Hundreds of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's supporters gather outside the Supreme Court as her confirmation hearings begin

• Hundreds of people stood outside of the Supreme Court to support Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS nomination.
• Many of the supporters say her nomination represents change and progress.

Waving colorful signs that read "Confirm Jackson" and "We Deserve a Justice For All," hundreds of activists, lawyers, and college students gathered outside the Supreme Court on Monday to show their support for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during her first day of confirmation hearings.

"As a Black woman who is an attorney and who has locks, I look at her and I see me. I look at her, and I see hope for the future," Fatmata Barrie, a 49-year-old Maryland resident, told Insider.

Jackson, 51, is the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court. If confirmed, she'd also be the first public defender to serve on the high court.

Before Jackson's confirmation hearing began on Monday morning, there were huge crowds gathered outside of the Supreme Court and the US Senate buildings. Supporters of Jackson said it was important to be there and show support for her nomination.

"For so much of my career, I felt like I didn't belong, and I was made to feel like that by judges and by the larger legal community," Porsha-Shaf'on Venable, a public defender in New York, told Insider. "The idea that there is someone that looks like me that has the opportunity and is overqualified to sit on the highest court of the land...is incredibly empowering."

Aniyah Vines, a senior at Howard University who hopes to become an attorney, told Insider that Jackson's nomination gives her hope for what she can become.

"Just seeing her accolades and credentials and just knowing that all her work is paying off is…It just means to me that there are no limitations to what a Black woman can do in America no matter what society tells us consistently," she said.

Other supporters told Insider that Jackson's nomination represents a milestone in the country's history and is a sign of a hopeful future.

"This is a historic day," Janette McCarthy Wallace, general counsel for the NAACP, a prominent civil rights organization, told Insider. "This is a day that shows that inclusion matters, that representation matters."

A few blocks away at the Capitol, meanwhile, the opening remarks for Jackson's confirmation hearing were just beginning.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin kicked off the hearing by criticizing Republican Sen. Josh Hawley's remarks that he'd "noticed an alarming pattern when it comes to Judge Jackson's treatment of sex offenders, especially those preying on children." Durbin called the claims "baseless" and "unfair" in his opening statement.

There is widespread support for Jackson to be confirmed to the high court. Fifty-five percent of Americans believe the Senate should confirm Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court, according to a recent Monmouth University national poll.

Dozens of civil rights group and advocacy organizations have also endorsed her nomination.