Constance Baker Motley
THE HONORABLE CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY The Honorable Constance Baker Motley is an extraordinary person, and one of the noteworthy and surprising facts about her is how little has been written about her life and work. If, after this presentation, you are interested in learning more about her, you might read her autobiography, Equal Justice Under Law,1 and you might watch a videotape of a 1988 interview of her conducted by Alfred Aman, Professor and former dean at the Indiana University School of Law at Bloomington.2 Our library can secure the videotape for you through interlibrary loan. The bibliography lists other materials relevant to her life and work. Here are several striking facts about Constance Baker Motley, any one of which would make her worthy of serious study. She was the fifth woman, and the first Black woman, appointed to the federal bench.3 She served for almost twenty years, from 1946 to 1964, as staff attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and was part of the "inner circle" responsible for Brown v. Board of Education, a case that many consider to be the most important of the twentieth century.4 She represented James Meredith in his successful attempt to integrate the University of Mississippi, integration that was accomplished only with the 1Constance Baker Motley, Equal Justice Under the Law (1998). 2An interview with Judge Constance Baker Motley conducted by Alfred C. Aman (1988). 3Linn Washington, Black Judges on Justice (1995), p. 760. 4Michael J. Klarman, From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality, (2004), p.
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