The women's rights movement of the 1970s had not yet emerged; except for Bella Abzug, I had no women supporters.
Constance Baker Motley

When I was 15, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer. No one thought this was a good idea.
Constance Baker Motley

Sexism, like racism, goes with us into the next century. I see class warfare as overshadowing both.
Constance Baker Motley

I got the chance to argue my first case in Supreme Court, a criminal case arising in Alabama that involved the right of a defendant to counsel at a critical stage in a capital case before a trial.
Constance Baker Motley

New Orleans may well have been the most liberal Deep South city in 1954 because of its large Creole population, the influence of the French, and its cosmopolitan atmosphere.
Constance Baker Motley

In high school, I discovered myself. I was interested in race relations and the legal profession. I read about Lincoln and that he believed the law to be the most difficult of professions.
Constance Baker Motley

I remember being infuriated from the top of my head to the tip of my toes the first time a screen was put around Bob Carter and me on a train leaving Washington in the 1940s.
Constance Baker Motley

Columbia Law School men were being drafted, and suddenly women who had done well in college were considered acceptable candidates for the vacant seats.
Constance Baker Motley