Roderick L. Ireland (born December 3, 1944) served as the 36th Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, and was the first African American to serve that position. He was nominated for Chief Justice by Governor

Deval Patrick Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was the first African Americans, African-American Governor of Massachusetts and the first Democratic Pa ...

on November 4, 2010, and sworn in on December 20. He retired from service on the court on July 25, 2014.

Early life and education

Ireland was born on December 3, 1944, in

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

to Helen Garner Ireland, an elementary school teacher from

Spartanburg, South Carolina Spartanburg is a city in and the county seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city had a population of 38,732 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in South Carolina, 11th ...

, and George Lovelace Ireland, a house painter from Springfield. He grew up on Terrence Street in the Old Hill neighborhood, and attended Springfield public schools – The William N. DeBerry Elementary School, Buckingham Junior High School, and Classical High School. He received his B.A. from Lincoln University, the first degree-granting HBCU in the nation (1966); J.D. from Columbia Law School (1969); LL.M. from Harvard Law School (1975); and Ph.D. in Law, Policy and Society from Northeastern University (1998).

Roxbury Defenders Committee

In 1971, alongside Wallace Sherwood, Ireland formed the Roxbury Defenders Committee (also known as the Roxbury Defenders).

Judicial career

In 1977, Ireland was nominated to the Boston Juvenile Court, and in 1990, to the Massachusetts Court of Appeals. He was appointed to both courts by governor

Michael Dukakis Michael Stanley Dukakis ( ; born November 3, 1933) is an American politician and lawyer who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history and only the s ...

. In 1997, he was appointed Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court by Governor

William Weld William is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is ...

. He is the first African-American associate justice and also the

first First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. He resigned from the high court in 2014, and was replaced by Associate Justice

Ralph Gants Ralph D. Gants (September 29, 1954September 14, 2020) was an American attorney and jurist who served as the chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. He was sworn in on July 28, 2014. Gants had previously served as an Assistant U ...

. Ireland has served on the faculty of both

Northeastern University School of Law The Northeastern University School of Law is the law school of Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. History Northeastern University School of Law was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in 1898 as the f ...

and Northeastern University's College of Criminal Justice. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at Northeastern University.

Personal life

Ireland is married to Alice Alexander. The now adult children from their previous marriages are Elizabeth and Michael (Ireland's daughter and son), and Melanee (Alexander's daughter). Ireland is a member of the Elliot Congregational Church in

Roxbury, Massachusetts Roxbury () is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Roxbury is a Municipal annexation in the United States, dissolved municipality and one of 23 official neighborhoods of Boston used by the city for ne ...

Honors

Renamings

In 2015, the city of

renamed the street Ireland grew up on, Terence Street, to Chief Justice Roderick L. Ireland Way in honor of Ireland. In 2017, the Hampden County Hall of Justice was renamed the Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse in honor of Ireland.

Honorary Degrees

Ireland has received honorary degrees from

Excelsior College Excelsior University is a private online university in Albany, New York. It offers undergraduate and graduate degrees and comprises three schools: the school of undergraduate studies, the school of graduate studies, and the school of nursing ...

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a Public university, public US-based research university. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Ma ...

Books

He is the author of ''Massachusetts Juvenile Law,'' a volume of the Massachusetts Practice Series.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ireland, Roderick L. 1944 births Living people 21st-century African-American lawyers 20th-century African-American lawyers African-American judges Chief justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Columbia Law School alumni Harvard Law School alumni Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) alumni Northeastern University alumni Judges from Springfield, Massachusetts