COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Chief Justice Ronnie White, noting his status as Missouri's first black court leader, urged lawyers and judges to increase the diversity in a legal justice system that historically has been dominated by white men.

Speaking Thursday at the annual meeting of The Missouri Bar, White said a diverse legal system -- from attorneys to court clerks to judges -- is essential for people to feel they are treated equally under the law.

"I also am calling upon the entire judiciary ... to redouble our efforts to improve racial and gender diversity," White told several hundred lawyers gathered from around the state.

White, 50, took over July 1 as chief justice -- a position that rotates every two years among Supreme Court judges with the greatest seniority. He became the first -- and still the only -- black Supreme Court judge when he was appointed by Gov. Mel Carnahan in 1995.

Carnahan had appointed White barely one year earlier to the Eastern District Court of Appeals. At that time, he was the only black person among the 39 appellate judges, just three of whom were women.

Today, there are five black and nine female appellate judges, including Judge Patricia Cohen of St. Louis, who was appointed just last week to the Eastern District appeals court.

The seven-person nominating committee that submitted Cohen's name along with two others to Gov. Bob Holden included -- for the first time -- two black members, White and the Rev. Earl Abel of Kansas City.

Besides the chief justice, the nominating committee consists of three citizens appointed by the governor and three lawyers chosen by The Missouri Bar.

White said having a diverse selection panel is just as important as having a diverse set of candidates for appellate judgeships.

He urged bar members not to form more committees to study diversity but to form a committee to implement a plan to decrease discrimination.

"The great concept of equal justice on which our judiciary is founded only can be realized fully when there is equal opportunity for all to serve in our system of justice," White said.

White listed diversity among his three goals as chief justice, the other two being an expanded use of computer systems in courts and an expansion of the nonpartisan judicial plan to more counties that currently elect judges under party labels.

Under Missouri's nonpartisan plan, the governor appoints judges from among candidates chosen by a judicial nominating commission, then judges run in periodic retention elections as the only candidate for the job. The system is used for all appellate judgeships but only for circuit and associate circuit judgeships in St. Louis city and the urban counties of Clay, Jackson, Platte and St. Louis.

White encouraged the judicial circuits in the growing counties of Greene, Jefferson and St. Charles to consider adopting the nonpartisan plan. He said it could avert costly, politically charged elections in the future.