The first Black man to serve on the Florida Supreme court has died. The court announced Saturday that Joseph W. Hatchett died in Tallahassee. He was 88.

In 1979, then-President Jimmy Carter named Hatchett to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Hatchett graduated from Florida A&M University in 1954, then earned his law degree in 1959 from the Howard University School of Law.