The first major biography of one of our most influential
judges--an activist lawyer who became the first Black woman appointed
to the federal judiciary--that provides an eye-opening account of the
twin struggles for gender equality and civil rights in the 20th
Century.
"A must read
for anyone who dares to believe that equal justice under the law is
possible and is in search of a model for how to make it a reality."
--Anita Hill
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.