Her roots from her grandfather, who was a sharecropper and minister, her father who was a minister, and her mother who was a librarian, instilled the values and characteristics of leadership within her in their commitment to helping with civil rights. Not only was Lynch an overachiever in school, she was the valedictorian of her graduating class. Her achievements landed her at Harvard University where she earned both her bachelor’s in 1981 and Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1984. Lynch knew she wanted to become a lawyer and help in the justice system as she had watched her family make choices to stand up against injustice. In April 2014, Lynch gave a speech in which she recalled how even though her grandfather depended on white farmers of the county to hire him and his sons to support his family; he still stood up for injustice. Her grandfather provided refuge under the floorboards of his home for African-Americans faced with Jim Crow injustice by telling the sheriff he did not know where they were. She said in the speech, “If justice was so important to him to risk his livelihood for it—how can I do any less? How can any of us?” (Stern, 2015). Lynch also saw how her father opened up their basement in Greensboro, North Carolina to college students and NAACP members who were organizing sit-ins and her mother’s refusal to use racially segregated restrooms when they drove through rural North Carolina for her father to preach. Witnessing these incidents helped shape Lynch into the leader that she is
Her roots from her grandfather, who was a sharecropper and minister, her father who was a minister, and her mother who was a librarian, instilled the values and characteristics of leadership within her in their commitment to helping with civil rights. Not only was Lynch an overachiever in school, she was the valedictorian of her graduating class. Her achievements landed her at Harvard University where she earned both her bachelor’s in 1981 and Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1984. Lynch knew she wanted to become a lawyer and help in the justice system as she had watched her family make choices to stand up against injustice. In April 2014, Lynch gave a speech in which she recalled how even though her grandfather depended on white farmers of the county to hire him and his sons to support his family; he still stood up for injustice. Her grandfather provided refuge under the floorboards of his home for African-Americans faced with Jim Crow injustice by telling the sheriff he did not know where they were. She said in the speech, “If justice was so important to him to risk his livelihood for it—how can I do any less? How can any of us?” (Stern, 2015). Lynch also saw how her father opened up their basement in Greensboro, North Carolina to college students and NAACP members who were organizing sit-ins and her mother’s refusal to use racially segregated restrooms when they drove through rural North Carolina for her father to preach. Witnessing these incidents helped shape Lynch into the leader that she is