For Kendra Perkins Norwood, being a lawyer “was always the plan” — or at least it was in her own mind. She just had a couple of detours along the way: Harvard and outer space.
Law was a natural fit for somebody who was outspoken, argumentative and “very rules-oriented,” she says. But she could also feel the sting of prejudice and bias in her own life, and there was nothing implicit about that bias. It was parading straight down the main street of her hometown, the capital of Louisiana.
“The Ku Klux Klan would march every Saturday. They were in full regalia, on horseback, in hoods,” Norwood says. “I just remember my parents saying, ‘Do not be afraid of them. You focus on what you’re doing and being the best you can be, and the rest will take care of itself.’”
By the time she graduated from Southern University and A&M College, she had earned a fellowship to attend Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She still wanted to be a lawyer, she says, but…
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