ALL RISE FOR JUDGE CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY - FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN FEDERAL JUDGE

 

ALL RISE FOR JUDGE CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY 
BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2022 

Judge Constance Baker Motley

Although Black women protested along White women for the right to vote in the early 20th Century, they were not granted the right to vote until 45 years after their White sisters, as I wrote in my 2020 Black History Month Blog post (If you want to read this blog from 2 years ago, you can Click HERE to read it, after reading this 2022 blog). 

President Woodrow Wilson Signs The 19th Amendment
No Black Women Were in Attendance

Despite that decades-long lag, if you look throughout history, Black women have often been deemed ‘the backbone of democracy’ because of our civic-mindedness and unwavering determination to ensure that all eligible people are able to exercise their legal right to vote. 

Stacey Abrams at a Voter Registration Event

So, one would think that Black women would be celebrated and rewarded for the role that we have continued to play in upholding our democracy. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case. Time and again, Black women ‘come through’ by organizing voter registration drives, educating voters on what and who are on the ballots, encouraging people to vote, standing in ridiculously long lines at the polls in many African-American dominated neighborhoods (Read HERE to see the stark stats in Georgia). 

Ridiculously Long Voting Line in Fulton County, Georgia

However, when it comes time for our biggest needs being met, whether they be to feed, clothe, house, educate our families; be paid our worth; or be promoted to positions that we have earned, more often than not, we are sent to the back of the line and expected to be grateful for the pittance we are granted by the powers that be. Yet, we persevere and persevere and persevere, because we know that we have earned what is overdue – and because we are strong, although exhausted, from the constant struggle to be respected in the manner in which we deserve. Why, then, do many people say that we Black women are ‘unqualified, affirmative action beneficiaries,’ when we are finally and duly rewarded by a role that we have more than earned? I have theories, but I outline some facts for you to consider. 

Democratic Primary Debate When Candidate Biden Made the Declaration to Nominate an African-American Woman to the Supreme Court

Case in point: When President Biden was campaigning for the 2020 Presidential Election, he promised that if elected, and given the chance to nominate Supreme Court Nominees, the first nominee would be a Black woman – thus being the first in the Court’s 233-year history. His reasoning was that the Supreme Court needed to increase its diversity to better reflect society, and because a Black woman was overdue. The first time he said it during a primary debate, he received thunderous applause. Fast forward to today, and a Supreme Court Justice vacancy is about to be created with the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer. 

Justice Breyer Announcing His Retirement from The Supreme Court

Honoring his campaign promise, President Biden has confirmed that he will, indeed, nominate an African-American woman to fill that seat.   ADDENDUM on February 25, 2022: President Biden has nominated Judge Katanji Brown Jackson to be the next Supreme Court Justice. Click HERE to learn more about her.

One of Several Fox Segments Telegraphing Anger over an African-American Woman Being Nominated to The Supreme Court

Cue the outrage by many – and most of it has been extremely racist – much like when President Obama nominated Justice Sotomayor – the first Latina Supreme Court Justice – even though her qualifications were stellar, and she continues to be an excellent Supreme Court Justice. (WATCH THIS THE DAILY SHOW CLIP to get a sense of the perplexing anger). 

Potential Highly Qualified SCOTUS Nominees

In it 233-year history, there have been 115 Supreme Court Justices: 

• two (2) have been Black men (Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas); 
• four (4) have been White women (Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Amy Coney Barrett); 
• and one (1) has been Latina (Sonia Sotomayor); 
• The remaining 108 have been White men.  
• Once this to-be-named African-American female joins the illustrious ranks, she will enable the Supreme Court to boast four women simultaneously serving. Progress, indeed! 

So, why are people offended by the desire to add some qualified representation on the Supreme Court? 

When President Ronald Reagan made a campaign promise that he would nominate the Supreme Court’s first female Justice (Sandra Day O’Connor), there was no outrage. When President Donald Trump promised that he would replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a woman (Amy Coney Barrett), there was no outrage. 

