James E. Graves Jr. began working at Central Mississippi Legal Services in 1980, the same year he started teaching at Jackson State University. He went on to teach media law, civil-rights law and the sociology of law at Tougaloo College, Millsaps College and Jackson State, and he has taught trial advocacy at Harvard Law School since 1998. His work combined representing clients, teaching students and, eventually, deciding cases.
Graves was born in Clinton, Mississippi, in 1953. He graduated from Millsaps College in 1975 and worked in the state's Department of Public Welfare before earning a master's in public administration from Syracuse University's Maxwell School and a law degree from Syracuse.
After three years in private practice, he returned to public service as legal counsel in the attorney general's Health Law Division and Human Services Division, later serving as special assistant attorney general and director of the state's Division of Child Support Enforcement. In 1991, he was appointed a Hinds County circuit court judge. He was appointed to the Mississippi Supreme Court in 2001, where he rose to presiding justice; at the time of his federal nomination he was the only African American serving on that court. He has also served as jurist-in-residence at Syracuse University's law school and chaired the state supreme court's rules committee on criminal practice and procedure.
On June 10, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Graves to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the appeals court covering Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. "Throughout his career James E. Graves has shown unwavering integrity and an outstanding commitment to public service," Obama said. Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican, also supported the nomination, and civil-rights organizations backed him as well. The Senate confirmed him in 2011, making him the first African American judge from Mississippi ever to serve on that court.
His civic work has included boards such as the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts, the Mississippi Children's Museum, the Jackson Urban League and Operation Shoestring. His honors include the National Conference of Black Lawyers' Judge of the Year award and an honorary doctorate from Millsaps.
