Born in
Oakland,
California, Armstrong received an
Associate of Arts degree from
Merritt College in 1967 and a
Bachelor of Arts degree from
California State University, Fresno in 1969. She was the first black
policewoman in the
Oakland Police Department where she served from 1970 to 1977. She then received a
Juris Doctor from the
University of San Francisco School of Law in 1977. She was a judicial extern, California Court of Appeals in 1977, and was a deputy district attorney in
Alameda County, California from 1978 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1982. From 1979 to 1980, she was a senior consultant to the California Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice. She was a trial attorney of Public Integrity Section of the
United States Department of Justice from 1982 to 1983, and then served as a Commissioner on the
Consumer Product Safety Commission from 1983 to 1986, and on the
United States Parole Commission from 1986 to 1989. She was a Judge on the Alameda Superior Court, California from 1989 to 1991. ==Federal judicial service==