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg & Sandra Day O'Connor

In fact, both of those promises were celebrated, and some of those delighted embraces have been made by the same people who are now clutching their pearls and implying that all of the African-American women who will be considered are wholly unqualified to be a Supreme Court Justice. 

Senator Wicker Complaining that the African-American Female Nominee will be a "Beneficiary of Affirmative Action"

Senator Wicker Telling Amy Coney Barrett What a Role Model She will be to His Daughters and Granddaughters

(Click HERE to watch Senator Wicker’s hypocritical responses to two different female Supreme Court Justice nominees)

Putting it bluntly, as you can see above, the potential shortlist of nominees is extremely well-educated and almost overly-qualified, when compared to some of their soon-to-be fellow Justices, when they were appointed to The Supreme Court.

So, let’s un-clutch the pearls, take a deep breath, and be accepting, or even, embracing. It is beyond time for a qualified Black woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court, and the candidate pool is robust. Representation Matters. ‘Periodt.’ 

TO LOOK FORWARD, WE MUST EXAMINE OUR HISTORY. 

Who was the trailblazing African-American female judge on whose shoulders, these amazing, potential candidates stand? Allow me to introduce you to Constance Baker Motley, who became the first African-American female Federal judge, when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed her in 1966 to the Southern District of New York (SDNY) – the largest Federal Trial Bench in the country. She was also the first woman to serve as Judge at the SDNY. She was also an unlikely Civil Rights heroine, the first female attorney for the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, and the first African-American female attorney to argue a case before the Supreme Court. 

Outside of the Judiciary Community, very few people have heard of Constance – Perhaps because she was so modest and rarely spoke of her accomplishments. 

A Young Constance Baker

Constance Baker Motley was born on September 14, 1921, in my birth State of Connecticut, in the City of New Haven. She was the 9th of 12 children born to Rachel Huggins and McCullough Alva Baker, who were immigrants from the Caribbean island, Nevis. Constance’s father was a chef for Skull and Bones, a social club at Yale University. Her mother was a community activist and founded the New Haven Chapter of The NAACP. As a high school student, Constance became President of the New Haven Negro Youth Council and was Secretary of the New Haven Adult Community Council. In 1939, she graduated with honors from Hillhouse High School. Although, she had already formed a desire to practice law, she sadly lacked the funds to attend college, and instead went to work for the National Youth Administration. 

Constance also continued her involvement in community activities. Through this work, she met local industrialist and philanthropist, Clarence W. Blakeslee, who, after hearing her speak at a New Haven community center, generously offered to be her benefactor and pay for her education. 

After a childhood where she was rarely subjected to in-your-face racism, Constance experienced Jim Crow laws first-hand while traveling by train to a college in Tennessee. In Cincinnati, she was ordered into an inhospitable train car marked “COLORED.” Constance had also been previously denied admission to a public beach and skating rink. 

When she wrote about experiences such as these, she said, “Although I had known this would happen, I was both frightened and humiliated. All I knew for sure was that I could do nothing about this new reality.” However, she eventually realized that she could do something. So, she joined the NAACP, as young adult. 

With his financial help, Constance started college at Fisk University, an historically black college and university (HBCU), but after one year, she transferred to New York University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, in 1943. Motley received her Bachelor of Laws in 1946, from Columbia Law School. 

 

In October 1945, during Constance's second year at Columbia Law School, future United States Supreme Court Associate Justice, Thurgood Marshall hired her as a law clerk. 

Judge Robert L. Carter

She was assigned to work on court martial cases that were filed after World War II, and joined Robert L. Carter, who later served with her as a Federal Judge. Constance was very admiring of Thurgood Marshall and extremely appreciative of his hiring her. Constance graduated from Columbia Law School in 1946 and fairly quickly took a job at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. There, Atty Motley personally led the lawsuits that integrated the Universities of Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma, and Alabama, as well as Clemson College in South Carolina — overcoming Southern governors who literally locked the doors to African-American students. She opened up schools and parks to African-Americans, and successfully championed the rights of minorities to protest peacefully. 

