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Former journalist at U.S. Supreme Court shares personal memories of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Beryl Anderson was the first African-American TV journalist in the U.S. Supreme Court Press Corp.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — To Beryl Anderson, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a role model and mentor.

“She said to me that change is incremental, it’s not going to happen overnight and here you have someone who spent a lifetime, a lifetime 87 years old, a lifetime taking those incremental steps to make a difference to change the world,” Anderson said.

Beryl Anderson is a former Ohio Deputy Secretary of State, a lawyer and the first African American to cover the Courts full time for national television and the first to be part of the U.S. Supreme Court Press Corp.

“I’m really just moved and know that not only has our nation lost a great, but a great jurist, and a sharp thinker and someone who was truly fearless in terms of being an advocate for change for women’s right but also impacted men in the nation as well,’ Anderson said.

She said as a legal journalist, someone covering the courts, she got to know Justice Ginsburg well.

“I got a chance to see her not just in action on the court, but also she brought with her to the court her commitment to fighting for women and women’s rights, but also an understanding that if women succeed, men do as well,” Anderson said.

Anderson remembers traveling with her crew to cover Justice Ginsburg back in the 90s.

“The thing that stands out in my mind is a trip to Brooklyn, her hometown, where shortly after she became Justice of the Supreme Court and all of Brooklyn seemed to be celebrating, her elementary school named the library after her and her high school had a moot courtroom and named that for her,” Anderson said.

Ginsburg was honored that day and Anderson had the opportunity to speak with her.

“She gave me the opportunity to ride in the car from the elementary school to the high school where I interviewed her and got a chance to know more about her; So I got to see a more personal side of her, the maternalistic side, the student because she was remising of when she was at the elementary school and the same thing at the high school,” Anderson said.

It was a day she will never forget.

“To see somebody who was not just this revered lawyer and justice but this person from a more human side where she was reaching out on a different level to people, and I could see her heart sing so to speak so that was just fascinating,” Anderson said.

She described Justice Ginsburg as very open, down-to-earth and giving.

“She made herself available, she saw that I was a young woman, who was a lawyer, was a journalist who was moving up in her career, and her fight for women as well as minorities and she knew I was the first African American to have that opportunity, so she understood that and there was a residence there between the two of us with regard to that and she said whenever I needed anything to let her know,” Anderson said.

Anderson said she feels that Justice Ginsburg stood and fought for what she believed in, always in respectful ways.

“She was able to forge bridges; I think that’s important because we’re not going to all agree on everything exactly the same, you find common ground and you move forward with that,” Anderson said.

The journalist and lawyer is now left with these memories as she mourns alongside many others in the nation over the loss of Ginsburg. She wants to leave the community with these words.

“To think about her life as an example and I realize that I am a part of that legacy’ Anderson said.

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