THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 12, 1995 TAG: 9504110147
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SURRY LENGTH: Long : 186 lines
GAMMIEL POINDEXTER IS hastily thumbing through piles of papers on her desk and on a conference table in her spacious office in an old, downtown Surry building. She's being interviewed by a newspaper reporter. And the telephone just keeps on ringing.
``It's John. He needs to talk to you,'' Poindexter's secretary says, poking her head through the office door.
``Tell John I'll call him tonight.''
Within seconds, the knock is repeated.
``John says, can he please have five minutes?''
After a brief conversation, Poindexter learns that her 21-year-old son, a history major at the University of Virginia, has hit a parked car. He wants to know what to do about the repairs.
Quickly, she issues instructions, then adds, ``John, it was good of you to leave a note, sweetheart.''
Gammiel Poindexter is a mother.
Another knock. It's a law enforcement officer, about to secure warrants for a law breaker.
Quickly, more instructions.
``Call me at home tonight, if you have to,'' she says, ending the conversation with yet another casual term of endearment.
Poindexter is also the commonwealth's attorney for Surry County.
One more knock on the office door is followed by a brief phone conversation about real estate deals and deeds.
She's a lawyer.
And soon, Poindexter, 50, will be a General District Court judge for the 6th Judicial Circuit of Virginia. Her official appointment came from the most recent General Assembly. One of four female, African-American attorneys appointed to the bench during this session, Poindexter is to be sworn in in September.
``The only thing I don't like about the idea is those ugly black robes,'' she says, wrinkling her nose, frowning and pulling on one ear decked with an elaborate gold coil suspending a teardrop bangle that matches her navy blue suit. ``I guess I'll have to make my fashion statements with earrings and hairdos.''
Making statements - fashion or otherwise - isn't unusual for Poindexter. Anyone associated with her will tell you that.
She's professional, businesslike, intelligent, fair-minded, they say. But she is a woman first, an African-American woman, proud of her heritage.
``There seems to be a concentration of African-American judges in and around major cities,'' Poindexter says. ``But there were seven judges sitting in Circuit Court, General District Court and juvenile court here - all white males, until my appointment - in an area with a very large African-American population.
``I will be the first African American and the first female to ever sit in this circuit.
``It is a step in the right direction.''
In her life, Poindexter seems seldom to have stepped in the wrong direction.
She was born to two teachers in Baton Rouge, La., the eldest of three children. She was named after an uncle, Gamaliel, a biblical name. Gamaliel was a teacher of Jesus. Her mother spelled it differently to make it more feminine.
Both Poindexter's father, who is deceased, and mother, who is retired, attended Southern University, a land-grant state college, in the 1940s.
Poindexter grew up in a community surrounding the college, where there were professionals as well as laborers. Her parents, she says, gave her and her siblings an educational legacy.
``I have always wanted to be a lawyer, for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I used to read a lot of mysteries, watch all the TV programs with lawyers. I wanted to be a litigator, to be in the courtroom.''
Poindexter charged ahead. She graduated from the University of Indiana in 1965 with a bachelor's degree in government. The following year, she was one of the first two women, both African-American, enrolled in Louisiana State University's law school. She and Bernette Johnson, now a Louisiana State Supreme Court judge, graduated in 1969 with 150 white males.
``This was the '60s, when all of the civil rights movements were going on,'' she says. ``Martin Luther King was killed during my senior year. It was a time of so many changes. So many things were going on.''
But Poindexter says she has never seen herself as a civil rights lawyer.
``I see myself more as an advocate for the poor, the disadvantaged. I've been in business to make money, of course. But there have been many, many occasions when I've been available to people for advice and for services where money was not a consideration.''
Poindexter met her husband, Gerald, when they attended a legal training program in Atlanta. He was living in Roanoke; she lived in Baton Rouge, where she worked for the legal aid society. They carried on a long-distance romance for a year, married, and moved to Richmond.
In January 1972, Surry County's newly elected board of supervisors was predominantly black for the first time in the county's history. The board asked Gerald Poindexter, in practice at the time in Richmond, to serve as county attorney.
