Constance Motley Named Federal Judge
Press Release
September 1, 1966

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Press Releases, Volume 4. Constance Motley Named Federal Judge, 1966. b0381421-b792-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/21f79d01-56b0-44e7-8cbe-3862168359cd/constance-motley-named-federal-judge. Accessed July 09, 2025.
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10 Columbus Circle New York, N.Y. 10019 JUdson 6-8397 NAACP O¢ Legal Defense and Educational Fund PRESS RELEASE Sheree President ‘ . THURSDAY . as cence E. Rivers September 1, 1966 Director-Counse Jack Greenberg CONSTANCE MOTLEY NAMED FEDERAL JUDGE NEW YCRK--'The Cinderalla story,' as Mrs, Constance Baker Motley likes to refer to her life, has finally come to a_ happy ending. The U. S. Senate yesterday confirmed by a voice vote the nomination of Mrs, Motley, the first Negro woman to the Federal District Court bench, The news caused a great deal of excitement at the New York headquarters of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., which has on previous occasions seen similar appointments of staff members to important Federal offices. The most note- worthy »°f which was the appointment of the former Director-Counsel Thurgood Marshall to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Judge- ship. Mr, Marshall now serves as the U. S, Solicitor General. Another Legal Defense Fund colleague of iirs. Motlely to achieve distinction was Edward Dudley, former Manhattan Borough President, and now a State Supreme Court justice. Mrs. Motley, nationally known for her string of civil rights legal victories, served in the Legal Defense Fund's number two administrative post prior to her entry into public life. As a federal judge, hirs, Motley will have to take a $5,000 cut from the $35,000 a year she now makes as Manhattan Borough President. However, the judgeship is a lifetime position. A New Haven benefactor helped launch Mrs. Motley on her career, but her colleagues at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educa- tional Fund, Inc., where she championed the cause of civil rights for more than 20 years, know that Connie Motley wrote her own success story. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is not synonymous with the NAACP, The Legal Defense Fund was set up in 1939 as a separate unit. We have separate offices, separate staffs, separate Board of Directors and budget. se? Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 niGQE Seag7 > UY Constance Motley Named Federal Judge -2- September 1, 1966 Although always a top student in public schools in her native New Haven, Mrs. Motley's chances for attending college appeared dim. Her father, a chef, could not hope to finance her college education while supporting his other 11 children. But one night a wealthy New Haven contractor heard her "sound off" as she puts it, during a discussion of why Negroes were not more active. Impressed with the clarity and logic of her words, the contractor offered to finance her education. “It was like a fairy tale, " Mrs, Motley later remarked. She attended Fisk University, but after a year and a half transferred to New York University where she earned a degree in economics. From there she went to Columbia University Law School "because Abraham Lincoln believed law is difficult and I want to do something difficult," she said. She took her law degree in 1946, and has been doing difficult things ever since. While still at Columbia, she joined the Legal Defense Fund as a law clerk. After graduation, she married Joel fiotley, and plunged full-time into the civil rights struggle as a Legal Defense Fund staff lawyer. With vigor and determination, the lady lawyer carved a reputation for herself as one of the nation's leading civil right attorneys. She rose to Associate Counsel, the number two post in the Legal Defense Fund behind Jack Greenberg, who succeeded Mr. Marshall as Director-Counsel. She went before the U. S. Supreme Court six times, win- ning all six cases. A seventh Supreme Court case she won without argument. But it was her masterful handling of the complex legal action that led to the enrollment of James Meredith in the Univer- sity of Mississippi that catapaulted her to national fame. (more) Constance Motley Named Federal Judge -3- September 1, 1966 Of that feat, Burke Marshall, then head of the Civil Rights Division of the U. S. Department of Justice, said, "We couldn't have asked for anyone better, she could work for anyone." Mrs. Motley also led the legal teams that broke down the barriers of seqregation at the University of Alabama (despite Gov. George Wallace's abortive stand in the doorway), Universities of Georgia and Florida and Clemson College, South Carolina. On the lower education level, she led the Legal Defense Fund fights that ended school segregation in Atlanta and Savannah, Ga.; Pensacola, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach and Tampa, Fla.; Chattanooga and Memphis, Tenn.; Mobile, Huntsville and Birmingham, Ala.; Hillsboro, Ohio; New Rochelle, Hempstead and Amityville, N. Y. and Englewood, N. J. The list of Mrs. Motley's courtroom victories encompasses nearly every area of racial strife--housing, transportation, public accommodations, sit-ins, mass demonstrations and criminal prose- cutions,. She has personally defended prosecutions of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King as well as scores of lesser known civil rights activists. After being assured that public service would not inter- fere with her Legal Defense Fund activities, Mrs. Motley entered the political arena in 1964, becoming the first Negro woman to serve in the New York State Senate, She resigned from the Legal Defense Fund when she was appointed Manhattan's first lady president early in 1965, and won a landslide reelection to that post last November. =30=