I'm Karen Gricksby-Bates and this is Code Switch from NPR.

Well fam, it's that time of year again, Black History Month.

And there may be some Black history being made even as we speak.

President Biden is in the process of nominating a justice

to replace justice Stephen Breyer's seat on the Supreme Court

and he's promised that the next justice will be...

Some of the extraordinary qualifications,

character, experience and integrity.

And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated

to the United States Supreme Court.

He says he'll announce his choice at the end of the month.

Our friends and NPR's politics team put together

a list of front runners for the position.

Black women who are district court judges, judges on state Supreme

courts, professors, civil rights lawyers.

But it wasn't all that long ago that he would have been hard pressed

to find a Black woman in any of these positions.

So today on the show, we're going to look at someone who helped

pave the way for this historic event.

Someone you may never have heard of.

Constance Baker Motley is a giant in the law.

She was called the Civil Rights Queen in her time.

...