Vanzetta Penn McPherson devoted a 30-year career as a dedicated attorney and a federal magistrate judge to the passionate pursuit of equal justice for all.

Retirement ushered in her avocation now spanning over a decade, as a widely acclaimed columnist for The Montgomery Advertiser, writing bi-weekly commentary on public affairs with the same intellectual vigor, mastery of language, and analytical prowess that marked her legal career.

Judge McPherson graduated from the Laboratory School of Alabama State College in Montgomery Alabama in 1965. She is a 1969 graduate with honors from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She later attended Columbia University in New York City where she obtained both her master’s degree in Speech Pathology in 1971 and her law degree 1974.

In 1989, McPherson and a fellow lawyer founded and built Roots & Wings, a cultural bookstore that serves as a showcase for black history, art and literature. McPherson holds life memberships of the National Bar Association and the American Bar Association. McPherson also served on Alabama’s Federal Judicial Nominating Commission, the Eleventh Circuit Advisory Council, and several advisory committees to the Alabama Supreme Court; she is also a past president and vice president of the Alabama Lawyers Association, past president of the Montgomery Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and chair of the Family Law Section of the Alabama State Bar. Judge McPherson served as a magistrate judge for the Middle District of Alabama from 1992-2006.

McPherson has also received awards from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Women of Distinction, South Central Alabama Girl Scout Council, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Excerpted from The History Makers.org and Alabama African American History Website.