August 1, 2021
From the Bancroft Prize-winning Brown-Nagin (Courage To Dissent), dean of Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, this biography finally gives activist lawyer Constance Baker Motley her due. Baker Motley defended Martin Luther King in Birmingham; helped argue Brown v. Board of Education; became the first Black woman to serve in the New York State Senate, as Manhattan borough president, and in the federal judiciary; and was the first Black woman to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court, winning nine of the ten cases she finally argued there.
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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.
December 1, 2021
Brown-Nagin (history and constitutional law, Harvard Univ.; Courage To Dissent) writes the first major biography of Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005), a key figure in the civil rights movement and the dismantling of Jim Crow. Brown-Nagin's well-written account places an often-overlooked figure in the context of history and argues that Motley should be remembered as one of the principal strategists of the civil rights movement and for her legal defense of Martin Luther King Jr., the Freedom Riders, and the Birmingham Children Marchers when she was a civil rights lawyer for the NAACP. Motley later became a New York State senator, the Manhattan Borough president, and the country's first Black woman federal judge. Brown-Nagin also reveals Motley's influence on gender discrimination law: she was the presiding judge over Blank v. Sullivan & Cromwell, in which women lawyers accused a law firm of discrimination; later Motley advocated for other lawyers who had experienced workplace gender discrimination. VERDICT Brown-Nagin's biography not only shines a light on a forgotten civil rights pioneer but also asks insightful questions about the relationship of power, gender, and social justice. This is an important addition to any collection on law, social justice, or the civil rights movement.--John Rodzvilla, Emerson Coll., Boston
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Starred review from January 15, 2022
A stirring life of a civil rights crusader. An outstanding student from a working-class background, Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005) entered law school at Columbia in 1944, a time when, she recalled, the campus "resembled a ghost town." Brown-Nagin--a constitutional law professor, dean of Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and Bancroft Prize-winning author--ably shows how Motley emerged as not just one of the first Black women to practice law, but a key assistant to Thurgood Marshall. Early on, her work led a newspaper reporter to call her "the Civil Rights Queen," and he had a point. Motley was a critically important member of the team that successfully litigated Brown v. Board of Education, to the delight of one Southern judge who "could not suppress his laughter" at the lies of school officials. In the second act of her life in public service, Motley became the first woman to be elected the borough president of Manhattan and the first Black woman to be elected to the New York Senate. Finally, she became a federal judge who had a gift, as the author beautifully and convincingly demonstrates, for interpreting precedents in novel ways. For example, in deciding a case in which women reporters had been banned from the New York Yankees locker room, she weighed the presumed privacy rights of ballplayers through the lens of Roe v. Wade, with its promise of anonymity, but "rejected it as a legitimate reason for banning female journalists from the locker room entirely," citing a previous case won by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In some cases, Motley was so far ahead of the societal curve that she courted controversy, as when she ruled that gay Catholics could protest in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The following year, notes Brown-Nagin, the Supreme Court upheld the criminalization of consensual gay sex, but Motley anticipated the sea change that would soon follow. An excellent exploration of the life of an admirable pioneer who deserves to be far better known.
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Starred review from December 1, 2021
Cited by Vice President Kamala Harris as a direct influence, Constance Baker Motley spent her career fighting for racial and gender equality, once defending Martin Luther King, Jr. in Birmingham and launching several campaigns for the desegregation of schools. Chronicling the origins of her parents from the island of Nevis, Brown-Nagin traces Motley's humble beginnings in Connecticut. Through periods of unemployment, she worked toward a college education, eventually attending Fisk University and Washington Square College (NYU), and found her calling in legal studies. Overcoming untold racial and gender discrimination in her search for work at a time when opportunities for women in the law were few and far between, Motley caught the attention of Thurgood Marshall, who helped establish her career. Like many working professional women, Motley struggled to balance her career and family. The story of her path toward building an impressive legal career brims with detail and is told in an engaging style. Civil Rights Queen is an essential text for anyone studying the history of racial injustices against African Americans and a testament to one of the most remarkable women in history who deserves far more recognition.
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