Judge Shirley Fulton, the first Black woman to be elected to a Superior Court seat in North Carolina, died Wednesday. She was 71.
Fulton retired after serving almost four decades in public service. She passed away from gall bladder cancer complications, Noell Tin, a law partner with Fulton, told The Grio.
Born in 1952, Fulton had just turned 71 on January 2 and was born to a farm laborer in South Carolina. Growing up, she would pick cotton and tobacco before school every morning and worked at a funeral home while in high school. It was at the funeral home that the owner encouraged her to volunteer for voter registration drives and attend political rallies. It was then that she developed a love for public service.
Fulton was awarded a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina A&T State University in 1977 before earning a law degree at Duke University. She would soon be appointed a district court judge in Mecklenburg County and was elected to the bench of the North Carolina Superior Court soon thereafter. She was then named the highest-ranking judge in the Superior Court in 1997.
In 2002, she co-founded the Tin, Fulton, Walker & Owen law firm and entered private practice.
Outside of law, she was heavily involved in the North Carolina community and focused on the areas of court reforms, public housing and schools.
She also advocated for neighborhood development and improvement, and played a significant role in restoring the notable George Pierce Wadsworth House, turning it into a conference center in Wesley Heights.
“Lots of people will remember Shirley as a trailblazer, but her legacy is going to be all of the contributions that she made to improve the community,” Tin said.
Fulton’s funeral service was held Sunday at Johnson C. Smith University.
She is survived by her only son, Kevin Goode, who she gave birth to in 1972.
