Kenney names 3 cabinet members, including a diversity officer

FIVE YEARS AGO, Nolan Atkinson Jr. made headlines when he successfully petitioned the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to posthumously admit his great-grandfather to the state bar.

After being denied admission on the basis of race in 1849, George Boyer Vashon drifted north, becoming the first African-American to practice law in New York, and later the second in Washington D.C. He taught at what would become Howard University but again was denied admission to the Pennsylvania bar in the late 1860s, after the Civil War.

"At the time, the Pennsylvania Constitution had a provision that African-Americans could not vote," Atkinson told the Daily News yesterday. "This group decided that he could not be a lawyer."

Yesterday, Atkinson made a little history of his own, when Mayor-elect Jim Kenney named him the city's first-ever chief diversity and inclusion officer. The appointment will take effect when the Kenney administration takes over in January.

Atkinson, the first chief diversity officer at the Duane Morris law firm, was one of three Cabinet appointments Kenney announced yesterday.

The others: Ellen Kaplan, a former assistant district attorney and a veteran of the Committee of Seventy, will serve as chief integrity officer. Amy Kurland will continue in her current role as inspector general.

Kenney will formally introduce the three at a news conference this morning at City Hall.

Atkinson will report directly to Mayor Kenney on issues of diversity and inclusion within city government, "specifically addressing the barriers that keep the city's workforce racially and economically divided," a news release says.

Atkinson told the People Paper that he was excited to get to work and will query the administration on what diversity issues would need to be addressed.

"Philadelphia is a diverse city," he said. "Inclusion is what we can do about that diversity. . . . I'll try to put inclusion at the top of the list."

On Twitter: @JBrandt_TU