Courtroom Pioneer
Constance B. Motley was boron September 14,1921 in Connecticut. She was the ninth in a family of twelve children. She was a good student. And when she was a teenager, she decided to become a lawyer. However, her family did not have enough money to send her to college.
When she was eighteen, something happened that changed her life. One night she attended a meeting at a center for the black community. She gave a speech. She said that blacks should play a larger part in running the center. Clarence W. Blakeslee, a rich philanthropist（慈善家），was impressed by her speech. As a result， he offered to pay for her education. This helped her to reach her goal of becoming a lawyer.
She first attended Fisk University in Tennessee. Then she went to New York University and received a college degree in 1943.She studied law at Columbia University Law School and received a law degree in 1946.After she finished law school, she became a civil rights lawyer.
After almost 20 years as a lawyer, she entered politics .In 1964,she became a New York state senator（参议员）．She was the first black woman to hold this office．In 1965，she became the first woman to be president of Manhattan in New York City.
Her work came to the attention of President Lyndon Johnson. In 1966, the President named her a federal judge. She was the first black woman to serve as a judge in the US District Court. Since joining the court, she has continued to be interested in the rights of all people.
Constance got a law degree from New York University in 1946.