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Melissa Harris-Perry: In 2018, 17 Black women were elected as judges in Harris County, Texas. It was a historic collective victory, and these sister judges campaigned together. Their self-styled Black girl magic diversified courtrooms in the state's most populous and diverse county. This year, 14 of them won reelection. Joining me now is Judge LaShawn Williams of the Harris County Civil Court in Texas. Judge Williams, thank you so much for being here.

Judge LaShawn Williams: Thank you, Melissa Harris-Perry, for having me. I'm so honored to be with you.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Well, we're so excited. We've been watching what you all have been up to. What does it mean to say y'all are sister judges?

Judge LaShawn Williams: I have to give some credit to I think it was L Magazine, one of their producers nubbed it sister judges. We did call ourselves sisters, and I was surprised that other people saw it that same way.

One of the other judges, Judge Lori Gray, she's a felony judge. She would often call us sister judges. That is how we call one another. We have that love, that spirit. We really care for one another. We understood what it meant that we came together not really knowing that it would happen that way. We saw it as something bigger than us. That spirit of sisterhood, it's a little deeper. You're not just sister by blood, and so that's how we saw it.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Speak to me a bit for those who think, "Huh, if you're calling yourself sister judges, if you're running in this coordinated way, can you be fair as juries on the bench?"

Judge LaShawn Williams: That's a great question. I got to answer that two ways. First, Melissa, it wasn't coordinated at first, so that's the first, I guess, myth or fallacy there. It didn't become coordinated until the party. Actually, well, we saw ourselves first, and then the party actually looked and said, "Okay, wait a minute. We may have something here." Once the political got behind, it became about getting out the vote. How could we use this as a coordinated effort to get out the vote?

Then the second part of your question, in terms of our influence or how we can still remain, I guess, impartial or seen to be or seen as impartial from the bench. Harris County is a very diverse county. I think we're third in the state and fourth in the nation. I think when people come into court and you have a majority of Black and brown folks in, for instance, criminal court, and in particular, some of my dockets, it feels different to see someone who looks like you on the bench.

I don't think their first thought is, "Okay, wait, she's not going to be impartial." I don't think anybody's thinking, because there's a lot of Black judges up there, they're not going to be impartial. I think that the parties, when they come in and see us there, they have a level of relief, a sigh even. I've had Black women, after their case was over, say to me, "It just feels good to see you up there." No one's looking for favor. I really don't believe they think they're going to get any favor in that vein.

I don't know if that hits what you're looking at when you asked that question, but we just see it as we've been told, which is, it feels good to see someone that looks like us, it feels good to know there's a diversity of ideas, a diversity of background, a diversity of religion, of not just color and gender.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Talk to me about your own kind of intergenerational story about how you end up here in this place. First, through who your mom was, and then your journey to law school, and then to the bench. I know we only have a few minutes, but still, give me that story.

Judge LaShawn Williams: Linda Jean Williams, a young mother, had me at a very young age, said, when I was a little girl, "You're going to be a lawyer." That's all I knew. That was the trajectory from there. She made sure that I went to law school before she passed away. She had everything set up with my pastor. He supported me through law school.

My father was an army veteran, and so we had traveled the world. I had that kind of an influence, but first-generation college student. My dad did have an associate degree. My mother just had a GED. I always knew I would be a lawyer because it was spoken over me, and that was my passion. I watched all the Perry Mason shows and all those really at a young age, 9, 8, 7, that sort of thing.

Growing up, I don't know, my mother just made sure I was in line with those watching those kinds of things. I didn't know any lawyers, didn't know any judges, didn't know really college graduates. Again, we were a military family. Going to my first HBCU, which was TSU, Texas Southern University, Thurgood Marshall, it was huge.

That was my story. It wasn't easy, but that's what I tell other kids that I mentor. If I could do it, you could do it. It's about relationships. It's about having an expectation what you want. God and the universe will bring an alignment of the resources that you need to get there. I don't take any credit in and of my own self. I literally believe that everything lined up because it was spoken over me. We built the relationships and the doors were opened.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I know that one of your high priorities for this term is really to emphasize engaging with the community. Can you talk to me a bit about what you mean by that and why it's so important?

Judge LaShawn Williams: I am so glad you asked me that question. Listen, I observed my first term a lot in terms of disparities in judgments with Black and brown people, disparity in judgments in evictions, in collections, in homeowners association cases, right, where they come in and they're literally going to force the sale of your home because you didn't pay those fees.

Those judgments, by far, affected us more than they did our counterparts. What we did, and what I, well, am excited about this second term is we went into TSU and we're starting an eviction clinic because during COVID, we had monies that streamed into the state. Those monies covered the eviction docket to help people get their rent paid but to get legal representation. What we noticed afterwards was there was like a 400% decrease in terms of the judgments that Black and brown people suffered as a result of not having representation in evictions.

What we know, and the science has always been there, the data is there, is that when you have legal representation in court, you have a far better outcome. Now, what we plan to do moving forward is to make sure, in every opportunity we can get, that there's legal representation, certainly, in those eviction cases when you stand the chance of losing the roof over your head in homeowners association cases when you can lose your home.

Moving forward, listen, they never anticipated seeing Black women on the bench. This judiciary was not about people of color and certainly not women or Black women sitting and presiding in the manner that we do. We have hurdles that we face every day, but this is all about changing the face of justice in our nation.

When you have Black women behind that bench, things are different because we can come with relatable experiences from our own lives that we tend to be more empathetic, patient. We still apply the law because we're brilliant that way. We know what it means to interpret the law, and we know when to do it forcefully, and we know when to do it with a kind hand. Thank you for that question, because I'm really excited about our ability to change the trajectory in terms of reliability, these disparities in the judgments in civil court, as well as in, of course, criminal courts.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Judge LaShawn Williams is one of the sister judges in Harris County, Texas. She was recently reelected as judge of the Harris County Civil Court in Texas. Judge Williams, thank you for your time.

Judge LaShawn Williams: I am honored to be with you. Saw you on MSNBC years ago, have always respected and loved you. It was a joy and an honor to be with you.

Melissa Harris-Perry: That is reciprocated. Thank you for your work.

Judge LaShawn Williams: Thank you.

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