Constance Baker was born on 14 September 1921 in New Haven, Connecticut, to immigrant parents from the Caribbean island of Nevis, and developed an early interest in civil rights law after being denied entry to a local roller-skating rink because of her race as a teenager. She attended New York University before earning her law degree from Columbia Law School in 1946, one of very few Black women in American legal education at the time.
As a civil rights litigator, Motley wrote the original trial complaint for Brown v. Board of Education and went on to argue major school desegregation cases across the South, winning nine of the ten cases she argued before the U.S. Supreme Court — an extraordinary record for any lawyer of any era.
In 1964 she became the first Black woman elected to the New York State Senate, and in 1965 the first woman elected Manhattan Borough President. In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson appointed her the first Black woman federal judge in U.S. history, a position she held for nearly four decades, eventually becoming Chief Judge of the Southern District of New York.
I never thought of the possibility of failure.
Constance Baker Motley won nine of ten cases she argued before the US Supreme Court as a civil rights litigator before becoming the first Black woman appointed a federal judge, a career combining extraordinary legal advocacy with a landmark judicial breakthrough that reshaped both segregation law and the federal judiciary's composition.
- 1921Born in New Haven, Connecticut.
- 1946Earns her law degree from Columbia Law School.
- 1950s–60sArgues major school desegregation cases, winning nine of ten before the US Supreme Court.
- 1964Elected to the New York State Senate, the first Black woman in that body.
- 1965Becomes the first woman elected Manhattan Borough President.
- 1966Confirmed as the first Black woman federal judge in US history.
- 2005Dies, having served nearly four decades on the federal bench.
- ★ Won nine of ten cases argued before the US Supreme Court as a civil rights litigator
- ★ Wrote the original trial complaint for Brown v. Board of Education
- ★ First Black woman elected to the New York State Senate
- ★ First Black woman appointed a federal judge in US history