Gary Ford, an historian who also holds a degree from Columbia Law School, recounts the numerous legal cases CBM argued, and lists all of them in an appendix. He quotes many people who were impressed with her hard work, dedication and proficiency, including her son. Joel III said that even though his mother was gone a lot, he always felt he was the number one priority in her life.
Ford puts CBM's career into the context faced by black women in the civil rights movement, and indeed all women lawyers, being "On the Front Lines but not Properly Credited." He points out that women were most of the grassroots leaders, but have largely been left out of the histories of the civil rights movement. Like them, CBM worked in the trenches, but her foxholes were the courts and the law library. Ford's biography of CBM is an effort to put women back into that history, one woman at a time.
Besides being overlooked, one of the many petty insults CBM endured were white court personnel who would not address her as "Mrs." Motley. In the South, such courtesy titles were reserved for whites. In situations where first names were inappropriate, whites would use such titles as "Attorney X" to avoid Mr., Miss or Mrs. Ford says that CBM remembers being referred to as "that Motley woman."
In the mid-1960s CBM decided to leave Inc. Fund to pursue a political career. Several factors entered into this decision, including the assassination of Medgar Evers in 1963 and JFK's appointment of Thurgood Marshall to be a federal appeals court judge in 1961. He chose a younger male attorney to take his place as Inc. Fund's chief counsel, when CBM was the logical successor.
It's not clear why CBM chose politics over private practice, but she won a seat in the New York State Senate in 1964. A year later she became the Manhattan Borough President. In September of 1966 LBJ appointed her to the federal district court in New York City. Confirmation was not a smooth ride as many of the male politicians weren't ready for a woman in such an important position.
CBM was an active judge for twenty more years. She took senior status in 1986, which allowed her to keep her office and continue hearing cases at a reduced pace until her death in 2005. She never really retired; she just slowed down.
CBM was a pathbreaker for both blacks and women, showing future generations that a woman could succeed as an active litigator. Even though she had both a successful career and an enduring, loving family life, she repeatedly said she wasn't a feminist. Ford says she knew Betty Friedan, but wasn't impressed with her. He doesn't mention any contact with Pauli Murray, a black woman who graduated from Howard Law School in 1944. Murray was the first in her class and the only woman in it, but she did not go on to the sterling legal career that was in CBM's future. Murray was a feminist.
A portrait created in CBM's honor by the artist Samuel Adoquei, Columbia Law School
Their different fates illustrate the importance of having male mentors at the right time and place. In my studies of women in politics, a common pattern was the presence of male sponsors who could open doors. The early birds got the worm because of the important men in their lives; hard work and achievement were never enough. This appears to be true for women lawyers as well.
I knew Pauli Murray and I met CBM, at a conference in 1998. Both were brilliant women. I would love to hear a debate between the two of them on race and gender. Maybe they are already having that debate in the hereafter....!
Ford does an excellent job of describing CBM's impressive life and work. Maybe he should write his next book on Pauli Murray.
©2017 Jo Freeman for SeniorWomen.com
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