Inez Smith-Reid

American judge (born 1937)

Elsie Inez Virginia Smith Reid (born April 7, 1937) is a former judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and former Corporation Counsel of the District of Columbia .

Reid was born in New Orleans and raised in Washington, D.C. , where she graduated from Dunbar High School . She began college at Howard University before graduating from Tufts University . After college, she joined her twin brother, George Bundy Smith , also a future judge, at Yale Law School , where they were the only two black students in their class. At Yale, Reid roomed with future delegate from D.C. Eleanor Holmes Norton and befriended Marian Wright Edelman .

After law school, Reid taught law in the newly independent Democratic Republic of the Congo and earned a Ph.D. at Columbia University . Unable to find work at law firms due to her race and gender, she took a series of teaching positions at Lehman College , Hunter College , Brooklyn College , and Barnard College . During the Carter administration , Reid moved to D.C. to work as Deputy General Counsel for Regulation Review at the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare and later as the first Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency . From 1983 to 1986, she served as Corporation Counsel for the District of Columbia , leaving to join the firm Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey .

In 1995, Reid was nominated by President Bill Clinton to become an associate judge on the D.C. Court of Appeals. At the time she retired from active status in 2011, she was the court's most prolific judge. After serving as a senior judge for six years, Reid retired on December 12, 2017.

Family and education

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Inez Smith and her twin brother George Bundy Smith were born in New Orleans, Louisiana , on April 7, 1937, to Reverend Sidney R. Smith, Sr. and Beatrice Bundy, who was a teacher. They also had an older brother, Sidney R. Smith, Jr.. Reid's mother moved her children to Washington, D.C. , in 1938 or 1939, when it was still segregated. The family was reunited with extended relatives, and they lived with their grandmother and great uncle in the Black community of Northeast DC . Reid recalled her upbringing in DC as defined by her nurturing community and revolving around church, school and family, with family at the center of everything. Though many of the Black communities in DC at the time were producing highly educated Black professionals, many could not find work because of the prevalence of racism. Many professionals that had received PhDs and Masters from prestigious universities would return to teach in segregated Black high schools such as Dunbar High School , Reid's alma mater. At Dunbar, Reid was surrounded with highly educated Black faculty and motivated students. She recalled that this created an electric culture where students were constantly reminded of those who achieved greatness before them despite the odds. Reid studied French beginning in elementary school and eventually became fluent, and took on Latin in high school as well.

When she graduated from high school, Reid studied at Howard University and then Tufts University , where she was exposed for the first time to students from different racial, ethnic and geographical backgrounds. When she started at Tufts as a sophomore, her intention was not to become a lawyer but rather gain a well-rounded education. Reid and her twin, who was studying at Yale, were majorly influenced by the 1954 major historic moment in American history for educational equity, Brown v Board of Education . Reid and her brother traveled to the Supreme Court in September 1958 to watch a decision related to Brown v Board, in which a case in Arkansas had been climbing the courts to prevent integration of schools in Little Rock. The case of Aaron v Cooper went to the supreme court, and Reid and her brother were able to witness Thurgood Marshall ’s argument and the historic decision that continued the implementation of Brown v Board in all states. Reid graduated magna cum laude from Tufts in 1962.

Reid's brother George had been studying at Yale University , and in their senior years the twins applied to attend Yale Law School together. Although Judge Reid received a scholarship to New York University Law School, George encouraged his sister to join him at Yale and "make a way out of no way" despite the financial burden. Judge Reid and her brother would go on to become the only two Black students in their class at Yale Law School, and were often mistaken for janitors and or the school's clerical staff by their white classmates. Despite these negative experiences, Reid remembered her time at Yale positively, with great professors and courses and the opportunity to forge new relationships, such as with future Dartmouth College president James O. Freedman and with her roommate at Yale Marian Wright Edelman who founded the Children's Defense Fund. While at Yale, Judge Reid and her brother George would found funding through their Yale professors to travel to Africa with Operations Crossroads Africa, which was a non-profit organization that helped young people spend a summer in Africa helping to construct schools and other necessary places in newly independent countries. Judge Reid recalls the summer in Guinea as incredibly impactful, especially because of

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