Constance Baker Motley (née Baker; September 14, 1921 – September 28, 2005) was an American jurist and politician who served as a Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Constance Baker was born on September 14, 1921, in New Haven, Connecticut, the ninth of twelve children.[8] Her parents, Rachel Huggins and McCullough Alva Baker,[9] were immigrants from the Caribbean Island Nevis. Before coming to the United States, Rachel worked as a seamstress and a teacher while McCullough worked as a cobbler.[10] After they immigrated, her mother served as a domestic worker, and her father worked as a chef for different Yale University student societies, including the secret society Skull and Bones.[11] Motley describes her parents’ education as being equivalent “to the tenth grade in the States”.[10] Her mother, Rachel Baker, served as a community activist. She founded the New Haven NAACP.[12]
At 15, she read works by James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. DuBois, which inspired her interest in Black history.[13]She met a minister who taught classes in Black history that focused her attention on civil rights and the
She was the first Black woman to argue at the Supreme Court[4] and argued 10 landmark civil rights cases, winning nine. She was a law clerk to Thurgood Marshall, aiding him in the case Brown v. Board of Education.[5]
Motley was also the first Caribbean-American woman appointed to the federal judiciary, serving as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.[2]
In 1965, Motley was elected President of the Borough of Manhattan to fill a one-year vacancy. She was the first woman to hold the office.[6] As president, she authored a revitalization plan for Harlemand East Harlem, successfully fighting for $700,000 to improve these and other underserved areas of the city.
A key strategist of the civil rights movement, she was state senator, and Borough President of Manhattan in New York City before becoming a United States federal judge.[1][2] She obtained a role with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund as a staff attorney in 1946 after receiving her law degree, and continued her work with the organization for more than twenty years.[3]
She was the first Black woman to argue at the Supreme Court[4] and argued 10 landmark civil rights cases, winning nine. She was a law clerk to Thurgood Marshall, aiding him in the case Brown v. Board of Education.[5]