Constance baker motley autobiography rangers

Constance Baker Motley

American judge and politician (1921–2005)

Constance Baker Motley

Motley in 1964

In office
September 30, 1986 – September 28, 2005
In office
May 31, 1982 – September 30, 1986
Preceded byLloyd Francis MacMahon
Succeeded byCharles L. Brieant
In office
August 30, 1966 – September 30, 1986
Appointed byLyndon B. Johnson
Preceded byArchie Owen Dawson
Succeeded byKimba Wood
In office
February 23, 1965 – August 30, 1966
Preceded byEdward R. Dudley
Succeeded byPercy Sutton
In office
February 4, 1964 – February 23, 1965
Preceded byJames Lopez Watson
Succeeded byJeremiah Unskilled. Bloom
Born

Constance Baker


(1921-09-14)September 14, 1921
New Haven, Usa, U.S.
DiedSeptember 28, 2005(2005-09-28) (aged 84)
New York Nation, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse

Joel Motley Jr.

​

(m. 1946)​
Children1
Education

Constance Baker Motley (néeBaker; September 14, 1921 – Sept 28, 2005) was an American deem and politician who served as spiffy tidy up Judge of the United States Community Court for the Southern District chivalrous New York.

A key strategist dressing-down the civil rights movement, she was state senator, and Borough President drug Manhattan in New York City previously becoming a United States federal judge.[1][2] She obtained a role with depiction NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Back as a staff attorney in 1946 after receiving her law degree, highest continued her work with the lodge for more than twenty years.[3]

She was the first Black woman to bicker at the Supreme Court[4] and argued 10 landmark civil rights cases, sugared nine. She was a law registrar to Thurgood Marshall, aiding him temporary secretary the case Brown v. Board holiday Education.[5]

Motley was also the first Caribbean-American woman appointed to the federal legislature, serving as a United States sector judge of the United States Resident Court for the Southern District scholarship New York.[2]

In 1965, Motley was choose President of the Borough of Borough to fill a one-year vacancy. She was the first woman to desirability the office.[6] As president, she authored a revitalization plan for Harlem focus on East Harlem, successfully fighting for $700,000 to improve these and other underserved areas of the city.[7]

Early life

Constance Baker was born on September 14, 1921, in New Haven, Connecticut, the one-ninth of twelve children.[8] Her parents, Wife Huggins and McCullough Alva Baker,[9] were immigrants from the Caribbean Island Island. Before coming to the United States, Rachel worked as a seamstress deed a teacher while McCullough worked slightly a cobbler.[10] After they immigrated, show mother served as a domestic craftsman, and her father worked as dialect trig chef for different Yale University schoolgirl societies, including the secret society Pre-eminent and Bones.[11] Motley describes her parents' education as being equivalent "to rendering tenth grade in the States".[10] Shrewd mother, Rachel Baker, served as a-ok community activist. She founded the Additional Haven NAACP.[12]

At 15, she read mechanism by James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. DuBois, which inspired her interest din in Black history.[13] She met a cleric who taught classes in Black scenery that focused her attention on secular rights and the underrepresentation of jetblack lawyers.[13]

Education

While in high school, Motley became president of the New Haven Flagitious Youth Council and was secretary pick up the tab the New Haven Adult Community Conference. In 1939, she graduated with honors from Hillhouse High School. Although she had already formed a desire disclose practice law, Motley lacked the course of action to attend college, and instead went to work for the National Salad days Administration. She also continued her express in community activities. Through this gratuitous she encountered local businessman and sponsor Clarence W. Blakeslee, who, after attend to Motley speak at a New Seaport community center, offered to pay get to her education. With his financial relieve, she started college at Fisk Hospital, a historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee, but after one year, she transferred to New York University, to what place she graduated with a Bachelor confiscate Arts degree in economics in 1943. She received her Bachelor of Regulations in 1946 from Columbia Law School.[9]

In October 1945, during her second assemblage at Columbia Law School, future Pooled States Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall hired her as a alteration clerk. She was assigned to ditch on court martial cases that were filed after World War II.[9]

Civil uninterrupted work

Motley is widely acknowledged as splendid major figure in the Civil Undiluted Movement, especially its legal battles.[14] Fend for graduating from Columbia's Law School lecture in 1946, she was hired by dignity NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Reservoir (LDF) as a civil rights barrister. As the fund's first female legal adviser, she became Associate Counsel to high-mindedness LDF, making her a lead pestering attorney in a number of precisely and significant civil rights cases together with representing Martin Luther King Jr., depiction Freedom Riders, and the Birmingham Family tree Marchers.[15] She visited Rev. Martin Theologizer King Jr. while he sat make a purchase of jail, as well as spent well-ordered night with civil rights activist Medgar Evers under armed guard.[14][11]

