Melissa Long: 20 Who Made a Difference in 2020

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball in 1947 -- it only has taken another 73 years to break the color barrier on the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

Now, Superior Court Judge Melissa Long who has served on the court since 2017, will make her way to the Supreme Court -- the last judge named.

She is the first person of color to serve on the high court. 

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Long earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia. She later received her J.D. from George Mason University. Long was deputy secretary of state for the Rhode Island Secretary of State at the time of her appointment. She previously worked as senior legal counsel for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation.

In 1747, Gideon Cornell was appointed to serve as first Rhode Island Chief Justice and four other justices were appointed — they were all white.

Since then, nearly 100 judges have been appointed to the court, or to serve as Chief Justice, over the past 277 years, and not a single justice of color has been appointed.

The high court has been the most segregated place in Rhode Island. Finally, we can take down the sign “whites only.”

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