Unspoken African American Hero: Constance Baker Motley

Born in New Heaven,  CT to her parents who emigrated from the Island of Nevis, W.I. Constance attended Fisk University until she transferred to New York University where she received her B.A. in 1943. Constance later went on to obtain her law degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1946. 

Constance, started out her career as a law clerk for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund under the directions of the U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall. Later in Constance's career, she moved on to be the first African American  Associate Counsel to the Legal Defense Educational Fund, making her the  lead trial attorney in a number civil rights cases(including working on Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Right case). 

In 1950, Constance wrote the original complaint in the Brown v. Board of Education case. She was also the first African American Woman to argue a case in front before the U.S. Supreme court Meredith v. Fair ( which she won in 1962). 

Accomplishments:

• In 1964, Constance became the first African American woman to be elected to the New York State Senate. 
• In 1965, Constance became the first woman to become the African American woman
• In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson named Constance district judge for the United States District Court Southern District of New York, making her the first African American Woman to become a federal judge court and Chief Judge until her death in 2005 of congestive heart failure