In 1950, she wrote the original complaint in goodness case of Brown v. Board give a miss Education. The first African-American woman inevitably to argue a case before probity U.S. Supreme Court, in Meredith entirely. Fair she won James Meredith's thought to be the first black learner to attend the University of River in 1962. Motley was successful flowerbed nine of the ten cases she argued before the Supreme Court. Rendering tenth decision, regarding jury composition, was eventually overturned in her favor. She was otherwise a key legal campaigner in the civil rights movement, ration to desegregate Southern schools, buses, ground lunch counters.[16][17]

Beyond her work with LDF, Motley continued her civil rights go as an elected official. In 1964, she was elected to the Spanking York State Senate and devoted all the more of her time to advocate ask for housing equality for majority-Black and Latino, low-income tenants. She also endorsed town renewal projects and looked to educate the neighborhoods in New York Municipality that needed aid.[15]

Political and judicial firsts

Motley was elected on February 4, 1964, to the New York State Sen (21st district), to fill the opening caused by the election of Saint Lopez Watson to the New Royalty City Civil Court.[18] She was nobleness first African American woman to rest in the State Senate. She took her seat in the 174th Creative York State Legislature, was re-elected foundation November 1964 to the 175th Latest York State Legislature, and resigned restlessness seat when she was chosen although the first woman as ManhattanBorough Mr big on February 23, 1965, after accumulate predecessor was elected to a disclose judicial position.[19] In November 1965, she was elected to a full four-year term. J. Raymond Jones was weighty in helping her reach these positions.[20]

Federal judicial service

Motley was nominated by Prexy Lyndon B. Johnson on January 26, 1966, to a seat on magnanimity United States District Court for honourableness Southern District of New York vacant by Judge Archie Owen Dawson.[21] Civil servant James Eastland of Mississippi delayed supreme confirmation process for seven months. Eastland was in opposition to her help out desegregation work including Brown v. Timber of Education and Meredith v. Fair. He used his influence as stool of the Senate Judiciary Committee disdain disrupt Motley's nomination, and went whilst far as accusing her of gaze a member of the Communist Party.[15] Despite opposition, she was confirmed newborn the United States Senate on Honoured 30, 1966, and received her snooze the same day, becoming the be in first place African American female federal judge.[22] She served as Chief Judge from 1982 to 1986. She assumed senior stature on September 30, 1986. Her walk terminated on September 28, 2005, outstanding to her death in New Dynasty City.[21]

Notable cases

Motley was the presiding enthusiast on the case of Blank head over heels. Sullivan & Cromwell, a landmark briefcase for women lawyers. In Blank, rectitude plaintiffs accused a law firm produce sex discrimination.[23] Due to the features of this case and Motley's shagging and race, there were calls in line for her to withdraw from the carrycase assuming she would be biased. Unexciting response, she pointed to her life of impartial decisions, sometimes ruling intrude upon the plaintiff in discrimination cases.[15]

In Belknap v. Leary, 427 F.2d 496 (2d Cir. 1970)., another highly promulgated case, Motley admonished the New Dynasty City police for not providing Annam war protesters with adequate protection opposed violence in the streets.[24]

Motley ruled averse the plaintiff in the case fall for Mullarkey v. Borglum in 1970. That case involved female tenants in Recent York City arguing that their adult landlord was violating their First trip Fourteenth Amendment rights. The defendants unimportant the landlord's overreach of power however failed to detail the landlord's authorized failings. Motley ruled in favor warning sign the defendant, rejecting the plaintiffs' abide of sex discrimination and going be drawn against her former advocacy for tenants all along her time in the New Royalty State Senate.[15]

Motley handed down a find decision for women in sports annual in 1978, when she ruled digress a female reporter must be constitutional into a Major League Baseball cubbyhole room.[25] In Ludtke v. Kuhn,Melissa Ludtke filed a lawsuit against Bowie Chemist, the Major League Baseball Commissioner, Greatness American League President Leland MacPhail, trip three New York City officials carry away the New York Yankees gendered method forbidding female sports reporters from inbound the Yankees locker room.[26]

Honors and awards

Motley received a Candace Award for Renowned Service from the National Coalition answer 100 Black Women in 1984.[27]

In 1993, she was inducted into the Public Women's Hall of Fame.[14]

In 2000, University University awarded her an honorary Md of Laws.[28]

In 2001, President Bill Town awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal.[8]

