From impoverished beginnings as the son of illiterate former sharecropper parents who were dirt farmers at the time of my birth in Brunswick County, Virginia, on the kitchen table of a farm house that had neither electricity nor plumbing, through my unprecedented ascension to the nation’s premier state highest court, the New Jersey Supreme Court, A Plowboy’s Judicial Coronation and the Intersection of Law and Religion, follows the remarkable life journey of the Honorable James H. Coleman, Jr., New Jersey’s first African American Associate Justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court. The book chronicles Coleman’s extraordinary public impact and career while revealing the compelling story behind his personal quest to endure extreme poverty, an abusive home environment, Jim Crow segregation, white supremacy and pervasive racism within and beyond the courtroom. Along with revealing accounts of events surrounding Coleman’s judicial dismantling of discriminatory policies, his autobiography paints a compelling portrait of how one dirt-poor farm boy would indelibly change the legal trajectory of America’s most densely populated state. The contemporary takeaway or value of my inspiring life story is its confirmation that—despite status of birth, hardship, obstacles, detractors or external biases—self-discipline, hard work and an internal moral compass can pierce the tumult of any era to produce individual success. This book exemplifies how our individual capacities for self-improvement, along with some help along the way, can supersede the challenges of our external world. Indeed, my life lessons are a clear prescription for contemporary living, for thriving amidst the tumult of our current national climate.
