Copyright Anchorage Daily News
Tamara Maddox’s first impression of Pamela Scott Washington is still as clear as the day they met 30 years ago. Maddox, then 12 years old, was sitting nervously in an Anchorage courtroom with her brother, mother and stepfather as part of an adoption proceeding. Washington, the family’s attorney, walked into the courtroom with a big smile that put Maddox at ease. Maddox also remembered Washington’s fighting spirit that inspired confidence in both the case and the family’s fresh future together. “I just remember looking at her, and she was so kind and warm and gentle, but yet she had this like, fierceness about her where you just knew that everything was going to be OK,” Maddox said. A decade and a half later, Judge Pamela Washington was minted in the Alaska history books as the first Black woman to serve on the bench in the state. Former Gov. Sean Parnell appointed her to a judgeship in Anchorage District Court in 2010. Now retiring, Washington and her extraordinary career — marked by compassion just as much as historic accomplishment — were celebrated Thursday at The Equity Center in Anchorage. Dozens of friends, family and well-wishers packed the center to honor Washington and her work through nearly four decades in the legal community, and reflect on what her representation in the Alaska Court System has meant. Washington, 62, was born in New Orleans before moving to Alaska, where she graduated from Chugiak High School. That change — and how she navigated being new and different in an unfamiliar environment — has informed her work from the bench. “I recognize how people can feel isolated,” she said in an interview with the Daily News. “They can feel like it’s not for them — the very thing that’s for them, they can feel like it’s against them. And so I think I’ve been sensitive to that. So when people have come into my courtroom, I’m very respectful. “I want them to let them have their say, give them opportunities to say what they have to say. Because I think that’s one of the biggest complaints people have, is that they think we’re making decisions and we haven’t heard them.” In her speech at Thursday’s celebration, Washington described herself as an accidental lawyer. Washington graduated from Northern Arizona University with plans to go into broadcast journalism. But after a discussion with a colleague in California, she started considering law school. At first her family was skeptical, but her grandfather realized the potential impact she could have. She returned to school and graduated from Arizona State University with a law degree. “My grandfather inspired me completely,” she said. “I stayed in law school. I buckled down, and I’m grateful for the career I’ve had.” There were undeniable challenges for Washington, especially early in her career. During her speech Thursday, she recounted a story about being ignored by a prosecutor in a case where she was part of the defense team with fellow Black attorney Rex Butler. Butler, well aware of Washington’s simmering discontent about the slight, offered a piece of advice. “Pam, you’re gonna have to pace yourself,” she recalled Butler saying. “It’s going to be hard. People are going to be dismissive, and you’re not going to be able to fight about it. You’re going to have to work through it diplomatically. You’re going to have to educate them on who you are, what you stand for.” Washington said that speech changed her outlook and prompted her to advocate for herself and offer her unique perspective, including regarding the historical imbalances that minorities have often faced in the justice system. “I treat it like you don’t know what you don’t know,” she said. “And I’m always educating my colleagues. And that’s why I built these relationships. I can’t do what I do if I’m going to be bitter.” Part of what Washington did was educate and inspire future generations of lawyers and judges. That included Maddox, who followed in Washington’s footsteps and became an attorney. “From that first meeting, she became a symbol and a mentor for me,” Maddox said. “She just left me with this impression, ‘I can be a lawyer. I can pursue this career field and I can do it in a way where I’m really helping people and making a change in someone’s life, and do it with grace and humility and yet be very strong and compassionate and zealous for my for my clients.’ ” Washington also worked with students through mock trials, the “We the People” programs, Law Day events and in Anchorage Youth Court. Ashleigh Gaines, a family friend who participated in the Color of Justice program that Washington helped organize, said the experience inspired her interest in social justice and work with the NAACP. “She made a really big impact on me,” Gaines said. “She has always been a champion for the youth of this community.” Washington also earned the Alaska Supreme Court’s Community Service Award. Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Carney said Thursday that while Washington’s retirement is well-deserved, it will leave a significant hole. “I’m so happy to be here to share this with Pam, who has worked so hard for so long and so richly deserves this retirement,” Carney said. “But I’m also sad. I’m sad, personally and professionally, that she won’t be there anymore. I’m sad for the court system, because she has been such a great judge and she has been such a good ambassador for the court system.” While Washington is retiring from the court in Alaska, she won’t be kicking her feet up. In Boston earlier in October, Washington was sworn in as the new president of the National Association of Women Judges. Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Dana Fabe, who had also traveled to Boston for the event, said Thursday that Washington is already motivating the national association’s membership. “I’ve been a member of this organization for 37 years, and I’m not kidding, Pam gave the most inspiring speech upon becoming president,” she said. “A huge ballroom at the Hilton in Boston, the attendees, they were on their feet cheering.”
