Constance Baker Motley—the visionary civil-rights lawyer, politician, and judge—helped transform American society over the course of her six decades in public life. When I started writing my new book about her, Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality, there was no question that I should explore the role for which she is best known: writing the original complaint in Brown v. Board of Education.
In that 1954 case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled state-mandated school segregation to be unconstitutional. In a long list of more than a dozen attorneys whose names appeared on the briefs filed by the Thurgood Marshall–led legal team that won the landmark victory, Motley’s name stood out: she was the only woman in the illustrious, history-making group.
