Gabrielle Kirk McDonald facts for kids

Gabrielle Anne Kirk McDonald (born April 12, 1942) is an American lawyer and judge. She is known for her important work in international law and civil rights.

Until 2013, she served as an American Arbitrator on the Iran–United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague. This court helps settle money disagreements between the United States and Iran.

McDonald was also a United States federal judge in Texas. She was a judge for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). This court dealt with serious crimes committed during the wars in Yugoslavia. She was one of the first judges chosen for the ICTY. From 1997 to 1999, she was the president of the court. She was the only woman to hold this position since the court started in 1994.

As a lead judge, she oversaw the trial of Duško Tadić. This was the first international war crimes trial since the famous Nuremberg Trials after World War II.

Early Life and Education

Gabrielle McDonald was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota on April 12, 1942. Her parents were Frances Retta and James G. Kirk Jr.

Her mother, Frances, had big dreams of becoming an actress and writer. Her father worked on trains as a dining car waiter. Her parents divorced when Gabrielle was young.

Frances moved to New York City with Gabrielle and her brother. They lived in East Harlem. Frances worked as a secretary for newspapers and magazines. When Gabrielle was eight, they moved to Riverdale, Bronx.

McDonald remembers her mother standing up against unfair treatment. Once, a landlord wanted to evict them because her children were African-American. Her mother refused to leave. Frances was fair-skinned, so many people thought she was white.

McDonald also shared a story about a taxi driver. He apologized to her mother for a bad smell, saying an African-American person had been in the car before. Her mother taught her to speak up against such unfairness. McDonald learned early that "you just don't sit back quietly . . . you say something."

The family later moved to Teaneck, New Jersey. McDonald graduated from Teaneck High School in 1959. She was athletic and played field hockey. Her yearbook described her as one of the "nicest" and "most liked girls." She attended Boston University and Hunter College.

In 1963, McDonald decided to become a civil rights lawyer. She enrolled at Howard University School of Law. She earned a scholarship from the Ford Foundation. She also worked on the Howard Law Journal. She graduated at the top of her class with a law degree. At that time, there were very few African-American women lawyers in the country.

Career Highlights

Fighting for Civil Rights

After law school, McDonald joined the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New York. This group works to protect the rights of African Americans.

For three years, she traveled to Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. She helped people with issues like school desegregation, fair jobs, housing, and voting rights. She worked on early cases about job discrimination. These cases used a new law called Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1967, she won a big case against a company for unfair job rules. This was one of the first major wins under the new Civil Rights Act.

In 1969, she started her own law practice in Houston, Texas. She worked with her husband, Mark T. McDonald. They became known for taking on cases against large companies and unions that treated people unfairly because of their race. In 1976, they won a case for 400 black workers. The workers received $1.2 million in back pay. A lawyer who often worked against her said she was "the best in the South." She was one of the few African-American lawyers who regularly worked in federal courts in Texas.

Teaching Law

In 1970, McDonald also started teaching law. She taught at Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University. She taught many subjects, including how courts work and laws about job discrimination. She also taught at the University of Texas School of Law and St. Mary's University School of Law.

After leaving her judge position in 1988, she returned to teaching. She taught about civil procedures and American law at St. Mary's. Later, she taught at Thurgood Marshall School of Law again.

Becoming a Federal Judge

On February 27, 1979, President Jimmy Carter nominated McDonald to be a judge. She would serve on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The United States Senate approved her on May 10, 1979. She became a judge on May 11, 1979, at 37 years old.

She was the first African-American person to be a federal judge in Texas. She was also only the third African-American woman to become a federal judge in the United States. She left this job on August 14, 1988.

As a judge, McDonald handled many important cases. One case involved Vietnamese shrimpers and the Ku Klux Klan. The leader of the Klan tried to remove her from the case. He argued that her race would stop her from being fair. She refused to step down. She said that if her race disqualified her, she would have to step down from many cases. This would make it impossible to do her job. She told the defendant, "You are not entitled to a judge of your choosing but one who will be fair. And I will do that." Many people praised her for being fair and not letting her past civil rights work affect her judgment.

After leaving the federal court, McDonald worked for law firms. She also advised a company on human rights issues.

International Justice Work

In 2001, McDonald was asked to serve on another important court. This was the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal. She was one of three American arbitrators. An arbitrator is like a judge who helps solve disagreements. This court was set up in 1981. It helps settle claims by Americans for money or property taken by the Iranian government. McDonald is the only woman among the nine arbitrators on this panel.

Awards and Recognition

Gabrielle McDonald has received many awards for her work. These include:

• The National Bar Association's Equal Justice and Ronald Brown International Law Awards.
• The American Society of International Law's Goler T. Butcher Award for Human Rights.
• The American Bar Association's Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award.
• The Open Society Institute's first Women Groundbreakers in International Justice Award (2007).
• The 2008 Dorothy Height Lifetime Achievement Award.

She has also received honorary law degrees from several universities. These include Georgetown University Law Center, the University of Notre Dame, and Howard University. In 1999, she received the Leadership Award from the Central Eastern European Law Initiative. This ceremony was held at the United States Supreme Court.

See also

• List of African-American federal judges
• List of African-American jurists
• List of first women lawyers and judges in Texas

Sources

• Gabrielle Anne Kirk McDonald at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.