Trial Magazine

Constance Baker Motley: One Woman's Fight for Civil Rights and Equal Justice Under Law
Gary L. Ford Jr.
University of Alabama Press
www.uapress.ua.edu
176pp., $44.95

Constance Baker Motley spent her life fighting for civil rights as a successful and outspoken trial attorney. She also was the first African-American woman to serve as a federal judge and the first African-American woman to serve in the New York State Senate. Yet she has largely been omitted from historical narratives about the civil rights movement­. Historian Gary Ford tells the riveting story of Motley’s life, describing her legal successes, the motivation behind her work, and her significant—but often unrecognized—contributions.

Ford’s book focuses on Motley’s time at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), which she joined in 1945 during her second year of law school when she was 24 years old. After graduating, she was the only female attorney during the majority of her 20-plus years at LDF. She worked on the trial team for Brown v. Board of Education and other landmark civil rights cases that integrated public schools, lunch counters, transportation, and parks. While at LDF, Motley became the first African-American woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court (Hamilton v. State of Alabama, 82 S. Ct. 157 (1961)) and ultimately argued 10 cases before the Court, winning all but one.

Ford argues that Motley’s legal work at LDF accelerated the end of segregation and changed American society in ways that we still benefit from today. For example, she filed multiple lawsuits fighting for black students to be admitted to all-white universities and colleges and have the right to attend classes without fearing for their safety.

She also worked to ­overturn penalties imposed on people who had exercised their right to protest. As a result of her efforts, more than 1,000 elementary school students were able to return to class in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963 after being expelled from school for demonstrating with Martin Luther King Jr.

Motley faced racism and sexism throughout her career, was disrespected by others in the legal community, and risked her life when traveling in the South. Despite these obstacles, her actions helped dismantle Jim Crow laws and integrate America. Yet, as Ford describes, she has been marginalized in historical narratives. For example, despite her integral role at the LDF, coverage of the organization’s important legal victories focused on the work of its founder Thurgood Marshall and other men—not Motley.

The story of Motley’s life and legal victories is an example of the vital, often overlooked role that women—and trial attorneys—have played in changing American society for the better.

Rachel Gittleman is a program coordinator for AAJ Education. She can be reached at rachel.gittleman@justice.org.