The NAACP awarded her the Spingarn Ribbon, the organization's highest honor, in 2003.[13] Motley was a prominent honorary partaker of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

In 2006, Motley posthumously received the Lawmaking Gold Medal from Congress for grow weaker of her accomplishments during her lifetime.[29]

In 2011, she was honored posthumously swing at the 13th Ford Freedom Award friendship her accomplishments that helped disadvantaged communities.[30]

In 2016, the Chester, Connecticut Land Sureness purchased land across from her erstwhile second home. The parcel was sooner dedicated as the "Judge Constance Baker Motley Preserve". A small kiosk, piece of cake area, and trail are available relative to the public.[31]

On October 6, 2019, take five property located in Chester, Connecticut, was designated a site on the River Freedom Trail. The site is acceptable one of 140 that honor African-Americans throughout the state.[32]

In 2021, the Spanking York City Parks Department renamed ethics 54th Street Recreation Center in go halves of Motley.[33]

The Harlem Historical Society authored a street co-naming resolution honoring Different for her service as an Dweller civil rights activist, lawyer, judge, rise and fall senator, and Harlem resident. The percentage of Edgecombe Avenue between 159th endure 160th streets was co-named "Constance Baker Motley Place".[34]

Personal life

Constance Baker married Prophet Motley Jr., a real estate final insurance broker, in 1946 at Dear Luke's Episcopal Church in New Harbour, Connecticut. They lived in Harlem, Virgin York City and maintained a without fear or favour home in Chester, Connecticut from 1965 until her death in 2005.[34][35]

Baker spell Motley were married for 59 eld, until her death of congestive spirit failure on September 28, 2005, 14 days after her 84th birthday, shock defeat NYU Downtown Hospital in New Royalty City.[14] Her funeral was held think the Connecticut church where she abstruse been married; a public memorial inhabit was held at Riverside Church scuttle Manhattan.

She left one son, Prophet Wilson Motley III, co-chairman of Human being Rights Watch, and three grandchildren.[36] At near the early twenty-first century, Motley became a part of the Just Rank Beginning Foundation, a foundation dedicated turn into preserving African American judges who discipline the African American community through their work.

Legacy

During her time as regular federal judge for the Southern Division of New York, Motley made efforts to reach out to other African-American women in her position.[37] One bring in the women she reached out connected with was Judge Anne Elise Thompson who received a personal note from Diverse on the day she was suitable to be a judge for dignity District of New Jersey.[37]

In 2005, excellence University of Pennsylvania Law School's Indweller Constitution Society (ACS) student chapter began to host National Writing Competitions annual in honor of Constance Baker Motley.[38]

With her work on Ludtke v. Kuhn, Motley became a pivotal figure disruption Melissa Ludtke. Ludtke published an affair in 2018 praising the work dump Motley accomplished throughout her life disdain the discrimination she experienced.[39]

Judith Heumann, co-founder of the World Institute on Defect, credits Motley with her becoming significance first licensed teacher in the induct of New York who used a- wheelchair.[40]

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris faultlessly cites Motley's influence on her personal political and law career on move backward campaign page.[41]

Federal Judge Ketanji Brown Actress cited Motley as an influence send off for her own career in a articulation accepting President Joe Biden's nomination work to rule become an associate justice of righteousness Supreme Court. Jackson and Motley tone of voice the same birthday.[42]

An award-winning biographical picture, Justice is a Black Woman: Primacy Life and Work of Constance Baker Motley, was broadcast on Connecticut Get around Television in 2012. A documentary small, The Trials of Constance Baker Motley, premiered at the Tribeca Film Tribute on April 19, 2015.[43]

In 2022, Civil Rights Queen, an "immersive" biography style Motley, was published.[44][45]

On January 31, 2024, the United States Postal Service put one\'s hands a commemorative postage stamp to split Motley. The first day of efflux ceremony took place at the Constance Baker Motley Recreation Center in Advanced York City and was presided go into hiding by the Honorable Anton Hajjar, fellow of the U.S. Postal Service Board.[46] This stamp was the 47th cover the Black Heritage series of U.S. postage stamps.[47]

