Lubbie Harper Jr.

Lubbie Harper Jr. (born 1942) is an American lawyer and judge who was the third African American to become a justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, serving from 2011 through 2012. While seconded to the court in 2008, he cast the deciding vote in Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health, a ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in Connecticut. Harper also served as a justice on the Connecticut Superior Court (1997–2005) and on the Connecticut Appellate Court (2005–2011).

Early life and career Born in 1942 in New Haven, Connecticut, to parents who had moved northwards from North Carolina, Harper was raised by his mother and grandmother and grew up in the Newhallville and Dixwell inner-city neighborhoods. He attended local public schools and became a star basketball player at Wilbur L. Cross High School, graduating in 1961.

Harper was the first in his family to attend college. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New Haven in 1965 and a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Connecticut in 1967. For nearly a decade, he worked as a community school coordinator at the New Haven Community Schools and as a field instructor for the UConn School of Social Work. He returned to UConn to study law, receiving a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1975. New Haven County Bar Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 Greater New Haven NAACP's Legend Award in 2019