Fani Willis is the first woman to hold the office of district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, which contains most of Atlanta. She is known for her prosecution of the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal and her investigation of former president Donald Trump’s attempts to influence Georgia’s election results. But who is the woman behind the district attorney? What is her family background and how did it shape her career?
Early Life and Education
Fani Willis was born in 1971 in Inglewood, California. Her father, John Clifford Floyd III, was a member of the Black Panthers and a criminal defense attorney. Her mother, whose name is not publicly known, divorced her father when Willis was in the first grade and moved back to California. Willis mostly stayed with her father in Washington, D.C., where he practiced law and was involved in civil rights activism.
Willis studied political science at Howard University, graduating cum laude in 1993. She then moved to Atlanta to attend Emory University School of Law, graduating in 1996 with a Juris Doctor. She spent 16 years as a prosecutor in the Fulton County district attorney’s office, working under Paul Howard Jr., who would later become her opponent in the 2020 election.
Career and Achievements
Willis rose to prominence as the lead prosecutor in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal, which involved 12 educators accused of correcting students’ answers on standardized tests to inflate the scores. Willis used Georgia’s RICO statute, which is usually reserved for organized crime, to charge the defendants with racketeering. Eleven of the 12 were convicted in 2015, in what was considered one of the largest cheating scandals in American history.
In 2018, Willis left the district attorney’s office and went into private practice. She also ran for a seat on the Fulton County Superior Court, but lost. In 2019, she became the chief municipal judge for South Fulton, Georgia.
In 2020, Willis challenged her former boss, Paul Howard Jr., for the district attorney’s seat. She accused him of corruption, mismanagement, and sexual harassment. She won the Democratic primary with 73% of the vote, and went on to win the general election with 83% of the vote, becoming the first woman to serve as Fulton County’s district attorney.
One of Willis’s most notable actions as district attorney was launching a criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results in favor of Joe Biden. Willis sent letters to Trump, his allies, and state officials, requesting them to preserve any evidence related to Trump’s phone calls and meetings, in which he allegedly pressured them to “find” enough votes to change the outcome. Willis is using the same RICO statute that she used in the cheating scandal to pursue the case, which could result in charges of election interference, conspiracy, and racketeering.
Personal Life and Family
Willis is a single mother of two children, a son and a daughter. She has not revealed much about her personal life or her romantic relationships. She is a devout Christian and attends the Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Georgia.
Willis’s mother is not her biological mother, but her stepmother. Her father married Delores Trivers Floyd in 1989, long after Willis was born. Delores was a supportive and loving figure in Willis’s life, until she passed away in 2012 due to complications from a brain tumor.
Willis’s father, John Clifford Floyd III, is still alive and proud of his daughter’s achievements. He is 80 years old and lives in Washington, D.C. He continues to practice law and advocate for civil rights. He has been a mentor and an inspiration for Willis, who credits him for her passion for justice and her courage to challenge the status quo.