The Judicial Council Division of the National Bar Association mourns the loss of our legal giant, Justice Blanche Marie Manning. Justice Manning was born in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois and she was the daughter of a homemaker and hotel manager.  She was a graduate of the John Marshall Law School; she also received her Master of Arts from Roosevelt University in 1972, and a Master of Laws from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1992.  Justice Blanche Manning served as an associate judge from 1979 to 1986 and as a circuit judge from 1986 to 1987, in the Illinois Circuit Court, Cook County. In 1987, she became the first African American woman elected to serve on the Illinois Appellate Court. On May 5, 1994, she was nominated by President William J. Clinton to serve as a district court judge for the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois. She assumed senior status on February 1, 2010 and retired in 2012. Justice Manning departed this earth on September 20, 2020.