Civil Rights Queen

Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality

By: Tomiko Brown-Nagin

Narrated by: Karen Chilton

Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

A TIME BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • The first major biography of one of our most influential judges—an activist lawyer who became the first Black woman appointed to the federal judiciary—that provides an eye-opening account of the twin struggles for gender equality and civil rights in the 20th Century. • “Timely and essential."—The Washington Post

“A must-read for anyone who dares to believe that equal justice under the law is possible and is in search of a model for how to make it a reality.” —Anita Hill

With the US Supreme Court confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson, “it makes sense to revisit the life and work of another Black woman who profoundly shaped the law: Constance Baker Motley” (CNN). Born to an aspirational blue-collar family during the Great Depression, Constance Baker Motley was expected to find herself a good career as a hair dresser. Instead, she became the first black woman to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court, the first of ten she would eventually argue. The only black woman member in the legal team at the NAACP's Inc. Fund at the time, she defended Martin Luther King in Birmingham, helped to argue in Brown vs. The Board of Education, and played a critical role in vanquishing Jim Crow laws throughout the South. She was the first black woman elected to the state Senate in New York, the first woman elected Manhattan Borough President, and the first black woman appointed to the federal judiciary.

Civil Rights Queen captures the story of a remarkable American life, a figure who remade law and inspired the imaginations of African Americans across the country. Burnished with an extraordinary wealth of research, award-winning, esteemed Civil Rights and legal historian and dean of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Tomiko Brown-Nagin brings Motley to life in these pages. Brown-Nagin compels us to ponder some of our most timeless and urgent questions--how do the historically marginalized access the corridors of power? What is the price of the ticket? How does access to power shape individuals committed to social justice? In Civil Rights Queen, she dramatically fills out the picture of some of the most profound judicial and societal change made in twentieth-century America.

©2022 Tomiko Brown-Nagin (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

A New Yorker and TIME Best Book of the Year • PEN/Jacqueline Bogard Weld Award Finalist • Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist • Winner of the OAH Darlene Clark Hine Award • Winner of the 2023 Lillian Smith Book Award • Winner of the 2023 Coif Book Award • Longlisted for the Plutarch Award

“This nuanced biography of Constance Baker Motley examines the paradoxes in the remarkable life of a ‘first’: the first Black woman elected to the New York State Senate, the first female Manhattan borough president, the first Black woman appointed to the federal judiciary…That Motley is little known today is ‘a kind of historical malpractice,’ Brown-Nagin writes; this book is a convincing corrective.” —The New Yorker

“I was thrilled to read this book…it is the perfect thing to read right now.” —Jasmine Guillory, The Today Show

Amazing history lesson in an accessible story

This book is so good. Once I started, it was difficult to lay down. The narrator has a great voice as well. Off to but the physical version of the book.

Very informative

Great book that brings to life a great woman in history. Lots of black history in this book that I missed growing up white in the 1950s and 60s. The fight for the rights of women and for the rights of people of color continues on today. We need more Constance Baker Motleys.

I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated all of the historical references

As a native of New Haven and graduate of Hillhouse High School, I am disheartened to say that I only recently learned about the Honorable Judge Baker-Motley’s connections to the Dixwell neighborhood of New Haven and Yale University, from an exhibit at Yale.

Queen Indeed!

What an incredible life Judge Motley had! She changed the trajectory of so many lives and helped put our country on the right path towards full citizenship for all.

The reader did an excellent job in conveying the complexity and richness of Judge Motley. The subject matter would have been less interesting if the reader hadn’t been so good.

Thank you Professor Brown-Nagin! The audiobook was so fantastic, it made me want to read the book.

Ruling: A Great Book

A thoughtful, inspiring book about a dynamic woman who helped shape the American legal system.

Brilliant

A riveting biography of a brilliant attorney at the vanguard of civil rights litigation in the 40s through 60s, and a path breaker for black women & all women into political leadership and the federal judiciary. The author does an excellent job of explaining legal issues in Motley’s cases.

