Judicature THE STORIED THIRD BRANCH 79

TWO TRAILBLAZERS: ANN CLAIRE WILLIAMS (LEFT) WITH HER JUDICIAL HERO, CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY, IN 2004. PHOTO COURTESY OF ANN CLAIRE WILLIAMS.

She Lifted Her Voice ALTHOUGH SHE LOVED MUSIC, SHE COULD NOT SING. She was such a bad CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY (1921–2005) singer that, as a little girl growing up in U.S. DISTRICT COURT, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK New Haven, she was asked to leave the choir. Judge Constance Baker Motley could not carry a tune, but she spent By Ann Claire Williams her life singing songs of equal justice in perfect harmony. at a segregated school on February 12, Facing the rising sun of our new day When I reflect on Judge Motley’s 1900, by 500 children celebrating the begun incredible life, I think not of her sing- anniversary of President Abraham Let us march on till victory is won. ing voice, but of the commanding voice Lincoln’s birth. The song’s lyrics, which Constance Baker Motley’s voice rang that resonated in depth, strength, and we sang together in the iconic Riverside with the harmonies of liberty and jus- precision in courthouses throughout Church in New York City as we cele- tice. Because Constance Baker Motley America, in the New York Senate, in the brated my friend and mentor, begin: lifted her voice and sang, African Manhattan Borough, and in her own Lift every voice and sing Americans, persons of color, women courtroom. Thousands of us celebrated Till earth and heaven ring, — indeed, all Americans — have a voice. her distinctive voice in a memorial Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; We are all the beneficiaries of her great service for her 14 years ago. The cele- Let our rejoicing rise civil rights and judicial legacy. bration of her life opened with a song High as the list’ning skies, she loved, Lift Every Voice and Sing. Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. I FIRST HEARD JUDGE MOTLEY’S James Weldon Johnson wrote Lift Sing a song full of the faith that the VOICE IN PERSON IN 1989. She was Every Voice and Sing as a poem, and his dark past has taught us, one of my idols as a young girl, and I brother, John Rosamond Johnson, set it Sing a song full of the hope that the loved reading about her in Jet maga- to music. The song was first performed present has brought us; zine as a teenager and college student. u 80 THE STORIED THIRD BRANCH Vol. 103 No. 3

“The kind of person who would

Reading about Judge Motley and her not be put down.” Those words mentor, Thurgood Marshall, had, in have sustained me and many part, inspired me to go to law school. When I met Judge Motley for the others who have walked through first time at a judicial conference 30 years ago, I had only been on the dis- the federal courthouse doors she trict court a few years. Judge James opened. Fifty-seven African- “Skiz” Watson, whose seat she took in the New York State Senate, introduced American women judges, 212 us. I could barely speak. I was in awe. African-American judges, and I had never imagined that I would be face to face with this legal giant when 433 women judges have been I was curled up on my parents’ couch reading Jet magazine. Judge Motley confirmed since Connie took asked me a question, and I managed a the bench in 1966. short answer. Sensing that I was a lit- tle intimidated, she asked me about my parents and my family, and I began to feel more at ease. Despite her insis- James Benton Parsons as he retired When Thurgood and I arrived, the tence, it still took me several years from the federal district court in garage door was wide open. Inside before I could call her “Connie.” Chicago and celebrated the integration were six or eight black men with Judge Motley’s ability to make oth- of the federal judiciary. Nominated shotguns and machine guns who ers feel at ease was one of her many by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, had been guarding the house since strengths. She was a person of com- Judge Parsons was the first person the last bombing. It was the first passion, kindness, and thoughtfulness. of color to serve as a United States time I had ever seen a real shotgun She connected with people from all District Court judge. or machine gun. I had bought my walks of life, from cleaning people In addition to Connie and James son a toy shotgun for Christmas, to Supreme Court justices and pres- Parsons, legends, including Judges so I knew what one looked like, but idents. She learned as a teenager the Leon Higginbotham, Nathaniel Jones, the real thing sent shivers up my importance of compassion and devel- Damon Keith, and Skiz Watson, shared spine. . . . When we went to court oped then a belief that one committed their stories at the conference. Most of the next day, the driver of our car person can make a difference in the the African-American federal judges in and one other man in the front world. Indeed, Clarence Blakeslee, a the country were present, along with passenger seat carried guns.1 wealthy white New Haven business- hundreds of other judges, lawyers, and Connie was also the lead attorney man, changed her world. Blakeslee students. We were moved to tears as for James Meredith, who, in 1962, cou- fully funded her undergraduate and we heard the stories of incredible lives. rageously became the first African law school education after hearing Connie took us back to Birmingham, American admitted to the University Connie speak on an important commu- Alabama, in the 1950s when, as the of Mississippi. Connie made 22 trips nity issue as a teenager and learning first female attorney at the NAACP to Mississippi in connection with that she did not have the money to Legal Defense Fund, she was coun- Meredith’s case alone, where she attend college. Connie lifted her voice sel to Autherine Lucy in her struggle encountered opposition from the high- with compassion and commitment to become the first African-American est levels. Even after Supreme Court throughout her legal, political, and student to attend the University of Justice Hugo Black issued an order pro- judicial careers, and she undoubtedly Alabama. Connie described her stay at hibiting the university from blocking made a difference. civil rights attorney Arthur Shores’s Meredith’s admission, the Mississippi I first heard Connie tell her story at home, which had been bombed several governor declared on television that the first Just The Beginning conference times. As she later recounted in her no school in Mississippi would be in 1992. The conference honored Judge autobiography, Equal Justice Under Law: integrated while he was governor. Judicature 81

