The first Asian Pacific American to serve on Georgia’s Supreme Court spoke to a group of leaders June 29 at an event honoring the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce Top 10 in 10 Young Professionals to Watch for 2021.
Justice Carla Wong McMillan, an Augusta native, is the first Asian Pacific American to serve on a state’s highest court in the Southeastern United States. She spoke at the Augusta Marriott at the Convention Center.
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McMillan said her family has been tied to the Augusta area for over 100 years, with her grandparents settling in Augusta around 1916. Her grandfather opened a Chinese grocery store on 13th Street that served the community for years.
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She said organizations such as the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in Augusta and the First Baptist Church, which established a substantial Chinese Sunday School program, had a huge impact on her and her family.
The judge’s family blazed a path of first before her. Her aunt, Margaret Wong, became the first Chinese-American woman to graduate with a medical degree in the Southeast. Charles Wong, McMillan’s father, graduated from The Citadel in 1950, one of the first Chinese Americans to do so. While he was not the first Chinese-American to graduate from The Citadel, the man who did was also from Augusta.
McMillan said she never expected to be a justice on the Georgia Supreme Court when she started her law career. When the Court of Appeals had a vacancy, she was at first reluctant to apply.
“However, I thought about my daughter and how important it can be to take risks when it comes to serving the community,” McMillan said.
Then-Gov. Nathan Deal appointed McMillan to the Court of Appeals in 2013, and a few years later, she applied for the Georgia Supreme Court. Her interview with Gov. Brian Kemp took place in March 2020.
“Obviously, a lot of things started to change right around then. My interview was just days before the state shut down,” McMillan said. “I did not expect to hear from Gov. Kemp at all, but one morning, I got a text from him that said, ‘Hey, Judge. Give me a call.'”
McMillan was sworn in to the Georgia Supreme Court in April 2020.
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“If my story communicates anything, it’s the importance of reaching out to people that might be different from you, whether it’s looking different or speaking a different language than you,” McMillan said. “I’m so grateful for the ones that reached out to me and helped me and my family out along the way, all the way back in past generations.”
McMillan closed her address by encouraging the crowd and award recipients to reach out in their own communities as they continue to serve as the CSRA in business and in life.
This year’s Top 10 in 10 recipients were Tianna Marie Bias, Hawk Law Group; Amber Antoinette Brantley, Solicitor General’s Office; Kigwana Cherry, Pop-Up Augusta!; Becky Dearden, SME CPAs; Beth Bargeron James, Queensborough National Bank & Trust; April Henry King, April Henry King ART; Bradley King, 2KM Architects, Inc.; Eleanor Prater, Destination Augusta; Marissa L Smith, Bank of America; and Patrick Wells, Piedmont Landscape Management.
Tyler Strong is the Business Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at tyler@theaugustapress.com.
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