Tallahassee federal courthouse renamed after trailblazing FAMU grad

The federal courthouse in Tallahassee, was renamed on Friday in honor of the late Judge Joseph W. Hatchett, a1954 FAMU grad, a trailblazing jurist who was among the first African Americans appointed to the federal bench in the South.

In 1975, Justice Hatchett became the 65^th, and first Black, Justice on the Florida Supreme Court.  He served until 1979, when he was appointed to the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals by President Jimmy Carter, becoming the first black man appointed to a federal appeals court in the Deep South. 

He retired in 1999 and returned to private practice in Tallahassee. Hatchett passed away in 2021 at the age of 88. 

Former Congressman Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, sponsored the legislation to name the courthouse after Hatchett and the bill was signed into law by President Joseph Biden.