TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Former Florida Supreme Court Justice Joseph W. Hatchett, the state's first Black justice, died Friday, according to a news release from the court.
He was 88.
Hatchett was appointed to serve on Florida's highest court in 1975 by Gov. Reubin Askew. President Jimmy Carter would go on to name Hatchett to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1979 when, at the time, he would become the first Black judge to serve in a federal circuit in the Deep South.
He retired in 1999 to return to private practice in Tallahassee.
Hatchett was born in 1932, grew up in Clearwater and attended Pinellas High School. Following graduation from Florida A&M University in 1954, he served as a lieutenant in the Army. Hatchett earned a law degree from Howard University School of Law in 1959.
"He took the Florida Bar Exam in 1959 at a time when black examinees could not stay in the hotel where the test was administered because of Jim Crow regulations still in effect," the state supreme court said.
Hatchett went into private law in Daytona Beach before being appointed assistant United States attorney for the Middle District of Florida in 1966. In 1967, he was designated first assistant United States attorney and in 1971, he would be appointed United States magistrate for the Middle District of Florida, according to the courts.
Hatchett was preceded in death by his wife, Betty. He had two children and several grandchildren.
More information about Hatchett, including funeral services when available, is on the Florida Supreme Court website.
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