By TaRessa Stovall

One cannot consider civil rights in America without paying homage to Constance Baker Motley, who brought her legal brilliance to the most important civil rights cases for 20 years, and became the first African-American woman to serve as a federal judge and in the New York Senate, among other historic milestones.

Motley was equally respected for her dynamic activism in desegregating the South-hanging out with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., while he was in jail; singing freedom songs in bombed churches; and spending a night under armed guard with Medgar Evers before he was murdered-and for the quiet but powerful way in which she prepared and presented the lawsuits that led to greater equality for black people.

She won cases that struck down segregation in Southern restaurants and lunch counters. She lent her expertise to the briefs in Brown V. Board of Education, the landmark school desegregation case fought by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), led by Thurgood Marshall and Jack Greenberg. Motley survived insults, threats and setbacks to personify that spirit of organized struggle and legal strategy that made America a more just and democratic country for all.