Roosevelt High School students Ealaf Adam, Dairen Castro and Angelina Dang each grew up watching members of their families go through the legal process. They saw loved ones face language barriers and struggle to understand the law, find lawyers or fill out legal documents. Adam, 18, recalled attending immigration court hearings for her mother, a Sudanese refugee, while 16-year-old Dang said she interpreted legal advice for her parents, translating “big words” she didn’t even know from English to Vietnamese.
But an event on Tuesday at Drake University helped the three teens open their eyes — that maybe their personal experience could lead to a potential career in law.
Adam, Castro and Dang were among 30 students of color from Des Moines Public Schools invited to tour the university’s law school and legal clinic and hear from alumni and current law students about their journeys into the legal profession. Called the Color of Justice, the nearly daylong event was sponsored by the university and the National Association of Women Judges. District Judge Celene Gogerty and District Associate Judge Romonda Belcher, both of whom graduated from Drake, helped lead the event and moderate panel discussions.
Belcher, who made history by becoming Iowa’s first Black female judge, said the Color of Justice is an opportunity for young people to see individuals who look like them pursuing degrees or careers in various fields of law.
People of color are widely underrepresented in the legal profession, the American Bar Association (ABA) reported. In 2020, only 5% of lawyers were Black — a percentage that has remained the same for nearly a decade — and about 5% were Hispanic, according to the ABA. While 40% of the U.S. population are people of color, 18% of state high court justices are Black, Latino, Asian American, Native American or multiracial, the Brenna Center for Justice recently reported.
“This event really showed like these people are you and you are them,” said Adam, a…
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