Judge Sara J. Harper, a retired Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals judge, honored at the Black Republican trailblazer awards luncheon in Washington, D.C., Republican National Committee Chairperson Reince Priebus hosted event, Ohio Republican Party Chairperson Matt Borges presented award

Retired Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals Judge Sara J. Harper

By  Kathy Wray Coleman, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. (Kathy Wray Coleman is a 20-year investigative and political journalist and legal reporter who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper, Ohio's Black press)

 (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Republican National Committee honored Ohio Civil Rights Hall of Fame member Judge Sara J. Harper of Cleveland, Ohio, a retired Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals judge, at its Second Annual Black Republican Trailblazer Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at the historic Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C. 

Tuesday's gathering was hosted by the chairman of the Republican National Committee(RNC), Reince Priebus. Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges presented the award to Harper.

The theme of this year's award ceremony was "Honoring Our Past and Building the Future." 

The event also honored Dr. Louis Sullivan of Georgia, and Michigan businessman William "Bill" Brooks. 

Honorees are chosen for their significant contributions to the Republican Party, and to their communities and the country. 

Growing up in public housing on Cleveland's east side, Harper was the first Black woman to graduate from the Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Judge Harper subsequently became a Cleveland city assistant prosecutor under Mayor Carl B. Stokes, the first Black mayor of a major American city. She later won a seat on the Cleveland Municipal Court, and is also a former president of the Cleveland Branch NAACP. 

A Republican, Harper,87, was one of two Black women first elected to serve on an Ohio state appeals court when voters elected her to the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals bench in 1990, which serves Cuyahoga County, the largest of 88 counties in Ohio. And she  was also the first Black woman to sit by temporary assignment on the Ohio Supreme Court.

Judge Harper was the first woman to serve on the judiciary of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, and was a co-founder of the first victims' rights organization in the country. 

A staunch believer in childhood education, Harper founded the Sara J. Harper Children's Library on Cleveland's east side, in the housing project where she grew up.

Harper is married to retired Cleveland Municipal Court Judge George Trumbo and the couple has five grown children, as well as grandchildren. She is a sister of Connie Harper, the associated publisher and senior editor of the Call and Post Newspaper, Ohio's Black press with distributions in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio. 
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)