The Honorable Constance Baker Motley was the first African American woman to ever be appointed to the federal judiciary. She was born September 14, 1921 in New Haven, Connecticut to working class parents who were immigrants from the Caribbean Island Nevis. Baker Motley showed an affinity toward civil rights early on and became involved in community activism alongside her mother during her teenage years. After hearing her speak at a community event, local businessman and philanthropist Clarence W. Blakeslee offered to pay for her college education.
Baker Motley began college at Fisk University, but later transferred to and graduated from New York University. She earned her law degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1946. Early in her legal career, Baker Motley joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) as a civil rights lawyer, becoming the LDF’s first female attorney. She was the lead trial attorney in a number of early and significant civil rights cases, representing Martin Luther King Jr., the Freedom Riders, and the Birmingham Children Marchers. She was lead counsel and principal strategist on all of the LDF’s major school and lunch counter desegregation cases, including the landmark case Brown vs. Board of Education. In 1962, she became the first African American woman ever to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court when she represented James Meredith in Meredith v. Fair. Because of her efforts, James Meredith became the first African American student to attend the University of Mississippi.
In 1964, Baker Motley became the first African American woman ever elected to the New York State Senate.
When Baker Motley was appointed to the federal judiciary in 1966, she became the first African American woman ever appointed to that bench. In 1982, she became the first woman and the first African American to serve as the Chief Judge for the Southern District of New York, the largest federal trial bench in the country. She assumed senior status on September 30, 1986. Her service terminated upon her death on September 28, 2005.
To learn more about Judge Baker Motley’s trailblazing life and legacy visit:
https://blackhistory.news.columbia.edu/people/constance-baker-motley and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Baker_Motley.
To view footage chronicling her life, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t74Jhj7Q5oM and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_qT7pZMQ20.
- Kimberley Guillemet
In 1983, Dianne Durham became the first African American gymnast to win the title as the all-round champion in the U.S. National Championship. She also won the individual titles for bars, floor and vault, becoming the first American woman to execute a full-twisting layout Tsukahara on vault. Later that year she won the all-around title at the McDonalds International Gymnastics Championships, beating Mary Lou Retton. Ms. Durham said later that despite these historic achievements, she was most concerned with them as part of her road to the Olympics, her ultimate goal.
At the Olympic trials, Ms. Durham suffered a string of injuries, culminating with a torn ankle ligament when she landed a challenging vault. This caused her to withdraw from the trials, with the expectation that she would be petitioned onto the Olympic team. However, through what the Olympic Committee Association later described as a combination of “injuries and a Byzantine selection process,” she was not offered a spot on the 1984 team. Her coach, Bela Karolyi, objected to denying the prior year's national champion a slot on the team, stating, "She was the first Black kid to ever make it to a national title. This is a pretty big injustice to not have Durham on the Olympic team. The team needs her, the country needs her." He did not succeed in persuading the USA Gymnastics Federation. Ms. Durham retired from competition in 1985. She then took a job coaching in Houston before relocating to Chicago. There, she met her husband and became a national-level judge, coach and gym owner.
U.S. Olympic Champion Mary Lou Retton said of her, “Dianne was one of the greatest athletes and the best gymnast of our generation. She had it all: personality, strength, grace. When we trained together, seven or eight hours a day, we really became like sisters. She was always my best and fiercest competitor.”
Ms. Durham was quoted as saying, “I don’t feel sorry for myself,” reflecting on her missed Olympic opportunity. “Nobody is going to give you anything in this life. You have to work for anything and everything you get. And sometimes it doesn’t go the way you want it to go. You fall, but you have to get back up . . . I am happy.”
Ms. Durham is remembered for introducing “power” to American women’s gymnastics and for paving the way for countless gymnasts after her including Betty Okino, Dominique Dawes, Gabrielle Douglas and Simone Biles.
To read more about Ms. Durham’s life and enduring legacy, please visit:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/dianne-durham-dead/2021/02/08/5977a132-6a0e-11eb-9f80-3d7646ce1bc0_story.html, https://www.gymnastics-now.com/dianne-durham-dies-at-52/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianne_Durham. To see footage of her, please visit:
- Kimberley Guillemet
Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman, was the first woman and the first person of African American descent ever to have an international pilot’s license. Born to a family of sharecroppers in Atlanta, Texas on January 26, 1892, she was of African American and Cherokee descent. As one of the world’s premiere civil aviators, she thrilled audiences around the country for several years in airshows and was billed The World’s Greatest Woman Flier. Aviator Coleman attended one term of college at Langston University, but had to drop out because she could not afford the tuition. She developed an early interest in flying, but no flight schools would train African Americans, Native Americans, or women in the United States during that time, so she worked as a manicurist and as a manager at a Chili Parlor to save money to go to flight school abroad. Ultimately, between the funds she had saved and support from private sponsors, she was able to go to France for flight school. She earned her pilot’s license from the world-renowned Fédération Aéronautique Internationale on June 15, 1921. Aviator Coleman became a high-profile pilot in notoriously dangerous air shows in the United States. She drew multicultural crowds and was popularly known as Queen Bess and Brave Bessie. Ever aware of the hardships she had faced in endeavoring to earn her pilot’s license, she developed a plan to start a flight training school for African American students in the United States. She died in a plane crash in 1926. Her pioneering role was an inspiration to early pilots all over the world, including Amelia Earhart. To learn more about Bessie Coleman, please visit: https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/snapshot/bessie-coleman-first-african-american-licensed-pilot and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Coleman. To view footage of her incredible journey, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wckEiKzCBqc.
