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It is a time of firsts for blacks and especially black women. From Mellody Gibson being one of a few black women in history to be vice chair of a Fortune 500 firm, to Stacey Abrams becoming America’s first Black woman to win a major party’s nomination for governor. Now is another first, Ronda Colvin-Leary, the first black judge ever elected in Gwinnett County, Georgia.
Raised in a small town in Alabama, Ronda is an alumna of Auburn University and obtained her law degree from Florida Coastal School of Law. She was admitted into the Georgia Bar in 2001 after which she started working for the Atlanta Municipal Court and the DeKalb County Solicitor General’s Office.
Ronda is the Solicitor for the city of Winder and also has a private law practice which focuses on Criminal Law, Contract law, Juvenile law and Personal Injury and where she is a managing partner.
“I’m just humbled that so many people believed in me,” Colvin-Leary told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And I think it’s significant also because I had the support of a lot of people, I had bipartisan support… I think why that means so much to me is that people looked past the race (of the candidates).”
The newly elected judge is a former Staff Attorney/Law Clerk, City of Atlanta Municipal Court, former Assistant Solicitor General, DeKalb County Solicitor General’s Office, and former part-time Adjunct Faculty, University of Phoenix, Atlanta, GA,
“This is a wonderful time in the history of Gwinnett County,” said Renita Hamilton Edmonson, the former President of the NAACP Gwinnett County Branch. “The significance of this event reflects the spirit of diversity, the melting of prejudices and welcomed change.”
