Craig Doran’s Blackface Controversy: The Question of Redemption and Judicial Accountability
Craig Doran’s Blackface Photo: Is the Justice System Failing Black People?
A controversial chapter in Rochester’s judicial history resurfaced in a recent discussion featuring Tocsin Magazine founder Shanique Byrd and former Rochester City Court Judge Leticia Astacio. Their conversation examines the 2021 controversy involving New York State Supreme Court Justice Craig Doran and raises a difficult question: Can a judge truly leave a racist act in the past?
In July 2021, Doran resigned as administrative judge of New York’s Seventh Judicial District after a photograph from a 1988 Halloween party surfaced showing him wearing blackface while portraying what he later described as a “well-known public figure of color.” Doran apologized and acknowledged that his actions were racist, saying he did not understand the hurtful nature of what he had done at the time. He also said the incident did not reflect his beliefs or principles.
The controversy was significant because Doran was not simply a private citizen. He was a prominent member of New York’s judiciary and had served as administrative judge of the Seventh Judicial District, which covers eight counties, including Monroe County and the Rochester area. He had also spent years working on issues involving diversity, access to justice and racial inequality within the court system.
That apparent contradiction is at the heart of the video featuring Byrd and Astacio. Astacio argues that Doran’s resignation did not mean he stopped being a judge. He simply gave up his administrative leadership position while continuing to serve as a New York State Supreme Court justice. Byrd questions whether the wider public understood that distinction and whether many people assumed his resignation meant he had left the bench entirely.
Astacio, who was removed from the Rochester City Court bench in 2018 following proceedings before the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, brings her own experience of judicial accountability to the discussion.
So, where is Craig Doran today?
According to New York Courts, Doran is now a retired Supreme Court justice. He has also been identified as General Counsel for Leonard’s Express and has continued participating in court modernization and legal initiatives.
The debate therefore goes beyond one photograph from 1988. The video asks whether decades-old conduct should continue to define a person, whether redemption is possible, and what accountability should look like when the person involved is a judge.
For Byrd and Astacio, the answer is deeply connected to the continuing impact of racism in America. Their discussion leaves viewers with an uncomfortable question: Does time change the meaning of a racist act, or does the responsibility to confront it remain?
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