Judge Clarease Yates
Born Clarease Stewart, Judge Clarease Mitchell Rankin Yates was born in 1940 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was born and raise in Philadelphia, where she earned her high school degree in 1958 and both her bachelor’s degree and Juris Doctorate from Temple University.
Her legal career began in the office of Philadelphia’s district attorney, and in 1980 she progressed forward and accepted a position as an attorney with the United States International Trade Commission. Moving into the District of Columbia, she, then, served as a senior legislative analyst, and in 1986, she was appointed an administrative law judge.
After her time in Washington D. C., her journey into the south, specifically Houston, began as she was appointed to a judgeship in 1990 with the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service in Houston, Texas. This position made her both the first African-American and first African-American woman immigration judge in the United States. As she departed from Washington D. C., she was honored for her work and time there with the Clarease E. Mitchell Rankin Recognition Resolution of 1990. And a year later, she was honored by the Commonwealth of Kentucky by being commissioned a Kentucky Colonel.
Judge Yates holds many awards an honors in her name, and she has created a history of possibilities for women, especially for black women. And in 1992, she was honored at the YWCA Outstanding Women’s Day for her contributions to the field of law, and a year later, she began serving as an adjunct professor of law at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.
Her commitment to civil engagement manifested in many ways in Houston. She joined the board of the Sickle Cell Association of the Gulf Coast, the National Coalition of 100 Back Women, the NAACP, and the Houston Symphony board. As will unfold in this exhibition, Judge Yates’s dedication to community is very obviously a core value of hers, and this dedication serves as grounding and foundation for all young black women to see the capabilities of black women in these predominantly white and masculine fields, like law and community organizations.
Looking at the work that Judge Yates has done for her community and the awards and honors she’s received, it is already apparent that she is a force within the community and a model for breaking down constrictive social walls to actively make space for black women in the law field and in her community. The work that she does, both by existing and by active engagement, normalizes black womanhood and black femininity in a social context that denormalizes these ways of beings. Most notably in her founding and directing of a gala for the Sickle Cell Association of the Gulf Coast, she focused the fundraising gala on fashion, especially on the fashioning of black people and black women. It became a place for black business to be highlighted and for fashion, a socially determined feminine interest and space, to be centered and respected.
Along with her many civic activities, Judge Yates in 2004 acquired a Certificate in Image Consulting from Houston Community College. She also has certification in modeling and acting from Page Parks School of Modeling and Acting. In 2005 she founded Indestructible Beginnings, an image consulting 501(c)(3) corporation “whose mission is to immerse our youth into an exciting, educational experience which will stimulate their appetites to enjoy all of the wonderful, positive experiences which are available to them.” She has developed a program of classes and written a book titled Indestructible Beginnings - The ABC of Common Courtesy. This endeavor became a directly influential business that gave young people, predominantly black girls, the tools to find comfort and inner strength to pursue their careers and passions.