Amazing American

The book was well written and read. I found every chapter informative and inspiring. I especially would like to encourage young ladies to read the book.

Her kind of Greatness only comes once.

Gender shapes race. Racism is a patriarchal oppressive phenomenon. It's philosophy or lack thereof infiltrates the cultural ethos and bleeds into the workplace subjugating all non-white, particularly Black women. The gender biase of which Mrs. Motley, a formidable legal mind faced head on, battled and won.

Overthrowing Jim Crow's legal clutches under violation of the Constitution. Prevailing over State sponsored, hierarchical tyranny embedded in segregation in the very structure and fabric of the culture. Black women experienced the brunt of this oppressive and repressive system. Gender biase and imbalance still weighs heavy on the scale. Breaking ceilings, a reconciling struggle or dilemma when integrating professional career choices, motherhood, family and wage disparities is indeed a strategic, balancing feat. Motley unabashedly defied these struggles.
"Work if you can afford childcare", Motley went on to tell working women.

As part of the Ink Funds Legal Team, the brilliant legal mind, Constance Motley, a historical giant was integral in reshaping the unjust system of American Democracy. Attributed to a paradigm shift in the Justice system.
The Supreme Court's decision of desegregation, Brown v Board, setting new precedence. The savagery of segregation, separate but equal is unjust on its face especially below the Mason Dickson line, a most blatantly cruel struggle.

Constance Motley, a heroine and legal warrior to the rescue~tough as nails, briefs in hand, cape on and child and husband riding shotgun, Motley faced the giants head on.
Catapulted to international stardom, now Lead Counsel, the fight continued.

The ugly, weighty, arduous history of confronting the legacy of against those defending the perpetual onslaught of Slavery and Segregation in the "Home of the Free".
The long fight of desegregating Higher Education in the South in Universities like the Florida College of Law, University of Alabama, Georgia and Ole Miss.
The heartbreak, the soul defiance, the emotional toll...I don't know how they did it, how they made but they did against all those exasperating odds.
The steel masks Black people had to wear to just be human, to be free, to learn, to be human.

This book will take you through the pages of history that have been buried so deep in schools' American History textbooks and curriculum.
The research, ethics and literary integrity of the author and her staff is beyond measure.

The statuesque, stately Constance Baker Motley attained a height so high, her wingspan glide way up high above the bluest of skies.
Justice is an exercise so exasperatingly magnanimous, it would take an army of swift, sharp legal extraterrestrials to attain.
Oh America, the great!

Side note:
I am only halfway in the book.

From lawyer to movement lawyer of the Civil Rights Movement to the politics of legislation in the halls of the Senate.
Another first for Black women; the drama, the antics of being Black and woman in a country colored under a flag of Racism and White Supremacy.
Motley, skilled, courageous and overly qualified, continued to persevere.
Shortly there after, the judiciary bench, another first.
History in the making, it would be, that Motley was destined. 1st Black Woman Justice to the Federal Bench.
The saga and soul testing scales of justice would persist.
Freedom is indeed a constant struggle and Justice Motley was front and center. The liberty Lioness. The fight continues.

This book takes you through the halls of a history only a few would walk through without biase or reverence. Its angles are wide but focused, a tutorial in professionalism. That's how you get the job done. It's a hard read but critically necessary. Kudos to those editors who must have spent a great deal of time and scrutiny to get this book to print. Exemplary!
Cannot say enough about this chronicling of the resplendent and rare star known to us as Constance Baker Motley.
This Black woman has made an indelible imprint on this American Social Experiment.
Even with this last word, I remain moved beyond measure...🤲🏽🖤👑

Great Read

Powerful story!!!! This book is a critical work on the pursuit of Justice, especially for women.

We must share this story!

Constance Baker Motley should be on a postage stamp, should be in every history book, should have a monument and should have a national holiday. She refused to let race define her. She marched forth for the truth and rose through the ranks of New York politics to make history. Her story must be read and shared.