This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. Today we're going to hear about a woman whose

biographer says belongs in the pantheon of great American leaders, and the lack of attention she's

received is a form of historical malpractice. That woman is civil rights lawyer Constance Baker

Motley. Her biographer, Tamiko Brown-Nagan, spoke with our guest interviewer, Tanya Mosley.

Tanya is a special contributor to NPR's here and now, and host of the podcast Truth Be Told.

Tamiko Brown-Nagan is a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School, and Dean of the Radcliffe

Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. Her new book is called Civil Rights Queen, Constance Baker

Motley, and the struggle for equality. Here's Tanya. Tamiko, welcome to Fresh Air.

I'm delighted to be with you. Thanks for having me. There is a vivid recounting in the book that

sets the grounding for Motley's reputation as the Civil Rights Queen, and that's her first experience

as a courtroom lawyer in Mississippi, which was the South's most repressive state back in 1949.

What was she there litigating, and what reception did she receive?

Motley was in Jackson, Mississippi litigating a case on behalf of African-American school teachers

who were subjected to a paid disparity. As she walked the streets of Jackson and entered

the courtroom there, she caused a sensation. Few people had seen a woman lawyer or a black lawyer,

and here was this incredible combination of a black woman lawyer, and people were just

somewhere excited, somewhere just didn't know what to make of her. And that is the story that I tell

in my book about her impact, both as a symbol, but also her substantive impact on the law.

Motley saw, while she was there, the vestiges of slavery and the ills of segregation. That's how

you put it in the book. She couldn't find lodging. She had to sleep in a rooming house for black people.

White grocery stores refused to sell food to her, as she was litigating that case.

How did that experience shape Motley's view of her role in this fight for civil rights?

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