Constance Baker Motley

Hello! My name is Constance Baker Motley. I want to tell you my story. I was born on September 14th, 1921, in a city called New Haven, Connecticut. My parents came to America from a small, sunny island in the Caribbean called Nevis, hoping for a better life. I was the ninth of twelve children! Growing up, I loved to read and learn. But in those days, things weren't always fair for Black people. When I was a teenager, I was turned away from a public beach just because of the color of my skin. That day, I felt a fire light up inside me. I decided right then that I would become a lawyer to fight against unfair rules, which were called segregation laws.

My family didn't have a lot of money, so I knew going to college would be difficult. After high school, I worked for a government organization helping my community. One night, I gave a speech at a community center, and a kind, wealthy white man named Clarence W. Blakeslee was in the audience. He was so impressed with my speech that he offered to pay for my college education! I couldn't believe it. I studied hard, first at Fisk University and then at New York University. Finally, I went to one of the best law schools in the country, Columbia Law School, and I graduated in 1946. My dream of becoming a lawyer was coming true.

Right after law school, in 1945, I started working for an amazing organization called the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. My boss was a brilliant lawyer named Thurgood Marshall, who would later become a Supreme Court Justice. Our job was to challenge segregation laws in court. It was exciting and important work. I traveled all over the southern United States, often to dangerous places, to defend people's civil rights. I wrote the original legal complaint in 1950 for the famous case of Brown v. Board of Education, which ended segregation in public schools. I even argued ten cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court in the country, and I won nine of them! One of my proudest moments was in 1962, when I helped a brave young man named James Meredith become the first Black student to attend the University of Mississippi.

After twenty years of fighting for justice in the courtroom, I decided to make new kinds of changes. In 1964, I became the first African American woman ever elected to the New York State Senate. It was a huge honor to help write laws for the people of New York. A year later, in 1965, I became the first woman and the first African American to be president of the Manhattan Borough, which is like being the mayor of a big part of New York City. But the biggest 'first' was yet to come. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson chose me to be a federal judge. I was the very first African American woman to ever hold such a powerful job in the American justice system. I served as a judge for the rest of my career, always trying to be fair and just.

I worked as a judge for many years, always guided by the belief that everyone deserves equal rights. I lived a long and full life and was 84 years old when I passed on in 2005. Today, people remember me as a trailblazer—someone who opened doors for others. I hope my story shows you that no matter where you start in life, you can make a big difference in the world. If you see something that is unfair, you have the power to stand up and work to make it right.