``The local people encouraged us to move here,'' Gammiel Poindexter says. ``My eldest son was born here in May 1973. It was a good move. There is no trash pickup. Those wells and septic tanks still overwhelm me. But we have built some wonderful relationships, made good friends. It has been a great place to raise children.''
Poindexter ran for commonwealth's attorney and was elected in 1975. She and her husband opened their Surry law office the following year. Two years later, their younger son, Christopher, now a senior at Surry High School, was born.
Through it all, despite the rural setting, Poindexter has remained active in legal associations statewide.
``One of the things that impressed me most about Gammiel when I first met her was her sense of the whole picture and how things fit in,'' says Carol Woodward, a former president of the Virginia Women Attorneys Association. ``She is so savvy about professionalism in the practice of law. Gammiel is tremendously cognizant of issues and trends. She's not afraid to speak out, but she's never strident or critical.''
Without fail, whenever she meets anyone in the state acquainted with Poindexter, Woodward says, that person has ``only complimentary things to say about her.''
``She scrutinizes facts, scrutinizes situations - but she'll work to get a consensus. I feel an affinity for people who build things rather than tear them down.
``Gammiel is a builder.''
Poindexter lived up to her reputation in the complicated judicial appointment process, says 64th District Del. William K. Barlow. When a Circuit Court judge announced his retirement, five qualified candidates announced an interest in the position. Poindexter was one of them.
The process was even more complicated for the legislators considering the appointment because of the scope of the judicial district, which covers the cities of Hopewell and Emporia and the counties of Brunswick, Greensville, Prince George, Sussex and Surry. Geography at that point came into play, according to Barlow, and the legislators looked at where the candidates lived in the district.
Finally, the Circuit Court position was offered to a former District Court judge who agreed to move his permanent residence to the northern end of the district. Poindexter was offered either his position or a juvenile court position, with the juvenile judge moving into the general district. She chose General District Court.
Barlow says he believes she will be very good at the job.
``Gammiel has the judicial temperament. She listens to every point of view, remains calm and tries to come up with a good decision. She has a wide variety of experience, gets along well with everybody and has an excellent legal mind. I think she will be a great asset.''
The Virginia Association of Black Women Attorneys thought so, too. They backed Poindexter for a judicial appointment.
``Gammiel has been an excellent mentor for young attorneys,'' says Dolores Carrington, president of that organization and a corporate attorney for Reynolds Metals Inc. in Richmond. ``She is not only a good lawyer, she's a good wife, a good mother, dynamic in everything she does. We're looking for her to rise quickly in the judiciary.''
Juanita Parker, Poindexter's secretary for 13 years before she moved out of the area, calls her former boss ``compassionate, considerate.''
``She listens,'' Parker says. ``I don't think she would pass an unjust sentence on anybody.''
Poindexter is scheduled to sit in Emporia and in Sussex, Prince George and Brunswick counties, and she is thinking about the many decisions she will have to make. She already has drawn on her years of experience to devise her own, private swearing-in.
She has sworn always to listen to both sides. She will never show the ``home court advantage'' to either side because, she says, she's seen in her own legal experiences that such thinking by a judge is unfair.
If she could predict the self-image she'd like to see once she takes the bench, it would be strong, but never threatening.
``I see the role of judge as another facet of being a part of the law. It's all in what you want to do. We all have a right to seek the component of the law we're most comfortable with. I feel lucky I've had a chance to do so many things. This is one more.''
And are there any misgivings, other than the ugly black robe?
Poindexter shakes her head and smiles.
``After 25 years of practice, I've been on the hot seat my fair share of times.
``I'm ready.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
[Color Photo]
Gammiel Poindexter
Gerald and Gammiel Poindexter talk in their Surry law office, which
they opened in 1976.
Staff photos by JOHN SHEALLY II
Gammiel Poindexter stands on the Surry Courthouse steps. In
September, she'll be sworn in as a General District Court judge.
Poindexter has sworn always to listen to both sides and never show
``the home court advantage.'' She wants to appear strong, but never
threatening.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY JUDGE APPOINTMENT by CNB