JAMAICA CULTURAL ALLIANCE IN LA HONORS JUSTICE LUESANG-ALLEN
By Adolph A. Mitchell

The Jamaica Cultural Alliance (JCA) organization of Los Angeles, recently honored retired Justice Ena LueSang-Allen in ceremonies held at the Marina Beach Marriott hotel in Marina Del Rey, California. Mistress of Ceremonies for the event was NBC-TV newscaster, Beverly White. LueSang-Allen, a Jamaican of Chinese descent, was recognized as the first woman to sit as a Supreme Court Justice in Jamaica.

Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles, Joy Y. Chen, who presented the JCA trailblazer award to LueSang-Allen, highlighted her distinguished career as a judge serving in both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. The JCA presents this award to individuals who have set a standard or created a path for others in Caribbean culture or history. Chen also presented her with a proclamation from Los Angeles Mayor, James Hahn.

In accepting the award from the deputy mayor, LueSang-Allen humbly addressed the 300-strong audience, "I am very touched that you chose to come here tonight to see me receive this award as if I did something big. I really love you all and thank you very much for taking the time to come out."

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Justice LueSang-Allen, the eldest of 10 children, attended Central Branch elementary school as a child. She won a full scholarship to Excelsior High School, gaining the Senior Cambridge Certificate with exemption from the London Matriculation. After high school, she went to work in the Resident Magistrate's court, civil division, in Kingston.

After gaining some experience in the court system, she studied to become a lawyer and was called to the Bar in 1953, returning to Jamaica to work in the department of the Deputy Clerk of the Court. Appointed as Judge of the Resident Magistrate's court in 1961, LueSang-Allen began blazing a trail of firsts for Jamaican women: she became the first woman named Registrar of the Supreme Court, subsequently becoming the first woman appointed as Master in Chambers of the Supreme Court, and finally, the first female Puisne Judge, or Judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Jamaica.

At age 55, she elected to take an early retirement and migrated to California. Job offers came from the Royal Bank Trust Company in Jamaica and from courts in the Cayman Islands. In 1982, she accepted an offer to be the Clerk of the Courts in the Cayman Islands and Registrar of the Court of Appeal. She served seven years in that capacity there.

Of her assignment to the Cayman Islands she said, "The government there treated me very well. They really respected my views, even though I was the only woman in a male-dominated system." She said she was the first woman to work as the Registrar of the courts there, and felt that she really made positive contributions at that location. "I felt really useful because somebody with my experience was really needed there. I had more discretion to incorporate changes and they really paid attention to what I said," she continued. She said she was able to get more women who were law interns (articled clerks attached to her staff) involved in changing the law to improve conditions for women there.

In 1980 while visiting Jamaica after her first retirement, LueSang-Allen was accidentally shot in the face by a gunman. "I was very lucky," she said of the accident. She said she had stopped in the Barbican area of Kingston at about 1:00 p.m. to do some shopping in a neighborhood that was predominantly loyal to one particular political party but had changed its allegiance to the other competing political party.

There were a group of women singing a political chorus while marching along the street. People started throwing stones at one another as a way of competing for political territory. While hurriedly tried to get to her car to leave the area, LueSang-Allen felt a minor pain in the region of her chin.

Not able to depart the area fast enough, she went into one of the local shops where a woman said to her, "Lady, you got shot." She said she had not seen any person with a firearm aimed at her so it came as a surprise that she had actually taken a bullet. "The bullet itself stopped just a couple of centimeters from the carotid artery," she said, breaking some of her teeth and her jawbone. The only scar she now has is a mark on her chin that looks more like a dimple. "I am truly lucky to have survived and be alive," she said of the experience.

In 1989, LueSang-Allen finally retired from the court in the Cayman Islands and relocated to California to reside with her daughter Karen McCaw, her son-in-law and her newly arrived granddaughter. "My daughter had her babies at home and grandmothers were very handy at that time," she said of her move to assist her daughter and family. LueSang-Allen's husband, Herbert Percival Allen, who was also a magistrate in the Jamaican court system, passed away in 1974.

LueSang-Allen is active in the martial arts exercise of Tai Chi which she practices five days per week and teaches on Wednesday afternoon at her church. She enjoys singing and is a member of the choir at her church, the Founders Church of Religious Science, in Los Angeles. She also sings with a group called "Westside Singers" which performs Broadway songs to people living in retirement homes. When asked how she would like to be remembered, she says, "I did the best I could for the time I was here." She suggested that people should do the things that they enjoy doing and make the best of their time here on earth.