Judge Curtis Collier will be officially sworn in on Friday as chief judge of the Eastern District of Tennessee - the first black to hold the post.
The ceremony is set for 2 p.m. in the main courtroom on the third floor of the Federal Building on Georgia Avenue. A reception follows from 2:30-5 p.m. at the Chattanoogan on Broad Street.
Rodney Slater, who was secretary of transportation in the Clinton administration, will be the speaker. Like Judge Collier, he is also from Arkansas, according to Cameron Hill, president of the Federal Bar Association. The FBA and the Chattanooga Bar Association are coordinating the events.
Among the speakers at a ceremony at the Chattanoogan will be John Gill, a former prosecutor along with Judge Collier.
Judge Collier moved up to the main courtroom earlier this week after Judge Allan Edgar vacated the quarters. Judge Edgar is taking senior status.
Judge Collier grew up in Marianna, Ark., as one of eight children. He once worked as a field worker picking cotton for $3 a day.
He said in a recent interview with the Chattanooga Courier that he did not want to spend his life picking cotton, so he was his high school's valedictorian before joining the Air Force. He went to Tennessee State University under the GI Bill.
He worked briefly for Proctor and Gamble after getting a chemistry degree, then he decided to go to law school at Duke University.
He was in the U.S. attorney's office in New Orleans before joining the Chattanooga office.