February 9, 2004

Texas Bar Foundation

The Texas Bar Foundation awarded a $10,000 grant to Texas members of the National Association of Women Judges.  District Judge Susan Criss said that the grant will be used to produce a video for the "Color of Justice" project.  

Texas Young Lawyers awarded an additional grant of $2500 to The Galveston County Young Lawyers to help with the project.

The Color of Justice Project encourages minority junior high and high school students to consider the law and the judiciary as career goals.  The program involves minority judges and lawyers participating in panel discussions and interactive forums with minority students.

The video will feature minority attorneys and judges of both trial and appellate courts explaining how they achieved their career goals and encouraging minority students to further impact the color of justice in Texas.  Local bar associations will expand on this message by conducting programs that include personal interaction between minority students and local minority judges and attorneys.

The Color of Justice Program has been implemented in other states on a smaller scale.  Texas will be the first state to use a video presentation.  Texas is a big state with a large population.  Consequently Texas has a much higher population of minority school children than most states. 

Over 59 percent of Texas school children are considered to be minority students.  There are currently 1,160,825 minority children registered in grades six through twelve in Texas.

" There are over three thousand sitting judges in Texas," notes Criss.  " A profile of Texas appellate and trial judges conducted in 2002 revealed that less than 300 of those judges are from minority populations.  That disparity is even more dramatic if the visiting judge population is considered." 

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