Law and Order: 7 Black Female Lawyers and Judges Who Shaped the Legal Landscape

Constance Baker Motley

Constance Baker Motley broke many legal and political barriers throughout her lifetime. After graduating from Columbia University Law School in 1946, she worked as a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF), where she was the only female on the team that successfully argued against school segregation in Brown vs. Board of Education. Motley was also the lead counsel in James Meredith’s fight to integrate the University of Mississippi. She went on to win 9 of the 10 cases she argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1964, Motley was the first black female elected to the New York State senate, and in 1965, she was the first black female to become president of the Manhattan borough. In 1966, Motley was appointed to a judgeship for the Southern District of New York, making her the first black female judge on the federal bench.  In 1982, she became the first black woman to serve as chief judge.