Ruth Bader Ginsburg never stopped. When law students were mostly men, she went to school anyway. When her husband got sick, she took notes in his classes as well as her own. When law firms wouldn’t hire a woman, she didn’t give up. Ginsburg kept going. In fact, she kept going all the way to America’s top court.
Ginsburg was the second woman to be a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. She kept serving her country until her last days. Ginsburg died on Friday at the age of 87. Now, people are looking back at her life and work.
Ginsburg was born in 1933 in Brooklyn, New York. As a child, she looked up to her mother. Celia Bader taught her daughter to be independent and to value education. Ginsburg took those lessons to heart. She graduated first in her class from Cornell University. Then, she was one of only nine female students at Harvard Law School. That was out of a class of more than 500!
Ginsburg faced a lot of discrimination. There were men-only libraries she couldn’t use. Some companies didn’t want to hire women. Still, Ginsburg found success as a lawyer and a teacher. She used her skills to fight for a fairer world. She took on cases for women’s rights. And she won many of them.
President Bill Clinton noticed this work. In 1993, he chose Ginsburg to join the Supreme Court. In that job, Ginsburg wanted to make sure everyone was treated fairly under the law. The justice worked long hours. She kept pushing through many illnesses. And she never gave up, even when she disagreed with the court’s ruling.
Of course, Ginsburg’s influence goes beyond the law. People wrote books and made a movie about the justice. Fans nicknamed her RBG — her initials. They wore T-shirts showing Ginsburg wearing a crown. People of all ages dressed as Ginsburg for Halloween. They wore long, black robes and lacy collars like RBG did.
On Friday night, crowds honored Ginsburg outside the Supreme Court Building. That’s in Washington, D.C. Many of America’s leaders spoke out too. John Roberts is the chief justice of the Supreme Court. He said future generations will remember Ginsburg as a “champion of justice.”
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also shared a message. “Justice Ginsburg paved the way for so many women, including me,” she said. “There will never be another like her.” Clinton added, “Thank you, RBG.”
People aren’t just looking back at RBG’s life. They are also still learning all she had to teach us. There are lessons about believing in yourself, doing what’s right, and not giving up. We can see them in the words Ginsburg left behind. “Fight for the things you care about,” she once said. “But do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
Just like RBG, her words will never stop.
Updated September 21, 2020, 5:02 P.M. (ET)
By Ashley Morgan
