Judge Constance Baker Motley (1921–2005), a civil rights pioneer and judiciary trailblazer, is the 47th honoree in the Black Heritage stamp series.
About Judge Motley
Motley was the first African-American woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court and the first to serve as a federal judge. A master legal tactician, Motley played a key role in knocking down legal segregation.
She started her career in 1945 when she began working for the future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF). She would stay 20 years, rising to associate counsel, second from the top.
While at the LDF she sued the University of Mississippi on behalf of James Meredith, who had been refused entrance, and the state of Mississippi on behalf of “Freedom Riders,” who had been jailed while testing the interstate transportation laws.
She also represented Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., after he was arrested for marching in Birmingham, AL, in spring 1963. Motley worked on about 60 cases that reached the Supreme Court. She won nine of the 10 cases she argued before the Court.
In 1966, Motley was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Motley was sworn in on Sept. 9, 1966, and became the first African-American woman on the federal bench.
Motley was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001 by President Bill Clinton. She died Sept. 28, 2005.
About the Stamp
The stamp features a portrait of Motley by internationally acclaimed artist Charly Palmer, based on an Associated Press photograph. Palmer’s signature style involves providing his subjects with dynamic, stylized settings.
For the postage stamp image, Palmer created an arc of lace-like wheel shapes that surround the judge’s head like a halo. He exaggerated a corsage that Motley is wearing in the reference photograph he worked from, setting his subject’s face above a lush arrangement of tropical flowers whose colors are picked up in the background. Faint scratch marks add a nice textural component to the vibrant image.
“For me, painting a portrait isn’t just capturing the likeness, but the spirit,” says Palmer, who notes that he had the chance to speak to the late judge’s son in preparing for the portrait.
Black Heritage Stamp
In 1978, the Postal Service initiated the Black Heritage stamp series, to recognize the achievements of individual African Americans.
