Sara J. Harper

Sara J. Harper (August 10, 1926 – July 8, 2025) was an American jurist, lawyer, and member of Ohio's Eighth District Court of Appeals.

Biography Harper was African-American. She was raised in a public housing project in Cleveland, Ohio. Harper got her undergraduate and law degrees from Case Western Reserve University, and she was the first African-American woman to graduate from Case Western Reserve University Law School

She worked as a prosecutor for the city of Cleveland in the 1960s. In 1970 she was appointed a judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court by Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes, a position to which she was elected for a six-year term in 1971. In 1974 Harper became the first African-American woman and first woman military judge in the history of the Marine Corps Reserve. She also co-founded the first victims' rights program in the country.