry. Yes, I should note that she consented to this, it was not written about in the book, but it struck me very much. You wrote that if I had the mindset to really accept what was happening to my child, I would have been able to do it. I probably would have quit my job to take care of her needs. Have you really thought about walking away from everything you dreamed for yourself and everything you achieved, absolutely. I mean when she was little, we were struggling. Really trying to understand what she needed, to help with education, other areas, but we didn’t have a diagnosis, we didn’t know she was autistic until seventh grade. So I kept thinking if I could just find the right school. If I could get her the right lessons, after-school program or the right one I could find.
That confusion was kind of what made me think that I should stay in my job while I’m still looking for another accommodation. I think if I had known earlier I probably would have just decided that I needed to take care of her. Now that I’m full-time, I really wanted to let people know that you can achieve success, you can do that. Which you’ve dreamed about, even though you have challenges in your family, you talk about being a working mom, it’s tough because of who you are, you said when it came to your law school going back to your job after your maternity leave. So it was like a nightmare, that was the reason you know I missed my child. Which was a tough thing emotionally. Going back into the workforce after taking maternity leave, to spend time with him workplaces at that time weren’t necessarily set up to accommodate working mothers. I had to figure out ways to pump my breast milk and then store it.
I’m in an environment that was actually set up for that. It would be so much better, where actually and then they were there was a feeling of not meeting expectations both at work and at home. You can’t be in two places at once. There were clearly expectations of me and my performance both at home and at my job. I felt very inadequate at that time. Girls tell you when they hear how hard it was for you to manage those things
I think Bear I’m proud that I didn’t go through that. Our family has been through it the way it has. I had a point in which my younger daughter decided she would support me for the Supreme Court.
I recently wrote a letter to President Abdul Al, you can bet it was you who waited for me. That really made me feel like I must have done something right, other women who have really reached out to you. For example Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg back in 2009 she told our colleague Joan Biskupic that even with her extensive experience and accolades she didn’t always feel like her male colleagues on the Court heard her voice. She said I would say something and I don’t think I’m confused, Speaker, everybody will not focus on that point until someone else says it. I wonder, I mean do you feel like you’ve been heard. Now in court because I am asserting myself. I have not had such an experience in court.