With the backing of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Atty Motley, helped James Meredith gain enrollment at the University of Mississippi, making him the first Black student to matriculate there. Campus riots broke out when he registered, killing two people. 

Atty Motley did not just focus on integrating colleges and universities. She actually wrote the original legal brief for the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case. The unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawed state-mandated racial segregation in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools. 

Male Attorneys in the Brown v. Board of Education Case

In fact, there were 6 women who were integral to the success of this case, yet only the men, including Thurgood Marshall, were photographed and received the media credit. 

Atty Motley also represented many plaintiffs that resulted in housing being integrated in Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, New York, and Georgia; and the railroad and bus terminals being desegregated in Jackson Mississippi. 

With Coretta Scott King & Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

While working on these cases, Atty Motley occasionally represented Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In her autobiography, she recalled visiting Dr. King in a stench-ridden jail outside Americus, Georgia: “The temperature must have been a hundred degrees. We could hear other prisoners in a back room yelling and moaning,” Atty Motley wrote. “It was then that I realized that we did, indeed, have a new civil rights leader—a man willing to die for our freedom.” 

By the time she left the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 1965, Atty Motley had personally argued 10 Supreme Court cases (winning nine, and the tenth was overturned, so she effectively won that case, as well), and assisted in nearly 60 cases that reached the high court. Along the way, she experienced countless courtroom delays and indignities. Atty Motley kept her cool, even as some judges physically turned their backs on her, when she spoke. 

Constance Being Sworn in as a State Senator

After nearly 20 years with the NAACP, Atty Motley chose to serve on the New York State Senate. On her election to the New York State Senate in February 1964, she became the first African-American woman to serve in that branch of the Legislature. She immediately began a campaign for the extension of civil rights legislation and for additional low and middle-income housing. 

In February 1965, Atty Motley was elected by the Manhattan members of the New York City Council to fill a one-year vacancy in the office of President of the Borough of Manhattan, and thus became the first woman to serve in that office, and as a member of New York City's Board of Estimate. 

Senator Robert F. Kennedy

Later that year, Robert F. Kennedy, the Democratic Senator from New York, submitted Atty Motley’s name to the White House for consideration for a Federal Judgeship. 

President Johnson appointed her to the Southern District of New York on January 26, 1966. 

Senator Eastland of Mississippi

However, prior to the appointment, her confirmation process was painful and challenging. Dixiecrat Senator James Eastland of Mississippi, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, held up Atty Motley’s nomination for seven months.

 

Senator Eastland adamantly opposed Brown v. Board of Education and called Black people an “inferior race,” and asserted that the “future greatness of America depends upon racial purity and the maintenance of Anglo-Saxon institutions.” 

Even The American Bar Association (ABA) hesitated to approve Atty Motley’s nomination on grounds that “she lacked trial experience in New York,” which was ridiculous, given how much trial experience (and success!) she had already had.

Senator Jacob Javits

However, most Senators fully supported her nomination, one of them being Senator Jacob Javits: 

Mrs. Motley’s reputation has always been excellent . . . She is a woman, with great humanitarian instinct, but I have never seen it to disturb her judgment objectively and on questions of law. ~Senator Jacob Javits (1966) 

Justice Tom Clark

Once Atty Motley was appointed as an SDNY Federal Judge, she still faced indignities, however.  At a national judicial seminar, a fellow Federal Judge introduced her as simply having “served on the board of United Church Women and the Board of Trustees of the YWCA.” Former Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, who was co-chairing the event, was so astonished, that he stepped in to properly introduce Judge Motley with a full account of the ten cases she had argued before him while he served on the Supreme Court. 

