Six-year-old Janice swept the porch of her grandmother's home in Luverne, Ala. "Whatever you're going to be in life, you be the best," her grandmother, Beulah Allen, admonished. "If you sweep floors, do it so well that when you finish they'll say that you swept floors the best and cleanest they've ever seen! Ten years later, they'll still be talking about what a good job you did."

Resting on a bench, Janice contemplated the lively conversations and debates she heard on that porch. In the 1950s, African-American families in Alabama had a great deal to talk about. Jim Crow was in its heyday, and the Civil Rights movement was underway.

Young Janice listened quietly and intently as her parents, aunts, uncles and grandmother discussed the social upheaval around them. They talked about the NAACP Defense Fund and the work of lawyers, such as Fred Gray, who had represented Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.

"Fred Gray was proof positive to my family that you could be a lawyer and also a decent person," Janice says.

Janice knew then what floor she wanted to sweep, and she knew the broom that she would use. She would become a lawyer.

The time she spent sitting on the bench on her grandmother's porch helped prepare Janice for the bench where she sits today. She is now Justice Janice Rogers Brown, associate justice of the California State Supreme Court.

The road from Luverne, Ala. to the chambers of the California Supreme Court has been a long and sometimes difficult path. Janice attended segregated schools because there was no other opportunity for her to receive an education.

Still, she says, her family never considered themselves victims. They believed that in only a matter of time, change would come. "They had great faith in this country," she says.

At an early age, Janice witnessed the power of the judicial branch to make sweeping changes in society. She remembers the day in 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision on the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.

In vivid detail, Janice recalls seeing her grandmother running across the street from her uncle's house where she had been watching a TV news report. Her hands tucked under her apron front, she was shouting, "They did it! Thank God, they did it!" That decision helped to bring about an end to segregation.

Janice's family moved to Sacramento, Calif., when she was in her teens, and she received her bachelor of arts degree from California State University in Sacramento before enrolling in law school at UCLA. Janice decided on a legal career in the public sector because she believed it was there that she would be able to make a difference.

For two years, she served in the Office of Legislative Counsel, followed by eight years in the office of the attorney general.

In 1987, Gov. George Deukmejian appointed her Deputy Secretary of the Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency. Then, in 1991, Gov. Pete Wilson tapped her as his legal affairs secretary. In that capacity, she advised the governor on all the state's legal matters, including pardon and clemency issues.

In 1994, Gov. Wilson encouraged Janice to apply for an associate justice position with the Third District Court of Appeals. She served on the Court of Appeals until 1996, when Gov. Wilson nominated her to the state's highest court. Janice's confirmation made her the first African-American woman to ever sit on the California Supreme Court.

Ambition has not been the driving force behind Janice's success. Instead, she has been driven by her own desire for personal excellence and intellectual enlightenment. She says that she has been fortunate to be engaged in work that she finds intrinsically interesting and enjoyable.

She could not have accomplished what she has without the support of her family: "A woman may be able to have it all, but she certainly cannot do it all," she warns.

While an undergraduate student working in the Department of Corrections, Janice met and later married Allen Brown. Her husband encouraged her in her career and supported her with enthusiasm. He and their son, Nathan, shared with her the tasks at home so that her role as a wife, mother and career woman was easier.

She recalls a time when she and Nathan were in the car listening to a radio report that claimed that the more a woman earned, the more likely it was that her husband would help around the house. Her son responded, "Mom, you must make a lot of money!"

When Allen became ill with lung cancer, Janice left the very demanding work of litigation in the attorney general's office and accepted a position with the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency so that she could spend more time with her family. Her husband died in 1988.

For at least four generations, Janice notes that her family has been part of the church of Christ. That long family history of using the Bible as the single, undisputed standard for religious beliefs provided her with the foundations of her faith and fueled her analytical mind as well.

Her family, many of them noted teachers and song leaders in their congregations, expected every idea to be backed up with proof from the Word. She says she has always been drawn to the intellectual honesty of biblical study that has been emphasized in the church.

Since 1978, Janice has been a member of Cordova Church of Christ in Rancho Cordova, Calif., where she worships with her mother, Doris Holland, and her husband, Dewey Parker, whom she married in 1991. Janice has been active in the women's programs at the congregation, and Dewey helps with children's education programs.

Janice pursues a relentless weekly schedule. She divides her time between Sacramento and San Francisco. The California Supreme Court receives 7,000 petitions a year, as many as the U.S. Supreme Court, and each must be carefully reviewed.

Her time is also filled with numerous speaking and teaching engagements and public obligations. In her spare time she enjoys reading anything with an intellectual challenge.

Usually reserved and very private, Janice finds coping with her high-profile position the most difficult part of her job. She attributes an active prayer life to helping her endure the scrutiny and pressures of being in the public spotlight.

Janice says Dewey's gregarious personality is a good complement to her nature. A professional musician, he provides her with the perspective of someone outside the legal profession. "He keeps me anchored," she says.

Last year, Janice accepted a position on the Pepperdine University Board of Regents. She addressed the 1999 Pepperdine Bible Lectureship on the topic, "Beyond the Abyss: Restoring Religion on the Public Square," urging Christians to use their First Amendment rights to make their voices heard in public matters.

Chris Goldman, minister of the Cordova congregation, has compared Janice to Deborah, the woman judge of the Bible. "Serving as a judge in a day when evil seems to be prevalent and growing, Janice restores faith to the Supreme Court in the same fashion Deborah restored faith in her day."

Janice is more modest in her assessment of her influences. "I am just one of seven on the Court. What's really important," she explains, "is the influence that every individual has in everyday life."

Janice concludes, "Everyone has the opportunity to change society for the better in all things. People can see integrity and decency in someone else who is making choices between right and wrong. If enough people would exert their influence for good, then there would be fewer problems in our society."

Star Brewer, an educator, writer and speaker, lives in Rancho Cordova, Calif. She and her husband, Gary, are Harding University graduates and have a teenage son and daughter.