But Connie prevailed, and Meredith Court. Her voice, the voice of the first site. I was the kind of person who attended and graduated from the African-American woman to argue would not be put down. I rejected the University of Mississippi. She later before the Supreme Court, won out- notion that my race or sex would bar said that “[t]he Meredith case effec- right nine of the ten cases she argued my success in life.”3 tively put an end to massive resistance there. In the one she lost, Swain v. “The kind of person who would not in the Deep South.”2 Alabama, 380 U.S. 202 (1965), the be put down.” Those words have sus- Many of the African-American prosecutor had struck all the African- tained me and many others who have judges in attendance at this conference American venirepersons in a county walked through the federal court- were still the only judges of color serv- where no African American had house doors she opened. Fifty-seven ing in their districts, circuits, or states. served on a petit jury since about 1950. African-American women judges, 212 We had all faced difficulties with col- The Court ruled the petitioner had not African-American judges, and 433 leagues, lawyers, or litigants. We each met the burden for challenging the use women judges have been confirmed recognized that we were often held to of peremptory strikes as a violation of since Connie took the bench in 1966. a higher standard than other judges as equal protection. The Supreme Court Following her lead, we have tried not we performed our duties. eventually overturned Swain in Batson to let any “ism” keep us from pursuing While we may have faced challenges v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), so she our dreams or from taking on leader- on the bench, when Connie lifted her really won ten out of ten cases. ship positions in the judiciary or in our voice, her life was on the line. Yet time One of my favorite stories about communities. Justice Sonia Sotomayor and time again, she lifted her voice Connie has its roots in the then- has said that she made a list of pros and higher and higher, arguing cases in traditional dinner at the Century Club cons when her name was mentioned hostile towns, against hostile lawyers, in New York City following judges’ as a potential Supreme Court justice. and before hostile judges in the pur- meetings in her district. The Century Although the list of cons was longer, suit of equal justice. Club did not allow women above the she recalled the words of Connie, her ground floor. Yet she was able to former colleague: “When you have a IN 1966, CONNIE BECAME THE FIRST attend the upstairs dinners at the club chance to open the door for others, WOMAN JUDGE OF COLOR TO SERVE with her fellow judges, and she often you don’t have a right to say no.”4 ON THE FEDERAL BENCH, one of many brought flowers to brighten up the The rich history and storytelling at times in her career that she was a trail- room. Sometime later she learned her the conference in 1992 led to the cre- blazing “first.” She was a brilliant, fair fellow judges had figured out a way ation of Just The Beginning — A Pipeline jurist whose commitment to equal to get her upstairs. One of the judges Organization, which is dedicated to justice never faltered. She was also told the club that Connie was their developing and nurturing interest in the first woman of color to become secretary and that her presence was the law among young students from chief judge of a federal district court. necessary so she could take notes. groups underrepresented in the legal And Connie led the district court with That was technically true because the profession. Its pipeline programs, the most judges in the country, the junior, most newly appointed judge offered to all students free of charge, Southern District of New York. was responsible for taking notes. And include middle school and high school She still faced indignities. At a that was how she got upstairs. Summer Legal Institutes, school-year national judicial seminar, a fellow fed- In response to the many indignities programs, and law school support pro- eral judge introduced her as simply she endured, Connie believed that one grams. Its Summer Judicial Internship having “served on the board of United of the most critical lessons she learned Diversity Project places law students Church Women and the board of trust- from Thurgood Marshall was to laugh in summer internships with federal ees of the YWCA.” Former Supreme off most affronts. Her voice, in laughter judges, and it coordinates the Share Court Justice Tom C. Clark, who was and in humor, permeated her person- the Wealth federal clerkship referral co-chairing the event, was so aston- ality, and I learned from her example. program. The organization also holds ished that he took the microphone She similarly rebuffed those who conferences that bring together lead- and proceeded to give a full account actively discouraged her from study- ers committed to increasing diversity of the ten cases she had argued before ing law. As she said, “[It] never deterred in the legal profession. u him while he served on the Supreme me. . . . [T]he effect was just the oppo- 82 THE STORIED THIRD BRANCH Vol. 103 No. 3

