Fighting for Civil Rights Behind the Scenes

WNYC News | Sep 4, 2017

Constance Baker Motley is not necessarily a household name. But the civil rights activist was an instrumental part of the movement, working alongside leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy and John Lewis. As Thurgood Marshall's law clerk, she helped draft the complaint for 1950 landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education.

But despite her role as a civil rights activist and later the first black female federal judge, she is not often included in histories of the time, said Gary Ford Jr., a professor at Lehman College and author of a new book on Motley.

"Constance Baker Motley, her work behind the scenes, her action, allowed these men to assume this leadership position and allowed the civil rights movement to go forward," Ford told WNYC's Jami Floyd.

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