Up-Close & Personal with Judge Tarik Sugarmon

Father's Day Special & the Judical Candidate Judge Tarik Sugarmon for Juvenile Court. A native Memphian, Judge Tarik B. Sugarmon, son of former Judge Russell B. Sugarmon and Dr. Miriam DeCosta-Willis. At a young age, Tarik was also exposed to the law when he spent time after school in the law office of his father.
Because of his parents' involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, Tarik was one of three students to desegregate Peabody Elementary School in 1961, a year after the “Memphis Thirteen.” He met and marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. & standing on a stairway behind the stage of Mason Temple to hear Dr. King give his unforgettable "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech the stormy night of April  3, 1968.
He attended Morehouse College, & received a B. A. degree in banking and finance. Though on a career path in business, he became aware of the economic and political disparities confronting the African-American community. Sugarmon entered Howard University School of Law. He was third in his first-year class and was in the top five percent of graduates. Returning to Memphis after graduation in 1983, he passed the Tennessee Bar Exam on the first attempt and was admitted to the bar that October. Offered a position by A C Wharton, Jr., as a part-time Shelby County Public Defender. A month later, Sugarmon began private practice with the law firm of Wharton and Wharton. He handled general civil and criminal defense cases before the county, state, and federal courts of Tennessee for (15) years.
In 1998, Mayor Herenton appointed attorney Tarik B. Sugarmon to Division Two of the Memphis Municipal Court, and he has been re-elected to two full terms since. After thirty years of service to Memphis and Shelby County he seeks your support in helping him to protect the rights of our most precious but at-risk citizens--our children.