This list includes biographies and memoirs of women and gender-variant lawyers and judges whose work contributed to the Civil Rights Movement. Books are displayed in case to the right of the library entrance and are available to be checked out.
Highlighted Resources
Civil Rights Queen : Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality by Tomiko Brown-Nagin
Constance Baker Motley worked with Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP on Brown v. Board. She was the first Black woman to argue at the Supreme Court and focused her career on integration in higher education. She also had a political career including serving as Manhattan Borough President before Johnson nominated her to the Southern District of NY court – and was the first Black woman to serve as a federal judge. Motley has been a mentor and an inspiration to generations of African American women lawyers and judges.
The library also has Constance Baker Motley’s autobiography, Equal Justice Under Law and another biography, Constance Baker Motley : One Woman’s Fight for Civil Rights and Equal Justice under Law. Additionally, NPR’s Code Switch podcast has an episode devoted to Motley.
Jane Crow : The Life of Pauli Murray by Rosalind Rosenberg
You need to know about Pauli Murray – the gender-variant Black activist and attorney whose writing was instrumental in framing Thurgood Marshall’s arguments in Brown as well as Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s application of the Fourteenth Amendment to discrimination against women, and wrote about intersectionality well before “intersectionality” was a term – she described the parallel discriminations Black women faced through racism and sexism as “Jane Crow.”
The library also has Pauli Murray’s autobiography, Song in a Weary Throat. Code Switch made an episode about Pauli Murry as well.
Lanterns : A Memoir of Mentors by Marian Wright Edelman
It’s a travesty that the only biographies of Marian Wright Edelman are in juvenile literature. Edelman worked with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and alongside Martin Luther King in the Poor People’s Campaign. She founded the Children’s Defense Fund and continues to advocate for children’s rights. In Lanterns, Edelman frames her life story as it relates to “natural daily mentors,” including famous names like Bob Moses and Fannie Lou Hamer, but also giving credit to community elders and teachers.
Other books from our collection
Carol Weiss King, Human Rights Lawyer by Ann Fagan Ginger
Carol Weiss King fought for the rights of immigrants, including many cases against the INS. She won Sung v. McGrath, that case that forced the INS to comply with federal administrative rules. King defended labor activists and represented members of the Communist Party who faced deportation for political affiliation. She also worked on the first Scottsboro Boys case. King was a founding member of the National Lawyers Guild.
Daughter of the Empire State : The Life of Judge Jane Bolin by Jacqueline McLeod
Jane Bolin was the first Black female judge, serving for forty years on the Domestic Relations Court (currently the Family Court) in New York City. McLeod also served on the board of the NAACP, advocating for change within the organization and eventually publicly resigning to protest for greater inclusivity within NAACP leadership.
Fair Labor Lawyer : The Remarkable Life of New Deal Attorney and Supreme Court Advocate Bessie Margolin by Marlene Trestman
Bessie Margolin spent most of her career working at the Department of Labor, where she defended the Fair Labor Standards Act in front of the Supreme Court over 20 times. She worked to defend the Equal Pay Act and was one of the founding members of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Margolin also drafted rules for the Nuremberg Nazi War Crimes trials.
Florynce “Flo” Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radical by Sherie M. Randolph
Florynce Kennedy was a lifelong radical Black and feminist activist. In 1949, after initially being denied admission to Columbia Law School, she was admitted after she threatened to sue the school for racial discrimination. She was active in the early feminist movement, spoke against the Vietnam War, worked to make abortion more accessible, and co-founded the National Black Feminist Organization. Please look at the Wikipedia page for Florynce Kennedy for a photo that can only be described as iconic.
Justice Older than the Law : The Life of Dovey Johnson Roundtree by Katie McCabe and Dovey Johnson Roundtree
Dovey Johnson Roundtree successfully argued the first bus desegregation case before the Interstate Commerce Commission, which applied the Commerce Clause to desegregation and Brown to bus transportation. Pauli Murray was one of her mentors, and, like Murray, Roundtree also became an ordained minister. She combined her work as an attorney and a minister to advocate for children’s rights and fight against violence affecting children.
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