AUSTIN, Texas — Travis County commissioners are set to honor the late Judge Harriet Mitchell Murphy during their meeting on Tuesday morning.
Murphy was the first Black woman to serve as a regular judge in Texas history.
According to a recent City of Austin proclamation declaring Jan. 27, 2024, as "Judge Harriet Mitchell Murphy Day," Murphy was born in Atlanta, where she first began her civil rights work as a high school and college student by participating in boycotts of segregated establishments.
She then came to Austin to head the Government Department at Huston-Tillotson University before entering the University of Texas Law School in 1966.
Murphy passed the bar and practiced law for eight years before she was appointed as an Austin municipal judge in 1973, making history.
In a "Watson Wire" newsletter sent on Feb. 1, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson called Murphy "a legend who embodied perseverance and strength."
"We first met when I was a very young lawyer. Getting to know her, be around her, and listen to her was a blessing and an incredible learning experience," Watson wrote. "I came away from those interactions with a deep feeling of respect and admiration for who she was and all she had achieved."
Murphy died on Jan. 17 at age 96.