The Case Western Reserve University School of Law community mourns the passing of the Honorable Sara J. Harper (LAW '52), who died on July 8, 2025, at the age of 98. She was a trailblazer in every sense. As Judge Harper once recounted, "People would tell me, 'Oh you can't do that.' So, I did it anyway."
She was the first Black woman to graduate from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and went on to become one of the most respected jurists in Ohio. Over the course of her remarkable career, she served as a prosecutor for the City of Cleveland, was appointed in 1970 and later elected to the Cleveland Municipal Court, and served with distinction on the Eighth District Ohio Court of Appeals from 1990 to 1997.
She also broke barriers as the first female military judge in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, retiring with the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1992, she became the first Black woman to serve on the Ohio Supreme Court. Beyond the bench, she served as president of the Cleveland NAACP, co-founded one of the nation’s first victims’ rights programs and devoted her life to advocacy for education, veterans and civil rights.
The School of Law community is proud of our decades of association with Judge Harper, whose large portrait, along with those of other alumni trailblazers Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Fred Gray, adorns the wall of the law school across from the Active Learning Classroom. She held leadership positions in our alumni association and was inducted into the Society of Benchers, our alumni Hall of Fame. We extend our deepest condolences to her family and all those whose lives she touched.