Legal Activists of Color: Accepting Applications: Judge Constance Baker Motley Civil Rights Fellowship

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Applications now accepted

Equal Justice Society
Judge Constance Baker Motley

Civil Rights Fellowship

Portrait by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

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"Now I can relax."
Said Judge Motley, after hearing about the Equal Justice Society

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Constance Baker Motley Civil Rights Fellowship

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The Equal Justice Society is accepting applications for its 2007-2008 Constance Baker Motley Fellowship, named after the first African-American woman to serve on the federal bench. Applicants for the one-year paid fellowship should be recent law school graduates with zero to five years of work experience after law school. The application deadline is November 15, 2006.

The Equal Justice Society (“EJS”) is a national organization that gives voice to all those who reach for racial and social justice. As heirs of the innovative legal and political strategists of Brown v. Board of Education, the organization broadly models its programmatic efforts after the late Honorable Constance Baker Motley and the Brown litigation team. Using a three-prong strategy of law and public policy advocacy, cross-disciplinary convenings and strategic public communications, EJS seeks to restore racial issues to the national consciousness, build effective progressive alliances, and create discourse on the positive role of government.

Motley Fellowship applicants should demonstrate experience in civil rights advocacy and a strong commitment to racial and social justice. The Fellow will work under the supervision of staff attorneys for a twelve-month period. Over the course of the fellowship, the Fellow may lead new research, advocacy, coalition building, and public education efforts related to transforming anti-discrimination law and policy. The Fellow will be a full participant in office activities throughout the Fellowship, including staff and legal team meetings.

Fellowship Location: San Francisco, California Fellowship Period: October 1, 2007 – September 30, 2008 Application Deadline: November 15, 2006 (Application must be received in our office by the date listed.) Fellowship Application:

To be considered for the Constance Baker Motley Civil Rights Fellowship, please send a COVER LETTER, RESUME, list of FOUR REFERENCES, and a WRITING SAMPLE to:

info@equaljusticesociety.org (Please write “Motley Fellowship Application” in the subject line.)

OR

Motley Fellowship Applications
Equal Justice Society
220 Sansome Street, 14th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104

Please use either email or postal mail for applications, not both.

Applications must be received in the office by the date listed above.

Requirements: Applicants should be recent law school graduates with 0-5 years of work experience after law school. Bar passage is not required. Candidates will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
o Demonstrated commitment to racial and social justice.
o Demonstrated interest in civil rights law and policy.
o Excellent research and oral /written communication skills.

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About Constance Baker Motley

Source: Columbia University

"When I went to law school, nobody heard of civil rights."

In her fifty-plus years as a jurist, Constance Baker Motley (1921–2005) has had a major impact on ending racial discrimination. As the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's associate counsel, she participated in writing the briefs for Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., et.al., the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case that ended school segregation.

From October 1961 to the end of 1964, Motley won nine of the 10 civil rights cases she argued before the Court, including James Meredith's successful suit to attend the University of Mississippi. She went on to break down other gender and race barriers as the first African-American woman elected to the New York state senate (1964) and to the Manhattan borough presidency (1965).

Appointed to a judgeship for the Southern District of New York in 1966, she became the first African-American woman on the federal bench and, in 1982, the first African-American woman to serve as chief judge. Motley assumed senior judge status in 1986, and in 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Citizens' Medal in recognition of her achievements and service to the nation.

After graduating from New York University in 1943, Motley took a well-paying job with a wartime agency that aided the dependents of servicemen. A year later, she turned down a promotion to attend Columbia Law School. "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard, a complete waste of time," her supervisor told her. "Women don't get anywhere in the law."

While still a law student at Columbia, Motley met Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP's legal director, who offered her a job as a law clerk in the organization's New York office. After receiving her law degree in 1946, Motley became a full-fledged member of the NAACP's legal staff. In April 1995, she returned to Columbia to receive the Florence E. Allen Award, given by the New York Women's Bar Association and named after the woman Motley said was her role model as a female judge. In February 2004, Motley came back to Columbia Law School for an event marking the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.

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The Equal Justice Society is a national organization of scholars, advocates and concerned individuals advancing innovative legal strategies and public policy for enduring social change. We generate critical analysis on issues of race and social justice through research, public education and bringing together individuals from diverse backgrounds and disciplines. Our goal is to reshape jurisprudence to ensure that the rights of all are expanded, rather than diminished, by our courts and policy makers.

Equal Justice Society, 220 Sansome St, 14th Flr, San Francisco, CA 94104, Ph (415) 288-8700