Constance Baker Motley Quotes
The legal difference between the sit-ins and the Freedom Riders was significant.
Motley, Constance Baker. Equal Justice Under Law: An Autobiography. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
Romney’s father, George W. Romney, was Governor of Michigan and lost in his attempt to be the Republican presidential candidate. He was a strong supporter of civil rights, but not only did Romney never see his father marching with King, there is no record that the elder Romney ever did march with King. He did march in a civil rights rally in Michigan but King was not present. The elder Romney was a strong supporter of civil rights however, and the son was trying to make the point that he came from a family where civil rights has always been important. This quotation became a cause célèbre in the 2007 Presidential primary campaign as critics gave this as an example of Romney’s disregard for the truth in his effort to be liked and gain support. Defenders claimed that this was a symbolic statement and an example of acceptable political hyperbole.
Freedom Rides were interracial groups of Civil Rights advocates who boarded public interstate busses in Washington and rode South through some of the most segregated communities in the country. As the bus stopped at the segregated rest stops, the Black Freedom Riders would use the “white” waiting rooms, toilets, and other facilities which was against the local custom and law. Racist segregationists often brutalized and assaulted the Freedom riders whose leaders demanded Federal Protection. The Attorney General and others were trying to get the local politicians and law enforcement officials to protect the Freedom Riders, but often these were the worst of the racist segregationists. Kennedy thought if he could have a “cooling off period” for a few days, he could persuade the locals to protect the Freedom Riders from the mobs with the threat of sending Federal Marshalls or troops for the protection. So he asked Farmer and other Freedom Ride organizers to stop the Freedom Rides for a few days. This was Farmer’s famous response. The Freedom Rides continued and forced the Federal Government to respond on a timetable they did not prefer.
This was of course in addition to their moral position as taught by their religions.
Constance Baker Motley, was a key strategist of the civil rights movement, lawyer, judge, state senator, and Borough President of Manhattan, New York City. She obtained a role with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund before entering law school as a staff attorney and continued her work with the organization for more than twenty years. She argued 12 landmark civil rights cases in front of the Supreme Court, winning nine. She was a law clerk to Thurgood Marshall, aiding him in the case Brown v. Board of Education. Baker Motley was also the first African-American woman appointed to the federal judiciary, serving as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Judge Motley died on September 28, 2005 in New York City of congestive heart failure.
