Jasiri Oronde: A true trailblazer Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam grew up in Washington, one of seven children in a poor family, and earned her law degree at Columbia University in 1977. After law school, she became a public defender in Brooklyn, representing people who could not afford lawyers, and then served as an assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State attorney general’s office. In one of her first cases, she won an anti-discrimination suit for more than 30 female New York City bus drivers who had been denied promotions. She was the first Black woman appointed to New York State’s highest court and the first Muslim woman judge in United States history. I pray we find out what really happened to our sister and that her family finds peace.
