Today In Black History: Constance Baker Motley

On this date in 1966 Constance Baker Motley became the first African American woman to be appointed to a federal judgeship. Before this she was a leading civil rights lawyer. In 1950 she wrote the original complaint in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. The first African-American woman ever to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, in Meredith v. Fair she successfully won James Meredith's effort to be the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi. In 1964, Motley became the first African American woman elected to the New York State Senate. In 1965, she was chosen Manhattan Borough President—the first woman in that position.