Judge Freddie Pitcher

Today I have a long lost friend, a brother, a mentor, and I guess we can say he’s been the first in everything. Not just Baton Rouge, probably in the state. When I think about it. He’s been the first in everything. The first brother of African descent to run for the city judge in Baton Rouge, state court and the appeals court. And also he was the chancellor of Southern University. Here we go. Say, here come the judge. Here comes the judge. Everybody know that he is the judge. We got Judge Freddie Pitcher. Welcome to Count Time.

FP
Thank you, LD. It is great to be here.

LD
Wonderful to have you. I’ll let you all know I have to beg and crawl and everything else to get him here. I’ve been asking for two years for him to come on.

FP
But I’m here.

LD
How long the book been out now?

FP
The book has been out since July of last year, titled View from the Bench Breaking Barriers.

LD
View from the Bench by Judge Freddie Pitcher, Jr. Graduate of Southern University. First, McKinley blue and gold. McKinley, then went to blue and gold at Southern University.

FP
Right on.

LD
We want, in the beginning to encourage everybody to go get a copy of this book because he has contributed and still contributing so much to his community, so much to our society. You always had utmost respect and the way you’ve carried yourself. You were one of the outstanding men in our communities that we all looked up to and looked forward, looked to for so much. And by you being the first, that mean you have carried a whole lot of weight on your shoulders for many, many years. What have that been like? Because the community have high expectations for you.

FP
Absolutely. The thing a lot of times people don’t realize the weight actually that you do carry. Being the first in a position. And when I was elected to the Baton Rouge City Court as the first African American black to be elected to that court, I knew that I had to be about the business of making sure that I acquitted myself in a way whereby all people, black people, can know that I was going to do the right thing. And I didn’t want to do anything that would in turn, embarrass my people, my family and black people in general. Because once you break that barrier, because that’s why the title breaking barriers, once you break that barrier, you don’t want to end up doing something that would in turn shut things down for close the door so nobody else can come behind you. I was there to open up the door, break the barrier, so we can not necessarily have a floodgate of blacks coming to the bench, but have open that door up so people will know that we too, can do this job.