Knowing how difficult their path would be, based on her own experiences, Judge Motley quietly befriended and guided younger African-American women judges. Judge Anne Thompson, who was the first female and first African-American federal judge in New Jersey, and is still serving. Judge Thompson received a personal note from Judge Motley shortly after her appointment, in 1979. “She was just a very gracious person,” said Judge Thompson, who eventually brought her law clerks to meet with Judge Motley every year. 

Melissa Ludtke, Sports Journalist

As a judge, Motley continued to protect the constitutional rights of marginalized people in the United States. In 1978, she upheld the right of a female sports reporter, Melissa Ludtke, to enter the locker rooms of professional sport teams, as male reporters did – just before the 1978 World Series. Judge Motley worked hard, and she proved herself, time and again. She became the chief judge at SDNY in 1982, and assumed senior status in 1986. 

With Husband, Joel Motley, Jr.

With Son, Joel Motley, III

It wasn’t all work for Judge Motley. Decades before, she had married real estate and insurance broker, Joel Wilson Motley Jr., and they had one son, Joel Wilson Motley, III, who attend Harvard College and Harvard Law School and is now co-chairman of Human Rights Watch. She also took her son to the March on Washington, and both her husband and son went south with her during her NAACP days. She took tremendous pride in her grandchildren and their accomplishments, Her granddaughter is now a lawyer who graduated from law school at Yale University, the very place where Judge Motley’s father worked as a chef. 

Relaxing at Home in Connecticut

The Motleys' Connecticut Farmhouse

Away from the courthouse, Motley found solace in an 18th century, Chester, Connecticut farmhouse, where she and her family relaxed and invited friends for weekend visits. 

Joel Motley was a constant source of support. “He adored the ground she walked on,” Judge Thompson said. When Judge Motley’s photo was posted on New York subway walls as part of a city education campaign, her husband proudly gave copies of the poster to friends. 

AWARDS & ACCOLADES 

Receiving the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Clinton

Constance Baker Motley received a Candace Award for Distinguished Service from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1984. In 1993, she was inducted into National Women's Hall of Fame. In 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal. The NAACP awarded her the Spingarn Medal, the organization's highest honor, in 2003. Judge Motley was a prominent honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. In 2006, she posthumously received the Congressional Gold Medal from Congress, for all of her accomplishments during her lifetime. In 2011, She was also posthumously honored with the 13th Ford Freedom Award for her accomplishments that helped disadvantaged communities.

 WATCH JUDGE MOTLEY HUMBLY SPEAK ABOUT HER LIFE 

Tomiko Brown-Nagin, the Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and the Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School recently wrote a fantastic book, entitled: "Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality" "The invisibility of this fascinating woman in our public histories and popular culture distorts our sense of who rebuilt America," Dean Brown-Nagin writes. "Judge Motley's invisibility in our nation's history shortchanges all of us. But her absence is especially detrimental to the sense of belonging of the many communities she visibly represented – African-Americans, West Indians, women, girls, immigrants, and the working class."

In 1998, Motley published an autobiography, “Equal Justice Under Law.” On one subject she revealed her inner fire: the sting of racial discrimination. In her memoir, she also said that she was never discouraged by doubts concerning her background. “I was the kind of person who would not be put down,” Judge Motley wrote. “I rejected any notion that my race or sex would bar my success in life.” She continued, “As the first Black and first woman, I am proving in everything I do that Blacks and women are as capable as anyone.” 

I imagine that this stellar potential pool of candidates for The Supreme Court has lived by the same motto and silently thanks Judge Motley for the path that she forged for them. The incoming African-American female Supreme Court Justice will rise above the noise, the rhetoric, the racism, and the doubt, and we will rise for her, as she assumes the bench. 

THIS IS THE MOMENT. SHE WILL RISE! 

WATCH THIS CELEBRATION OF CONSTANCE’S LIFE & LEGACY 

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Sources: NPR, MSNBC, The Daily Show, AJC, Google Images, U.S. Courts, ESPN, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Columbia University, Wikipedia, 

Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Getty Images