Judge Motley, key civil rights figure, dies at 84
NEW YORK - Federal Judge Constance Baker Motley, who as a young lawyer represented Martin Luther King Jr. and played a pivotal role in the nation’s civil rights struggle, has died. She was 84.
First black woman on federal bench represented Martin Luther King Jr.
Motley died Tuesday, said Chief Judge Michael Mukasey in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where she served. She had been working on cases last week before she was hospitalized.Motley’s career found her fighting in many of the nation’s landmark segregation cases. After a brief political career, she became the first black woman appointed to the federal bench in 1966.
“She’s going to be missed,” Mukasey said. “She is a person of a kind and stature the likes of which they’re not making anymore.”
Motley was born in New Haven, Conn., the ninth of 12 children. Her mother, Rachel Baker, was a founder of the New Haven NAACP. Her father, Willoughby Alva Baker, worked as a chef for student organizations at Yale University.
Her interest in civil rights grew after she was turned away at age 15 from a public beach because she was black.
Source: MSNBC,cocm © 2005 MSNBC
Photo credit: Bebeto Matthews / AP
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Filed under: Government, In Memory Of, History
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