[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 130 (Friday, October 7, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11333-S11334]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING AND HONORING THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF CONSTANCE BAKER
MOTLEY
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 272, submitted early
today by Senator Schumer.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will please report the resolution by
title.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 272) recognizing and honoring the
life and achievements of Constance Baker Motley, a judge for
the United States District Court, Southern District of New
York.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the
resolution.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I am in support of this resolution to
recognize and honor the life and achievements of Constance Baker
Motley, a judge for the United States District Court, Southern District
of New York. Sadly, Judge Motley passed away last week, on September
28, 2005, at the age of 84, after having lived an extraordinary and
exemplary life.
Constance Baker Motley was the first African American woman, and only
the fifth woman, to serve on the federal judiciary. Before becoming a
judge, she was a renowned civil rights lawyer, public servant, and
trailblazer. Her remarkable career reads like a civil rights history
book.
After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from New York
University and her law degree from Columbia University, Constance Baker
Motley joined Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund. For 2 decades, Constance Baker Motley worked closely
with Marshall and other leading civil rights lawyers to dismantle
desegregation throughout the country.
She was the only woman on the legal team that won the landmark
desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education. She went on to argue
10 major civil rights cases before the Supreme Court, winning all but
one of them, including James Meredith's fight to gain admission to the
University of Mississippi.
In 1964, Judge Motley became the first African-American woman elected
to the New York State Senate, and in 1965, she became the first
African-American woman, and woman, to serve as a city borough
president, the great borough of Manhattan. During this time, Judge
Motley worked tirelessly to revitalize the inner city and improve urban
housing and public schools.
In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Constance Baker Motley
to the Southern District of New York. She was confirmed 9 months later,
over the strong opposition of Southern Senators. She rose to the
position of Chief Judge in 1982, and assumed senior status 4 years
later. She served with distinction for nearly 4 decades, until last
week. Her passing is a great loss to New York, as well as the country,
and for this reason her life must be remembered and celebrated.
This resolution extends the Senate's heartfelt sympathy to Judge
Motley's friends and family and commends her for her 39-year tenure on
the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
and her lifelong commitment to the advancement of civil rights and
social justice.
Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I rise today to say that, as I have often
thought, justice is a curious thing.
She has been poked and prodded, detained and defaced, and her
piercing light is too often hidden from view. Justice had a tough time
in Montgomery and Selma, and she took a sore drumming alongside Susan
B. Anthony and the other fighters for women's suffrage. If you asked
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or Ms. Fannie Lou Hamer where justice was
during those cold nights in jail in 1963, they might have said that she
was nowhere to be found.
But inevitably and incredibly justice always seems to find her way.
She creeps into the dark spots of our history. She rears her head where
she is not wanted. And, eventually, she causes the barriers meant to
hold her back to crack and crumble, under the collective weight of
those who fight for her cause.
On January 25, 1966, justice was at it again. It was on that date
after a storied career of educational success, fervent legal advocacy,
and legislative accomplishments that Constance Baker Motley became the
first African-American woman appointed to the Federal judiciary. Judge
Motley passed away on September 28, 2005, at the age of 84. She is
survived by her husband Joel, a son, three sisters and a brother. I
rise today to honor her and the concept of justice for which she fought
all her life.
Constance Baker was born on September 14, 1921, in New Haven, CT. Her
father was a chef for an exclusive club at Yale, and her mother was
active in the NAACP. She graduated from New York University in 1943 and
received her law degree from Columbia University in 1946. As a third-
year student at Columbia, Judge Motley joined the staff of the NAACP
Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She would eventually become its
principal trial attorney.
Judge Motley's list of accomplishments while working for the Legal
Defense Fund is stunning. In 1950, she drafted the complaint that would
become Brown v. Board of Education. In 1957 she argued the case in
Little Rock, AR, which prompted President Eisenhower to call in Federal
troops to protect the ``Little Rock Nine''. She personally argued the
1962 case in which James Meredith won admission to the University of
Mississippi, as well as the suit that resulted in the enrollment of
black students at the University of Georgia. All told, Judge Motley won
9 of the 10 civil rights cases she argued before the Supreme Court, an
astounding accomplishment for that or any other time period.
