McDonald, Gabrielle Kirk (1942–)
McDonald, Gabrielle Kirk (1942–)
African-American lawyer and judge. Born 1942 in St. Paul, Minnesota; raised in Manhattan and Teaneck, NJ; attended Boston University, 1959–61, and Hunter College, 1961–63; graduate of Howard University School of Law, 1966 (finishing 1st in her class).
Became staff lawyer for NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; nominated by President Jimmy Carter to serve on US Court for the Southern District of Texas (1979), the 1st African-American to be appointed in Texas and the 3rd African-American federal judge in US; resigned from the court (1988), to resume private practice and to teach at Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law and St. Mary's School of Law; elected to a judgeship on the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (1993); as chief judge, presided over the 1st full war crimes trial of the tribunal; reelected (1997), then was nominated and endorsed by the judges on the court to be president and presiding judge for next 2 years.