Judge Cassandra Hollemon was one of Houston-area “Black Girl Magic” judges. She served one full month on the bench before succumbing to pancreatic cancer.
Hollemon was one of the 17 black women elected as judges in the Houston-area last year as part of a “Black Girl Magic” campaign. She was 57. She died about a week after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
The “Black Girl Magic” “debuted over the summer with a viral photo that featured the 17 women and two other sitting Harris County judges inside a courtroom. Although those two judges lost their bids for seats on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, they retained their local judgeships,” ABC News reported.
The Harris County Democratic Party promoted the “Black Girl Magic” campaign to highlight the diversity of the area’s judiciary. Democrats were elected in nearly all of 70 local judicial races.
The other judges were: Ramona Franklin, Germaine Tanner, Sandra Peake, Maria Jackson, Angela Graves-Harrington, Latosha Lewis Payne, LaShawn Williams, Dedra Davis, Tonya Jones, Linda Dunson, Toria Finch, Ronnisha Bowman, Lucia Bates, Erica Hughes, Michelle Moore, Lori Chambers Gray, Shannon Baldwin, and Sharon Burney.
The women ran together on a Democratic ticket, and as part of their campaign strategy they appeared on posters with the slogan “Let’s Make History.”
Hollemon, who presided over the Harris County Criminal Court, began “feeling ill in mid-December but kept going to work until she was hospitalized on Jan. 23,” U.S. News & World Report reported.
“She was an awesome, very strong woman,” Hollemon’s daughter Brandy Hollemon said.
“A widow since 1992, Holleman raised her two children and took care of her own mother who died more than a year ago. Holleman leaves a legacy of fighting for equality in the justice system,” ABC reported.
“I want people to know how eager she was to make a difference in the justice system,” Brandy said. “She took care of my grandmother. She took care of us. It was always about other people. She finally had a chance to be Judge Holleman.”
Initially, the judge was diagnosed with bronchitis, but on Super Bowl Sunday her cancer diagnosis was confirmed. This didn’t stop Holleman from working, she made it to her office every day until she was hospitalized.
“Her last week of work was very hard, but she would not call in,” Brandy said. “I dropped her off because she couldn’t walk. She was wheezing and struggling to breathe.”
Brandy added: “She was still fighting just struggling for every breath just to be here, and her goal was to try to get back to work. She said, ‘I love my job. I have to get back.”