Skip to Main Content
  • News
  • Celebrating Black History Month with Justice Neville

Celebrating Black History Month with Justice Neville | State of Illinois Office of the Illinois Courts

Celebrating Black History Month with Justice Neville

2/21/2024

Portrait of Supreme Court Justice Neville


This February, Illinois Courts is recognizing diverse voices in the judiciary to uplift and inspire others in the community. The following features Illinois Supreme Court Justice P. Scott Neville, Jr. and his thoughts on Black History Month, diversity, and more.

When did you know you wanted to pursue law, and eventually, become a judge?

My father was an attorney so the Civil Rights Movement was always an important topic discussed at the dinner table. During our dinner discussions, usually on Sundays, my father discussed with his children (I have one brother and four sisters) topics such as (a) Emmett Till's lynching and the trial exonerating Till's alleged attackers; (b) Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a city bus; (c) the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which marked the beginning of the modern Civil Rights movement; and (d) Dr. Martin Luther King, a Civil Rights leader and Nobel Prize winner, whose sermons I listened to with my father on the radio on a program called Chicago's Sunday Evening Club.

With my father as a role model, although he died when I was 13 years old, with my mother and grandmother encouraging me to follow in my father's footsteps, with the family discussions about civil rights, and with my knowledge of Black history and the Black man's fight for equal rights, I felt I had a duty to become a lawyer so I could get on the battlefield to fight for the rights of Black and Brown poor people. Finally, I thought becoming a judge would help me insure that all citizens received equal justice under law.

For the first time in the state's history, three African American justices currently sit on the Illinois Supreme Court. What does it mean for you to sit on this bench?

I do note that there are three African Americans on the Supreme Court, but I also note that there are five women on the Supreme Court. The Illinois Constitution provides that four votes are necessary for the court to make a decision. However, I am more interested in the other justices' judicial philosophies and how their philosophies align with my judicial philosophy, and I am less interested in the other justices race or gender.

What do you think about when you hear "Black History Month?"

I think about Dr. Carter Woodson, the Black Scholar whose work inaugurated Black History week and who is referred to as the father of Black History Month. Educating people about Black History today is even more important because of current attempts to ignore the contributions of Black Americans: See Exhibit A, the list of inventions by Black Americans. Finally, Black History is important because Dr. Woodson said,

"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him where to stand here or go yonder. He will find his proper place and will stay in it. The mere imparting of information is not education. "

Throughout your life, what role models have you looked up to?

The role models that I have looked up to, beginning with my father, mother and grandmother, were three wise men: Justice Charles Freeman, Justice Glenn Johnson and Justice R. Eugene Pincham. Without the interaction I had with these three wise men during the course of my legal career, I would not be sitting on the Illinois Supreme Court.

 Why do you think it's important to recognize Black History, not just this month, but every day?

Black History month must be recognized every day because this country is going through another reconstruction: a period of limiting and restricting constitutional rights.

The United States Supreme Court limited the voting rights of citizens when it struck down as unconstitutional the protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. § 10101 et seq. (2012)). Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529, 556-57 (2013). The Court recently overruled Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), and restricted the rights of women by holding that the federal constitution does not provide women with a right to abortion. See Dobbs v. Jackson Women/s Health Organization, 597 U.S., 142 S. Ct. 2228 (2022). One Supreme Court justice has recommended revisiting the constitutionality of the following established rights: (1) a citizen's right to use contraceptives (Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965)); (2) the right of same-sex couples to marry (Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015)); and (3) the right of same-sex couples to have sexual relations in the privacy of their homes (see Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003)). See Dobbs, 597 U.S. at _, 142 S. Ct. at 2301 (Thomas, J., concurring). Citizens must be mindful of the limitations being placed on their constitutional rights.

Voting is one right that Black people have used to gain political power. It is because people in Illinois have a right to vote for judges that I am sitting on the Illinois Supreme Court. Finally, Black History is important because if Black people and the American people don't know their history, Americans are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Top 101 Black inventors & African American's Best invention Ideas than changed the World.

