U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch Photographed for Vogue September 2015. Talks Family History and Early Career.

Loretta Lynch Vogue Annie Leibovitz


Loretta Lynch’s nomination and subsequent confirmation as U.S. Attorney General comes at a pivotal moment in history when the ongoing issue of police brutality is at the forefront of the minds of many African-Americans.

Over the past few months, Lynch has spoken out about the cases of Freddie Gray, and Sandra Bland, and how these incidents cause many black people in America to have a deep distrust of the police.

Lynch was recently photographed for the September issue of Vogue by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, alongside her parents, Lorenzo and Lorine Lynch. Lorenzo and Lorine stood on stage with Loretta Lynch, earlier this year, when she was sworn in as the 83rd U.S. Attorney General.

The Vogue article highlights compelling aspects of Loretta Lynch’s family history as well as her relationship with her parents.

Loretta Lynch can trace her ancestry back at least five generations in North Carolina, and her family history bears the hallmarks of African-American struggle and resistance. Lynch’s great-great-grandfather, a free black man, fell in love with a slave and reentered bondage to marry her. He was first in a long family line of Baptist ministers. Her grandfather, a sharecropper, opened his church to hide black men wanted by the law. “They didn’t think they would get a fair deal in court,” says Lynch’s father, the Reverend Lorenzo Lynch. “Loretta grew up hearing that story, and I know it stuck in her mind.”


Loretta Lynch Vogue Annie Leibovitz