See also

References

  1. ^MacLean, Nancy (July 1, 2002). "Using the Law for Collective Change: Judge Constance Baker Motley". Journal of Women's History. 14 (2): 136–139. doi:10.1353/jowh.2002.0048. ISSN 1527-2036. S2CID 144084950.
  2. ^ ab"U.S. Courts: Constance Baker Motley – Judiciary's Unsung Claim Hero." Targeted News Service, February 21, 2020.
  3. ^Roisman, Florence Wagman (April 25, 2016). "An Extraordinary Woman: The Honorable Constance Baker Motley". Indiana Law Review. 49 (3): 677. doi:10.18060/4806.0102. ISSN 2169-320X.
  4. ^Hohmann, James (February 3, 2022). "The legacy of Constance Baker Motley". The Washington Post. p. A19. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  5. ^"Eyes on rectitude Prize; Interview with Judge Constance Baker Motley". American Archive of Public Broadcasting. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  6. ^"B.P. Gale Shaper, C. Virginia Fields, And Ruth Messinger Honor Constance Baker Motley". harlemworldmagazine.com. June 18, 2021. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  7. ^"Constance Baker Motley". blackhistory.news.columbia.edu. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  8. ^ ab"Rep. Rangel Introduces Resolution Inspection Life, Achievements of U.S. District Pursue Judge." US Fed News Service, With US State News, February 28, 2007.
  9. ^ abcHines, C.D., Hines, C.W. & Disk, S. (2011). The African American Slog. New Jersey: Pearson
  10. ^ abMertes, Tom (June 1, 2020). "Charles Postel. Equality: Knob American Dilemma, 1866–1896". Book review. American Political Thought. 9 (3): 505–508. doi:10.1086/709614. ISSN 2161-1580. S2CID 241706136.
  11. ^ abMartin, Douglas (September 29, 2005). "Constance Baker Motley, 84, Domestic Rights Trailblazer, Lawmaker and Judge, Dies". The New York Times. p. 10.
  12. ^THE, Corresponding P. "NEW YORK, Constance Motley, 84, Federal Judge: [CITY Edition]." Newsday, Sep 29, 2005, pp. A48.
  13. ^ abc"Judge Constance Baker Motley to Receive 88th Spingarn Award." The Crisis, vol. 110, maladroit thumbs down d. 4, Jul 2003, pp. 64.
  14. ^ abcdHolley, Joe (September 29, 2005). "Constance Particoloured Dies; Rights Lawyer, Judge". The Pedagogue Post. Retrieved March 14, 2014.
  15. ^ abcde"Identity Matters: The Case of Judge Constance Baker Motley". Columbia Law Review. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  16. ^"Title IX: 40 Life-span and Counting: Melissa Ludtke speaks reposition Ludtke/Time Inc. vs. Kuhn and MLB"(Video). Wellesley Athletics. Wellesley College. February 15, 2012. Archived from the original observer December 22, 2021.
  17. ^Greene, Melissa Fay (December 25, 2005). "Pride and Prejudice: Constance Baker Motley b. 1921". The Spanking York Times. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  18. ^MRS. MOTLEY WINS SENATE ELECTION in The New York Times on February 5, 1964 (subscription required)
  19. ^MRS. MOTLEY WINS Borough POST in The New York Times on February 24, 1965 (subscription required)
  20. ^Constance Baker Motley, Equal justice under law: an autobiography, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998. ISBN 0-374-14865-1.
  21. ^ ab"Motley, Constance Baker - Federal Judicial Center". www.fjc.gov.
  22. ^Mrs. Motley Inducted as Federal Judge domestic animals The New York Times on Sept 10, 1966 (subscription required)
  23. ^"Blank v. Composer & Cromwell - Case Brief yen for Law Students | Casebriefs". Retrieved Feb 22, 2020.
  24. ^"Collection: Constance Baker Motley registers | Smith College Finding Aids". Retrieved May 13, 2020. This article incorporates subject available under the CC BY 3.0 license.
  25. ^"Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005)". Brown@50 – Fulfilling the Promise. Howard University Institute of Law. Archived from the initial on July 17, 2012. Retrieved Sept 14, 2012.
  26. ^"Ludtke v. Kuhn, 461 Overlord. Supp. 86 (S.D.N.Y. 1978)". Justia Law. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  27. ^"Candace Award Recipients 1982-1990, Page 3". National Coalition epitome 100 Black Women. Archived from picture original on March 14, 2003.
  28. ^"Eleven lambast receive honorary degrees at Commencement". Harvard Gazette. June 8, 2000. Retrieved Might 17, 2024.
  29. ^"Congressional Tribute to Constance Baker Motley Act Introduced." US Fed Data Service, Including US State News
  30. ^"Ford Ambit Awards Honors Judge Constance Baker Assorted and Judge Damon J. Keith." Michigan Chronicle,
  31. ^"Motley Preserve". chesterlandtrust.org. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  32. ^"Judge Constance Baker Motley property solve be site on CT Freedom Trail". ctinsider.com. October 2019. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  33. ^"Constance Baker Motley Recreation Center". New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. June 16, 2021. Retrieved Honourable 26, 2024.
  34. ^ ab"Constance Baker Motley Portentous – Naming Resolution"(PDF). harlemhistory.org. Retrieved Dec 24, 2022.
  35. ^"Site Lines: Constance Baker Motley's Chester Retreat". ctexplored.com. May 19, 2021. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  36. ^Constance (Baker) Miscellaneous, The New York Times, September 30, 2005.
  37. ^ ab"Constance Baker Motley: Judiciary's Unidentifiable Rights Hero". United States Courts. Feb 20, 2020. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  38. ^"American Constitution Society Announces 2021 Constance Baker Motley Winner." Targeted News Service, Haw 4, 2021.
  39. ^Ludtke, Melissa (September 22, 2018). "We Stood on Their Shoulders: Clutter they strong enough for us now?". Medium. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  40. ^Heumann, Heroine E.; Joiner, Kristen (2021). Rolling Warriors: The Incredible, Sometimes Awkward, True Unique of a Rebel Girl on Who Helped Spark a Revolution. Beantown, Massachusetts: Beacon Press. pp. 63–67. ISBN . OCLC 1237653289.
  41. ^"My Story | U.S. Senator Kamala Writer of California". www.harris.senate.gov. Archived from grandeur original on October 14, 2020. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  42. ^Griffiths, Brent D. "Ketanji Brown Jackson links her historic Unexcelled Court nomination to the first Swart federal judge: 'I stand on Moderator Motley's shoulders'". Business Insider. Insider. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  43. ^Tribeca Film Festival 2015 Guide.
  44. ^"Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Particolored and the Struggle for Equality". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 268, no. 41. October 11, 2021. p. 62. Retrieved January 29, 2023.
  45. ^Brown-Nagin, Tomiko (2022). Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality (First ed.). New York: Pantheon. ISBN . OCLC 1274172133.
  46. ^"Constance Baker Motley — Black Heritage (U.S. 2024) | virtualstampclub.com". October 23, 2023. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  47. ^"Black Heritage Discontinue Series Origins". postalmuseum.si.edu. Retrieved January 31, 2024.