Connie attended the first four of Just Connie also helped teach the proper lady who sold her vegetables, to the The Beginning’s 11 conferences until balance between family and career. woman who made a special vegetarian her health prevented her active partic- She cherished her dear husband Joel, meal for me, to Justice Steven Breyer, ipation. Her love of history and belief a real estate broker in New York, who his wife, and sister-in-law, whom in education inspired us to create a was unwavering in his support. They we met on Sunshine Beach for lunch. high school curriculum featuring her were married nearly 60 years, and There, as everywhere, I felt that I was and other judges of color as role mod- their partnership was extraordinary. in the presence of royalty when I was els, as these judges are true American Unlike many men of his generation, with Connie. Everyone held Connie in heroes for people of all races. We also Joel gladly took on the responsibility of awe, and with good reason. celebrated Connie’s iconic life and leg- caregiver for their son when Connie’s I had asked Claire to read Equal Justice acy at the 2016 Just The Beginning work took her out of town for long Under Law on the plane to Nevis, which conference, the 50th anniversary of periods, and he relished seeing she did. In those evenings on the porch, her appointment to the federal bench. Connie’s light shine. Connie’s love for Connie answered Claire’s questions her son, grandchildren, and family also about her life, family, and career. Her CONNIE’S LIFE LIFTED ALL SHE knew no bounds. She believed firmly in voice sang a song of faith, hope, and TOUCHED WITH HER UNIQUE VOICE. knowing the foundation upon which light. It was a special time I will always She demonstrated that being a lawyer one stands and in honoring those treasure. does not require leaving one’s feminin- roots. Connie’s parents had emigrated I think everyone Connie touched ity at the courthouse steps. President from Nevis, an island in the Caribbean. became part of her extended family. Lyndon B. Johnson brought her to the She took her son Joel there for the first I feel blessed to be one of the many White House in 1966 for what she time when he was a young boy, where judges, law clerks, colleagues, neigh- thought was just a meeting. To her sur- they researched family history. bors, and friends that she supported, prise, he nominated her for the bench. She also took her son to the March helped, and inspired to pursue individ- In describing that day, in addition to on Washington, and both her husband ual dreams and to march on, till victory recounting the honor and thrill of the and son went south with her during is won. During these challenging times nomination, she said, “Fortunately, I her NAACP days. She took tremen- for our country, I hope that we all will had on my new Lord & Taylor hat and dous pride in her grandchildren and keep Judge Motley’s voice and legacy my favorite black dress.”5 She was a their accomplishments, and she was alive in our hearts, minds, and actions. woman after my own heart. always telling me about their latest We must lift every voice and sing till exploits. Her granddaughter is now a earth and heaven ring, ring with the ANN CLAIRE lawyer who graduated from law school harmonies of liberty. Facing the rising WILLIAMS served at Yale, the very place where Connie’s sun of our new day begun, let us march as a judge of the U.S. father worked as a chef for undergrad- on, till victory is won. We must march District Court for the uate student societies while Connie on, till victory is won. Northern District of was growing up. Illinois from 1985 to I was fortunate to visit Connie in 1999 and of the U.S. 1 Nevis with my daughter Claire during Constance Baker Motley, Equal Justice Under Law: Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from An Autobiography 123 (1998). her freshman year in college. We sat 2 1999 until her retirement in 2018. She was Id. at 187. on the porch, with Connie’s distinc- 3 Id. at 41–42. the first woman of color to serve as a district tive voice resounding as clearly and 4 Dave Eisenstadter, At Amherst College, Supreme judge in the three-state Seventh Circuit and Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor encourages forcefully as the rolling seas. We vis- students to listen, work hard and be passionate, the first (and only) judge of color to sit on the ited Connie’s family’s church and Amherst Bulletin (Sept. 9, 2015), https://www. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. amherstbulletin.com/Archives/2015/09/s11Am- gravesites, and we met some of her Sotomayor-hg-090915. 5 She received the Devitt Award, the federal many friends on the island. These Motley, supra at 213. judiciary’s highest honor, in 2010. She is friends included everyone from the now Of Counsel at Jones Day, where she leads the firm’s efforts to advance the rule The views and opinions set forth herein are the personal views or opinions of the author; they do not of law in Africa. necessarily reflect views or opinions of the law firm with which she is associated. Judicature 83

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