TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the flags at the County Courthouse in Leon County, City Hall of Tallahassee, and State Capitol to be flown at half-staff Monday to honor Justice Joseph W. Hatchett.
Hatchett was Florida's first Black justice.
Hatchett was raised in Clearwater and attended Pinellas High School.
"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 segregation regulations still in effect," the Florida Supreme Court explained.
He was appointed to the state Supreme Court by Gov. Reubin Askew in 1975. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter named him to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, where he became the first African American to serve on a federal circuit that covered the Deep South.
The 88-year-old trailblazer died on April 30 in Tallahassee.
Hatchett's funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Tallahassee, with a burial set for Monday in Dunedin.
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