  1. Thomas L. Jennings (1791 - 1856) - Dry scouring
  2. Judy Reed (1826 - 1905) - Dough kneader and roller
  3. Benjamin Banneker (1731 -1806) - Striking wail clock and almanacs
  4. James Forten (1766 -1842) - Ship sails handle
  5. George Peake (1722 - 1827) - Hand mill for grinding corn
  6. Andrew J. Beard (1849 -1921)- Jenny coupler
  7. Henry Blair (1807 -1860)- Corn seed planter
  8. Hugh M. Browne (1851 - 1923) - Sewer Backflow Preventer
  9. George Washington Carver (1864 - 1943) - Crop rotation techniques
  10.  Shelby Davidson (1868 - 1930) - Paper rewinding device
  11.  Lewis Latimer (1848 -1928)-Carbon filament for light bulb
  12.  Jan Ernst Matzeiiger (1852 - 1889) - Shoe lasting machine
  13.  George Washington Murray (1853 - 1926) - Furrow opener
  14.  John Parker (1827 -1900) -Tobacco press
  15.  Norbert Rillieux (1806 -1894) - Vacuum evaporator for sugar refinery
  16.  Samuel Scottron (1843 -1905) - Dual-adjustable mirror for barbershop
  17.  Lewis Temple (1800 -1854) -Whaling harpoon
  18.  Sarah Breedlove Walker (1867 -1919)- Hotcomb and pomade
  19.  Granville T. Woods (1856 -1910) - Telegraphony and synchronous multiplex railway telegraph
  20.  Elijah McCoy (1844 - 1929) - Lubricating cup for trains
  21.  William Harry Barnes (1887 - 1945) - Hypophyscope
  22.  Leonidas Berry - Eder-Palmer biopsy gastroscope
  23.  Billy Blanks (1955 - present) - Tae Bo fitness program
  24.  Bessie Blount Griffin (1914 - 2009) - Portable receptacle support
  25.  Otis Boykin (1920 -1982) - Electronic resistors for guided missiles
  26.  George Carruthers (1939 - 2020) - Far ultraviolet camera and spectrograph
  27.  Michael Croslin (1933 - 1989) - Blood and pulse monitoring device
  28.  Meredith Charles Gourdine (1929 - 1998) - Electradyne spray gun and incineraid
  29.  Walter Lincoln Hawkins (1911-1992) - Weather-resistant cable coating
  30.  Elmer Samuel Imes - Spectrometers
  31.  Lonnie Johnson (1949 - present) - Super soaker
  32.  Frederick McKinley Jones (1893 -1961) - Roof-mounted refrigeration for vehicle
  33.  Marjorie Stewart Joyner (1896 - 1994) - Permanent hair-waving machine
  34.  Percy Lavon Julian (1899 - 1975) - Aero-foam
  35.  John King (1925 - 2000) - Sonic transducer
  36.  Garrett Morgan (1877 -1963) - Gas mask and traffic signal
  37.  James Parsons Jr. (1900 -1989) - Iron alloy
  38.  Edwin Roberts Russell (1913 - 1996) - Separation of plutonium from uranium
  39.  Earl Shaw (1937 -present) - Laser beam power adjustment
  40.  Dox Thrash (1896 -1965) - Carborundum
  41.  Moses Fleetwood ("Fleet") Walker (1856 - 1924) - Artillery shell
  42.  Sarah Boone (1847 - 1904) - Improved ironing board
  43.  Mary Van Brittan Brown (1922 - 1999) - Home Camera Security System
  44.  Alexander Miles - Automatic elevator doors
  45.  James E. West (1931 - present) - Electretmicrophone
  46.  Mark Dean (1956 - present) - Color monitor, Gigahertz chip, IBMPC
  47.  Patricia Bath (1942 - 2019) - Cataract Laserphaco probe
  48.  Benjamin Boardley (1830 -1904) - Steam engine for ships
  49.  Henry Brown (1800s) - Safe deposit box
