First Appointed Black District Court Judge

 First Black female Assistant Public Defender

   In 1997 Hon. Alice Gail Pollard Clark was

   appointed as the first African American Howard

   County District Court Judge by Governor, Parris

   Glendening who sought more gender and racial

   diversity in the Maryland judiciary statewide. 
 

   Prior to her judicial appointment, Judge Clark

   served as an Assistant Public Defender in the

   Howard County Public Defender Office becoming

   the first African American female Public Defender

   in Howard County in 1990.