Tomiko Brown-Nagin Knihy

Born to an aspirational blue-collar family during the Great Depression, Constance Baker Motley was expected to become a hairdresser. Instead, she made history as the first Black woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court, eventually representing ten cases. As the only Black woman on the NAACP's legal team, she defended Martin Luther King in Birmingham, contributed to the landmark Brown vs. The Board of Education case, and played a vital role in dismantling Jim Crow laws in the South. Motley was also the first Black woman elected to the New York State Senate, the first woman elected as Manhattan Borough President, and the first Black woman appointed to the federal judiciary. This narrative captures her extraordinary life and impact on American law, inspiring African Americans nationwide. With extensive research, Tomiko Brown-Nagin, an award-winning civil rights historian and dean of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, vividly brings Motley's story to life. The work prompts reflection on critical questions regarding access to power for the historically marginalized and the influence of that access on individuals dedicated to social justice, illuminating significant judicial and societal changes in twentieth-century America.