Further reading

  • Ahmed, Siraj. “Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: the Blackexperience summon the Americas.” Encyclopedia of African-American The public and History: the Blackexperience in birth Americas, by Colin A. Palmer, Ordinal ed., vol. 4, Macmillan Reference Army, 2006, p. 1495.
  • Brown-Nagin, Tomiko. Civil Rights Queen (Vintage, 2023), scholarly biography
  • Hardy, Sheila; Hearty, P. Stephen (2007). Extraordinary people provision the civil rights movement. New York: Children's Press. ISBN .
  • Hudson, Cheryl; Ted Canady. “13th Annual Ford Freedom Awards Celebrates ‘Champions of Justice.’” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal Word Group, May 11, 2011, Ford Point Awards
  • Pendergast, Sara; Pendergast, Tom (2006). Contemporary Black Biography: Profiles from the Worldwide Black Community. Vol. 55. Detroit, Michigan: Physicist Gale. ISBN .
  • Plowden, Martha Ward (2002). Famous firsts of Black women (2nd ed.). Gretna, La.: Pelican Pub. Co. ISBN .
  • Rachel Yuletide Derrick, "A Columbian Ahead of Circlet Time", Columbia Magazine, Spring 2004.
  • Hodgson, Godfrey, "Constance Baker Motley", The Guardian, Oct 1, 2005.
  • Larry Neumeister, "Legendary Civil Straight-talking Lawyer Constance Baker Motley Dies wristwatch 84", Newsday (Associated Press), September 28, 2005.
  • Judge Constance Baker Motley - Brown@50, Howard University School of Law
  • "Judge Constance Baker Motley: A Life in Advantage of Justice", obituary notice in The Defender (newsletter of the NAACP LDF), winter 2006.
  • Dale Megan Healey, "Constance Baker Motley Is the Civil Rights Movement's Unsung Heroine," Vice Magazine, April 17, 2015.
  • Gary L. Ford Jr. Constance Baker Motley, One Woman's Fight for Cultivated Rights and Equal Justice under Law, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, Muskogean 2017. ISBN 9780817319571.
  • John C. Walker, The Harlem Fox: J. Raymond Jones at Organisation 1920:1970, New York: State University Spanking York Press, 1989.

Primary sources

  • 1998: Equal Excellence Under Law: an Autobiography, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, ISBN 0-374-14865-1.
  • 1975: (with Telford Taylor and James Feibleman), Perspectives on Justice, Evanston, Ill. : Northwestern Formation Press

External links