Cleo Elaine Powell, a Virginia Supreme Court justice who in 2011 ended up being the very first and only African American female to serve on the state’s high court in its 244-year history, has actually been called the 2023 recipient of the state bar’s Clarence M. Dunnaville Jr. Accomplishment Award
The award honors a bar member for “setting an example that fellow members can replicate to fulfill the [state bar Diversity Conferenceâs] objective of promoting, motivating, and assisting in variety and addition in the bar, the judiciary, and the legal occupation,” according to a state bar website explaining the award.