'Sisters who Rule' spread the message of friendship
They are the best of friends, the kind of women who finish sentences for each other and randomly break out into a song, especially if that song happens to be the theme of their favorite TV show, "The Golden Girls."
"Thank you for being a friend, do do do do," they sing with a laugh.
This is what life is like for Teresa Freeman, Camille Banks-Prince, Shamieka Rhinehart and Keisha Wright Hill, four women who met in law school at North Carolina Central University and have now gone on to become judges.
"I just can not emphasize how important this bond has been, and we didn't know as 22-year-old women starting law school that this would turn into this," said Banks-Prince, a judge in North Carolina District 21.
The ladies are now trying to spread the message of that bond. They are traveling the country speaking to groups of young people as "Sisters Who Rule."
Their goal, Freeman said, "To empower. To inspire."
"To educate," Banks-Prince added, "because a lot of children – I know I didn't – have any access to lawyers, to judges or to any professionals."
They are hoping to talk about what having real friendships has meant to their careers. They tell stories of leaning on each other for advice as the moved through the legal world.
"Being a judge, it's a lonely world," Freeman said.
The women made headlines when a photo showing what they looked like in law school and what they looked like when they first became judges went viral. This earned them national headlines and a spot on Steve Harvey's syndicated talk show.
They thought about what the new platform could mean and considered stepping back from the spotlight but decided to lean into it instead.
"I could never have dreamed we would have been in this position to inspire through our story of when we met back in 1998," Rhinehart said.
