A Woman to Know: Constance Baker Motley
I rejected the notion that my race or sex would bar my success in life. — Constance Baker Motley
I rejected the notion that my race or sex would bar my success in life. — Constance Baker Motley
(image via Wikimedia)
Constance Baker Motley’s list of accolades is long, interesting and very impressive:
The first black woman accepted into Columbia Law School
Part of the legal team that prepared for Brown v. Board of Education
Defended Freedom Riders during the 1960s sit-ins
Won nine Supreme Court cases in three years
Then a three-year span of firsts in the 1960s:
The first woman to be elected to the New York State Senate (1964)
The first black woman to be Manhattan Borough President (1965)
The first black woman to hold a federal judgeship (1966)
By the time she died in 2005, at the age of 85, she’d received more than 70 awards and honors for her work.
Add to your library list:
Equal Justice Under Law: An Autobiography (Constance Baker Motley)
One Woman’s Fight for Civil Rights and Equal Justice Under the Law (Gary L. Ford, Jr.)
Read more:
Constance Baker Motley (National Women’s Hall of Fame)
Civil Rights Trailblazer Dies at 84 (The New York Times)
Constance Baker Motley (The Black Past)
Trailblazers in Politics and Civil Rights (The New York Times)
Hear more:
A Forgotten Connecticut Icon (WPNR)
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