The slow passing of an era in civil rights.

September 29, 2005 5:47 AM

Constance Baker Motley, civil rights lawyer and federal judge, is dead at age 84. (NYT; bugmenot). She was a brilliant lawyer in the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund when it was led by Thurgood Marshall, winning anti-segregationist legal victories against Alabama Governor George Wallace and many others, and defending the civil rights movement. A New Yorker, she was a state senator and borough president of Manhattan. In 1966, Lyndon Johnson appointed her to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and she became the first black woman federal judge in the United States. Speeches, writings and clippings.
posted by By The Grace of God (9 comments total)

Lawyer I once knew in the shipping business said that whenever it was a case of a Little Guy suing a shipping company and she was assigned to the case, they folded immediately on the assumption that there was no way she would rule for the business.

He was, by the way, a hard core liberal.
posted by IndigoJones at 6:07 AM on September 29, 2005

My heart goes out to her crüe.

Flame me all you want, I couldn't help myself.
posted by spazzm at 6:14 AM on September 29, 2005

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posted by kosem at 8:13 AM on September 29, 2005

She laid so much of the groundwork for the civil rights movement. She'll be missed.
posted by Fenriss at 8:46 AM on September 29, 2005

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posted by onalark at 12:32 PM on September 29, 2005

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posted by jepler at 3:30 PM on September 29, 2005

There is mention in her obit of a speech she made at 18 that impressed a businessman/philanthropist who went on to finance her education - it would be kind of neat to know more about the topic or read the actual speech.

Motley also decided Ludtke v. Kuhn (1978), which ruled that a female sportswriter be allowed into the NY Yankees' locker room.
posted by PY at 4:04 PM on September 29, 2005

That link should be http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/communications/ludtke.html, but it's not working in preview, so here's a case summary.
posted by PY at 5:38 PM on September 29, 2005

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We need more like her (and it's a sin that it's still true today more than ever)
posted by amberglow at 6:52 PM on September 29, 2005