Joseph Hatchett, whose groundbreaking career included becoming the first Black justice on the Florida Supreme Court, died Friday at age 88, the Supreme Court announced.

Hatchett was appointed to the Supreme Court by Gov. Reubin Askew in 1975 and served until 1979, when President Jimmy Carter named him as a federal appeals-court judge. He stepped down from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in 1999 and became a partner with the Akerman law firm in Tallahassee.