She is vivacious. She is tenacious. Plus, she possesses a good heart. The Honorable Judge Glenda A. Hatchett has served in the highest of boards and presided over one of America’s largest juvenile judicial circuits. However, at her core, Hatchett always stands on business, as the kids would say. She never backs down from any challenge thrown her direction. She weaves passion and purpose into every step she takes.
Hatchett discussed her experiences growing up in Atlanta during the Civil Rights Movement. For example, Hatchett recounted a childhood memory of tasting water from a white water fountain. Hatchett was five years old and wanted to know if the ‘Whites Only’ water fountain tastes differently.
“And people looked at me, but I learned words very early on,” Hatchett explains. “I could obviously spell my name. I could read colored, and I could read white, right? And so I was just curious, and so there were these little steps on the side of the water fountain to get up to the white water fountain. Of course, there was a colored fountain.
And with adult eyes, I look back on that, and I realized that she was afraid for my life. I could have disappeared out of the back door of Sears and Roebuck that day, never to be seen again. And I didn’t understand that. I thought, ‘well, why isn’t she mad at the little boys? Why is she upset with me?’ And so I have different recollections of growing up, and I also am very grateful, because my parents were very clear about what we would and would not do.”
The transition to professional life
After graduating from Mount Holyoke and obtaining her law degree from Emory Law, Hatchett became the top legal consultant at Delta Air Lines after serving as a federal clerk in the Northern District of Georgia. In 1990, Hatchett became the Chief Presiding Judge at the Fulton County Juvenile Court. That accomplishment saw Hatchett become Georgia’s first African American Chief Presiding Judge of any state court. However, she wrestled with that decision.
“There were people that didn’t wish me well outside and inside the courthouse,” says Hatchett. “And so it was tough. It was tough, but I went there for a purpose. I went there to make systemic changes. I wanted to change the way we did juvenile court. I wanted to go back to the original mission of us rehabilitating children, not just locking them up.”
Hatchett moves to television
Hatchett stepped down from the bench in 1999, to spend time with her family. In 2000, she would host the TV show, Judge Hatchett. Just like she did when she ran Fulton County Juvenile Court, Hatchett wanted to ensure she had the resources to rehabilitate individuals. She asked for social workers and access to drug treatment or rehabilitation programs.
“And before I had that part of the conversation, they called in the President of Sony Television,” explained Hatchett. “He came in, and he sat close to me and said they told me they really want you to do this. He later said, ‘I want to know from you what it will take to get you to do it. What would it take you to say yes?’ So I outlined, just off the top of my head. I outlined everything. I thought that makes sense. And he said, ‘will you commit to doing the pilot?’ And I said, ‘no, I have to go home and have a meeting with my children.’ So that was a that was a Friday. Thanksgiving was the following Thursday. I was on a flight Friday, shot the pilot that weekend. That’s how quickly it happened.”
Hatchett’s TV show aired in syndication from 2000 until 2008 after airing 1,130 episodes and winning two Emmys.
Current Events
During the interview, Hatchett discussed her involvement in the class action suit against the BioLab chemical plant in Conyers that released harmful chemicals into the air on September 29th. Hatchett says her law firm is fighting for people who had to leave their homes. She added she thinks about the people think about who can’t go to work, the business owners and also their employees who are depending on those paychecks.
“It has such a rippling effect for people,” said Hatchett. “We have people who’ve had chronic breathing issues and burning eyes and skin irritations, and the list goes on. And we don’t really know the full impact of this yet. We just don’t know yet, and but we are going to be on the front line of this and and hopefully getting people the justice that they need.”
Hatchett fights for better outcomes regarding maternal mortality. Hatchett and her son, Charles Johnson IV, lost Kira Dixon Johnson, her daughter-in-law, during childbirth in 2016. In September, she joined former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms as a surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign.
“The reason I had to stand there at that gathering is to raise my voice to say that we have got to do it differently in this country,” explained Hatchett. “Mothers need to go home with their children, and we’re going to continue to fight that fight.”
A Gem for Gen Z and Millennials
In the end, Hatchett, continues to weave passion, purpose and style in her daily walk. She will never duck and dodge and be all things to all people. But as she emphasized during the conversation, she will stand on business.
“I would say that it is important for them to know who they are,” answered Hatchett regarding a piece of advice she’d leave for millennials and the younger generations. “I mean, really know who they are and to whom they belong. I’m unapologetically a Black woman who is grounded in my faith. But whatever that is for those people, they need to find that. And they need to know their history. I am always cognizant of who I am and whose I am. That would be my advice, to be really clear about who you are and to really reach into your soul and be authentic about it.”
