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Civil Rights Queen
Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality
1 of 1 copy available
Born to an aspirational blue-collar family during the Great Depression, Constance Baker Motley was expected to find herself a good career as a hair dresser. Instead, she became the first black woman to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court, the first of ten she would eventually argue. The only black woman member in the legal team at the NAACP's Inc. Fund at the time, she defended Martin Luther King in Birmingham, helped to argue in Brown vs. The Board of Education, and played a critical role in vanquishing Jim Crow laws throughout the South. She was the first black woman elected to the state Senate in New York, the first woman elected Manhattan Borough President, and the first black woman appointed to the federal judiciary.
Civil Rights Queen captures the story of a remarkable American life, a figure who remade law and inspired the imaginations of African Americans across the country. Burnished with an extraordinary wealth of research, award-winning, esteemed Civil Rights and legal historian and dean of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Tomiko Brown-Nagin brings Motley to life in these pages. Brown-Nagin compels us to ponder some of our most timeless and urgent questions—how do the historically marginalized access the corridors of power? What is the price of the ticket? How does access to power shape individuals committed to social justice? In Civil Rights Queen, she dramatically fills out the picture of some of the most profound judicial and societal change made in twentieth-century America.
Cover photograph: Constance Baker Motley, Feb, 6, 1964. World Telegram & Sun Photo by Walter Albertin, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
January 25, 2022 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593456231
- File size: 459598 KB
- Duration: 15:57:29
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Narrator Karen Chilton channels the energy and passion of Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman appointed to the federal court. The young Motley was the first in her family to go to college. Later, her law career unfolded seamlessly. Chilton's calm, powerful delivery captures the courageous Motley's defense of James Meredith, the first Black man to enroll in the segregated University of Mississippi after Brown v. Board of Education. Meredith had repeatedly been turned away. But Motley never wavered; she won. Through the talented Chilton, listeners learn Motley's little-known story, an iconic part of Civil Rights history from the twentieth century. E.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine -
June 1, 2022
A comprehensive biography of a woman who accomplished many firsts in American politics and law. Constance Baker Motley was a trailblazing African American woman who fought for civil rights and a place for herself and others in American public life. But she was also a many-faceted personality--from the distinct culture she inherited from her West Indies immigrant parents to her sometimes establishment-leaning politics--and is captured to effectively in both the evenhanded writing and the charismatic narration of this audiobook. VERDICT Brown-Nagin's (history and constitutional law, Harvard Univ.; Courage To Dissent) biography about a prominent American, who has not received the attention she warrants, is a great addition to nonfiction audio collections.--Chrystopher Lytal
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Starred review from October 11, 2021
In this immersive and eye-opening biography, Bancroft Prize winner Brown-Nagin (Courage to Dissent) places the groundbreaking legal and political career of Constance Baker Motley (1921–2005) in the context of the civil rights and women’s rights movements. Raised in a large, working-class, West Indian family in New Haven, Conn., Motley’s intellect and drive inspired a local philanthropist to pay her way through college and law school. After graduation, she took a job as a law clerk at the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund under Thurgood Marshall, where she was passed over for promotion and had to push to receive equal pay, even as she played an integral role in arguing Brown v. Board of Education and other landmark civil rights cases before the Supreme Court. After serving in the New York state senate and as Manhattan borough president, in 1965, Motley became the first Black woman confirmed to the federal judiciary and presided over noteworthy gender discrimination cases, including a lawsuit filed by a Sports Illustrated reporter against the New York Yankees for denying her access to the locker room to interview players. Brilliantly balancing the details of Motley’s professional and personal life with lucid legal analysis, this riveting account shines a well-deserved—and long overdue—spotlight on a remarkable trailblazer. Illus.
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