First Black Female Appointed Federal District Judge in Virginia
(Photo: US District Court)
In a unanimous vote on Wednesday, the United States Senate confirmed Arenda L. Wright Allen of Norfolk to serve as a U.S. District Judge for the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia. Senator Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner, of Virginia, had recommended Wright Allen for the position.
She becomes the first African-American female federal district judge in the Commonwealth of Virginia. U.S. district courts are the trial courts of the federal court system. Before confirmation, Wright Allen was a federal public defender in Norfolk and had served as an assistant U.S. attorney between 1990 and 2005.
She also had been a member of the Navy JAG Corps for five years on active duty, then for 12 years served as a reservist. Wright Allen earned her law degree at historically Black North Carolina Central University in 1985 and her bachelor's degree from Kutztown State College.
(Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Image)
