Equal Justice Under Law

by Constance Baker Motley

This wise and affecting memoir is the inside story of the great efforts leading up to the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and the fight to implement it--and its implications for affirmative action and black poverty today. A black woman who moved in the corridors of power in the middle of this century, Constance Baker Motley has been a pioneer in both black civil rights and women's rights. As the key attorney assisting Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, she argued a dozen cases before the Supreme Court (winning all but one), and her representation of James Meredith in his bid to enroll in the University of Mississippi made her famous. Subsequently, as Manhattan borough president and a U.S. district court judge, she has fulfilled the highest aspirations of our legal and political system. Equal Justice Under Law , the most detailed account to date of the legal conflicts of the civil rights movement, is also an account of Motley's struggle, as a black woman, to succeed, a record of a life lived with great courage and responsibility.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Memoir, Social Justice, Biography, Law

288 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1998

Reviews

[Tery Zeff]

Equal Justice Under Law/Constance Baker Motley - autobiography

I grew up in a different country. The book showed me so much about the history of black Americans. So much suffering and social problems because of racial intolerance. From Motley's point of view, I could travel back in time and witness the legal conflicts and the strategies used by civil rights lawyers and the ones used by segregationists as well. Some tense moments... victories... losses... fear... resiliency...

[Mills College Library]

340.0973 M9191 1999

[John Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read due to her role as Borough President and as a member of John Raymond Jones school of politics. Book focuses on the courts and her role. It provides good information with important history.