Motley, Constance Baker

Impact on the world

Wrote the original complaint in Brown v. Board of Education, became the first Black woman to argue before the Supreme Court (winning nine of her ten cases), directed the legal effort that integrated the University of Mississippi, and became the first Black woman to serve as a federal judge in 1966.

Life & background

Working on every major school desegregation case brought by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund from 1945 to 1964, Motley personally wrote the original complaint in Brown v. Board of Education and led the litigation integrating the University of Georgia, as well as directing the campaign that admitted James H. Meredith to the University of Mississippi in 1962. She became the first Black woman to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning nine of her ten cases, and went on to become the first Black woman elected to the New York State Senate, the first woman to serve as Manhattan Borough President, and in 1966 the first Black woman appointed as a federal judge.

Sources

1. NAACP Legal Defense Fund; TIME; Supreme Court Historical Society; Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (uscourts.gov); Encyclopædia Britannica