  50.  Aifred L. Cralle (1866 - 1920) - Ice cream scoop
  51.  Mary Jones Deleon (1838-1914)- Steam table
  52.  Ellen Eglin (1836 - 1916) - Improved clothes ringer
  53.  Sarah E. Goode (1855 - 1905)- Folding cabinet bed
  54.  George Franklin Grant (1846 - 1910) - Golf tee
  55.  Lloyd Hall (1894 - 1971) - Vitamin concentrate, antioxidant salt, and asphalt emulsion
  56.  Betty Wright Harris (1940 - present) -TATB spot test
  57.  Benjamin Montgomery (1819 - 1877) - Shallow water steam propeller
  58.  Lyda Newman (1885 - unknown) - Synthetic hairbrush
  59.  Valerie Thomas (1943 - present) - Illusion transmitter
  60.  Joseph R. Winters (1824 - 1916)- Fire escape ladder
  61.  George Crum (1824-1914)- Potato chips
  62.  George Alcorn (1940 - present) - X-ray spectrometer
  63.  Charles Drew (1904-1950) - Blood banks
  64.  Jane C. Wright (1919 - 2013) - Cancer treatment
  65.  Janet Emerson Bashen - Linkline software
  66.  Leonard C. Bailey (1825 - 1918) - Truss-and-bandage
  67.  Alice Augusta Ball (1892 -1916) - Leprosy treatment injection
  68.  Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner (1912 - 2006) - Sanitary belt
  69.  Marian Croak (1955 - present) - VoIP technology
  70.  Henry T. Sampson (1934 -2015) - Gamma-electric cell
  71.  David N. Crosthwait (1898 -1976)- Heating systems
  72.  Charles Brooks (1800s) - Street sweeper
  73.  Jack Johnson (1878 - 1946) - Wrench
  74.  Joseph Lee (1848 -1908)- Bread crumb machine
  75.  Lloyd Ray (1860 - 1940) - Dustpan
  76.  Joseph Dickinson (1855 - 1936) - Roller mechanism for sheet music
  77.  Matthew Cherry (1800s) - Street car fender
  78.  Miriam E. Benjamin (1861 - 1947) - Gong and signal chair
  79.  Richard Bowie Spikes (1878 -1965) -Automatic safety brake
  80.  Robert Pelham (1859 - 1943) - Improved tallying machine and pasting apparatus
  81.  Thomas Mensah (1950 - present)- Improved fiber optics manufacturing
  82.  Thomas Stewart (1823 - 1890) - Mop
  83.  Thomas Elkins (1818 - 1900)- Refrigeration
  84.  Willis Johnson (1947 - present) - Rotary egg beater
  85.  John Lee Love (1889 -1931) - Portable pencil sharpener
  86.  Henry Falkener (1924-1981)- Ventilated shoes
  87.  Albert C. Richardson (1868 - 1932) - Casket lowering device
  88.  Daniel Mccree (1800s) - Wooden portable fire escape
  89.  Benjamin Thornton (1800s) - Voice message recorder
  90.  David A. Fisher, Jr. (1800s) - Improved joiner clamps and furniture caster
  91.  Edward R. Lewis (1800s)- Spring gun
  92.  Joseph Hawkins (1800s) - Improved gridiron
  93.  Alexander P. Ashbourne (1820-1915)-A method for refining coconut oil
  94.  William Binga (1800s) -Apparatus for street sprinkling system
  95.  James A. Sweeting (1800s) - Mechanical cigarette roller
  96.  Robert R. Reynolds (1800s) - Design for non-refillable bottle caps
  97.  William B. Purvis (1838 - 1914) - Improved fountain pen
  98.  Kerrie Holley (1954 - present) - Mobile device finder system  
  99.  John White (1857 - 1937)- Lemon squeezer
  100.    Washington Martin (1800s) - Lock
  101.    Henrietta M. Bradberry (1903 -1979)- Bedrack for airing out clothes

See More News Posts