Pioneer on duty

Someday, the time will come that, when an African-American reaches a milestone, notice will be taken because of the achievement itself instead of the race of the individual involved. The career of prominent jurist and civil rights leader John H. Ruffin Jr. exemplifies what we mean.

The Waynesboro native's career would be impressive no matter what his ethnic heritage, but because he's black, it also has made him a pioneer in Georgia's jurisprudence history.

After being admitted to the Georgia bar in 1961, he challenged the police treatment of blacks and the system that permitted all-white juries. He also filed the 1964 federal lawsuit that forced Richmond County schools to desegregate. Ruffin was "a pioneer in the legal profession in Georgia," said District Attorney Danny Craig.

Ruffin's fine legal work before the bench soon led him to serve on the bench, where he did some more pioneering. He was the first African-American judge to sit on the Augusta Circuit Superior Court, from 1986 to 1994, and the first black member of the Augusta Bar Association.

He was just the third black judge to make it to the state Court of Appeals, where he's served since 1994. Now, he's earned another first for a black jurist - as the court of appeals' chief judge.

"I cannot measure up to that lordship," said Judge Ruffin after being sworn in.

Ah, but he can. It was not easy for a black lawyer to get ahead in Georgia, but Judge Ruffin, 70, has done it - and, hopefully, has paved the way so when other black lawyers follow in his footsteps they'll be lauded for their achievements, and their color will be only incidental.