Had a pleasure rare in my free lance experience today. I got to sit in the room when an audience viewed my work for the first time -- hear the reactions, the laughs in the right places, the nods, the applause. There were even a few teary eyes. Today was the symposium at the Quinnipiac Law School for Judge Constance Baker Motley. I wrote the script, my husband produced and directed it, and NPR's Juan Williams did the narration.
In preparing the script, I waded through hours of interviews from some of the pivotal players of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as Motley's son, Joel. There were comments from a Supreme Court Justice, District Court judges, a member of the Little Rock Nine, and key players from the NAACP of the 50s and 60s.
In preparing the script, I waded through hours of interviews from some of the pivotal players of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as Motley's son, Joel. There were comments from a Supreme Court Justice, District Court judges, a member of the Little Rock Nine, and key players from the NAACP of the 50s and 60s.
Every story pointed to the fact that, as one of them put it, when it came to the key legal cases of the Civil Rights Movement, Constance Baker Motley's fingerprints were all over them.
Think about this young black woman going through Columbia Law School in the 1940s (!!) and then going into courtrooms in the Deep South with the opposing position in the 50s and 60s. She must have had nerves of tungsten! One story says that blacks weren't barred from federal courts in the South the way they were state courts, so they'd crowd in and fill up one side of the gallery (whites on the other) just to hear this young black woman talk back to the white lawyers. It was said they didn't even care if she won (which she usually did) it was victory enough that she was there!
Constance Baker Motley also argued 10 times before the U.S. Supreme Court -- and won! Actually, she won nine cases outright. But the 10th was reversed 20 years later, perfecting her record. I could go on about her becoming the first black female NY state senator, first black president of the borough of Manhattan, first Black female District Court Judge...it would take a book. It would also make a great feature film. But I'll have to be content with our small documentary that Juan Williams titled, "Justice is a Black Woman: The Passionate Work of Constance Baker Motley."
Think about this young black woman going through Columbia Law School in the 1940s (!!) and then going into courtrooms in the Deep South with the opposing position in the 50s and 60s. She must have had nerves of tungsten! One story says that blacks weren't barred from federal courts in the South the way they were state courts, so they'd crowd in and fill up one side of the gallery (whites on the other) just to hear this young black woman talk back to the white lawyers. It was said they didn't even care if she won (which she usually did) it was victory enough that she was there!
Constance Baker Motley also argued 10 times before the U.S. Supreme Court -- and won! Actually, she won nine cases outright. But the 10th was reversed 20 years later, perfecting her record. I could go on about her becoming the first black female NY state senator, first black president of the borough of Manhattan, first Black female District Court Judge...it would take a book. It would also make a great feature film. But I'll have to be content with our small documentary that Juan Williams titled, "Justice is a Black Woman: The Passionate Work of Constance Baker Motley."
