How lame that I'd never heard of the great woman!

As a young lawyer, Derrick Bell, who now teaches law at New York University and is a leading authority on constitutional law, worked with Motley on desegregation cases in the South. When Motley argued, courtrooms became "places of rich racial drama," Bell wrote in an e-mail message. "Whites on one side, exhibiting silent hostility, and blacks on the other side, barely able to restrain their pride. Here was a black woman, obviously better prepared than her white opponents, speaking firmly and with full knowledge of her case. The judge. . .usually ruled against her, but no matter! For these black people, many of whom had spent their lives in involuntary deference to whites, these hearings were priceless scenes." The stories would spread rapidly outside the courtroom, "embellished at the barbershops and beauty parlors for weeks to come."

Motley displayed a rare mix of aristocracy and compassion. The catcalling and threats and jostling angry mobs seemed barely to catch her attention. "Connie took it all in stride," Bell wrote. "On one occasion, we ran into the opposing attorney in many of these cases at the airport. Connie extended her hand in greeting, and the attorney refused to take it. 'Oh,' she said, 'you still don't shake black people's hands. Very well, then,' and off she glided to her flight."

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Constance Baker Motley | b. 1921

Pride and Prejudice

By MELISSA FAY GREENE

Published: December 25, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/25/magazine/25motley.html

February 1941, Constance Baker, age 19, a bright and ambitious young woman from New Haven, left home for college. She was slender and stylish, wearing a wool overcoat with a fur collar and black leather gloves. Her dark wavy hair fell from under a slanted wide-brimmed hat. She'd found a hometown mentor - a white philanthropist named Clarence Blakeslee -who had heard her speak up at a community meeting and subsequently offered to pay her tuition. Despite the fact that female lawyers were rare creatures, and black women lawyers almost unheard-of, Constance Baker had set her sights on law school...