Equal justice under law

by Constance Baker Motley

Constance Baker joined Thurgood Marshall's legal team at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 1945 while still a student at Columbia Law School, at a time when women lawyers were uncommon. She was chief counsel for James Meredith in his legal battle to be the first black to attend the University of Mississippi; she argued ten cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and represented other leading civil rights figures, including Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1966, she was the first black woman appointed to the federal bench, over a firestorm of opposition. Equal Justice Under Law, the most detailed account to date of the legal conflicts of the civil rights movement, is also an account of Constance Baker Motley's struggle, as a black woman, to succeed; it is a moving recollection of a life lived with great courage and responsibility.