Oral history interview with Constance Baker Motley, 1978

Biographical Note

Judge; interviewee married Joel Motley

Scope and Contents

West Indian family background; childhood in New Haven; activities with New Haven Community Council, 1936; work with National Youth Administration, 1939; education at Fisk, New York University; Columbia Law School, 1944-46; discrimination and affirmative action in education; impact of Plessey, Brown, and Bakke cases; NAACP Legal Defense Fund work, 1945-65; restrictive covenant cases, 1948; James Meredith, 1961; judicial resistance to desegregation rulings; 1965 Selma to Montgomery march; march on Washington; right-to-counsel, freedom rider movement, sit-in cases; Civil Rights Act of 1964; Swain case on jury selection; urban renewal and fair housing programs in the courts; issues addressed as New York State Senator, 1964-65; Manhattan borough presidency, 1965-66, and work with New York, N.Y. redevelopment programs, Morningside Urban Renewal conflict, community dispute mediations; United States District Court Judge, New York, 1966- ; the United States court system and effects of Speedy Trial act; present direction of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; impressions of Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Wagner, Jr. and others

Subjects

• African American judges--Interviews.
• African Americans--Civil rights.
• African Americans--Education.
• African Americans--Segregation.
• African American women--Interviews.
• Gellhorn, Kitty, interviewer.
• Interviews.
• Judicial process.
• Motley, Constance Baker, 1921---Interviews.
• NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
• New York (N.Y.)--Politics and government--1951-
• New York (State)--Politics and government--1951-
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Practice of law.