After 20 years with the NAACP, Judge Motley was elected to the New
York State Senate and became the first African-American woman to serve
in that body. Among her first tasks was fighting for additional low-
and middle-income housing. In February of 1965, Judge Motley was
elected to serve as the President of the Borough of Manhattan, becoming
the first woman of any race to serve in that post. And in 1966,
President Johnson helped bring justice's work full circle. He appointed
Judge Motley to the Federal District Court for the Southern District
Court of New York, making her the first African American woman to sit
on the Federal bench. She served with distinction in the Southern
District, and became the chief judge of this court in 1982. She took
senior status in 1986.
I honor Judge Motley today. I honor her for her wisdom, for her
tenacity, and for the fire with which she advocated for equal rights.
And, equally important, I honor the spirit of justice that motivated
Constance Baker Motley. It spurred her on from her early days in
Connecticut to her long and distinguished tenure on the Federal bench.
I ask that this body and all Americans remember Judge Motley today. And
I ask that we attempt to infuse the same sense of justice which
[[Page S11334]]
guided Judge Motley into our own work, and our daily lives.
I am pleased to join a bipartisan group of my colleagues in
introducing a resolution honoring the life of Judge Constance Baker
Motley and I hope this body will move swiftly to its passage.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
resolution and preamble be agreed to, en bloc, the motion to reconsider
be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that
any statements relating to the resolution be printed in the Record.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The resolution (S. Res. 272) was agreed to.
The preamble was agreed to.
The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:
S. Res. 272
Whereas Constance Baker Motley was born in 1921, in New
Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of immigrants from the
Caribbean island of Nevis;
Whereas in 1943, Constance Baker Motley graduated from New
York University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics;
Whereas, upon receiving a law degree from Columbia
University in 1946, Constance Baker Motley became a staff
attorney at the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and
fought tirelessly for 2 decades alongside Thurgood Marshall
and other leading civil rights lawyers to dismantle
segregation throughout the country;
Whereas Constance Baker Motley was the only female attorney
on the legal team that won the landmark desegregation case,
Brown v. Board of Education;
Whereas Constance Baker Motley argued 10 major civil rights
cases before the Supreme Court, winning all but one,
including the case brought on behalf of James Meredith
challenging the University of Mississippi's refusal to admit
him;
Whereas Constance Baker Motley's only loss before the
United States Supreme Court was in Swain v. Alabama, a case
in which the Court refused to proscribe race-based peremptory
challenges in cases involving African-American defendants and
which was later reversed in Batson v. Kentucky on grounds
that had been largely asserted by Constance Baker Motley in
the Swain case;
Whereas in 1964, Constance Baker Motley became the first
African-American woman elected to the New York State Senate;
Whereas in 1965, Constance Baker Motley became the first
African-American woman, and the first woman, to serve as
president of the Borough of Manhattan;
Whereas Constance Baker Motley, in her capacity as an
elected public official in New York, continued to fight for
civil rights, dedicating herself to the revitalization of the
inner city and improvement of urban public schools and
housing;
Whereas in 1966, Constance Baker Motley was appointed by
President Johnson as a United States District Court Judge for
the Southern District of New York;
Whereas the appointment of Constance Baker Motley made her
the first African-American woman, and only the fifth woman,
appointed and confirmed for a Federal judgeship;
Whereas in 1982, Constance Baker Motley was elevated to
Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the
Southern District of New York, the largest Federal trial
court in the United States;
Whereas Constance Baker Motley assumed senior status in
1986, and continued serving with distinction for the next 2
decades; and
Whereas Constance Baker Motley passed away on September 28,
2005, and is survived by her husband Joel Wilson Motley Jr.,
their son, Joel Motley III, her 3 grandchildren, her brother,
Edmund Baker of Florida, and her sisters Edna Carnegie,
Eunice Royster, and Marian Green, of New Haven, Connecticut:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) extends its heartfelt sympathy to the family and
friends of Constance Baker Motley on the occasion of her
passing; and
(2) commends Constance Baker Motley for--
(A) her 39-year tenure on the United States District Court
for the Southern District of New York; and
(B) her lifelong commitment to the advancement of civil
rights and social justice.
____________________