Born in 1908, Bolin became the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, the first to join the New York City Bar Association, and the first to join the City’s Law Department. In 1939, Bolin became the first Black woman judge in the United States. Appointed by NYC Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Bolin was the only Black woman judge in the nation for 20 years. Bolin said she was influenced to pursue a law career by her father – who was also a groundbreaking attorney – and by reading articles about lynchings in the Jim Crow south.
Jane Bolin in 1942, three years after she became the first Black woman to serve as a judge in the U.S. Source: U.S. Library of Congress
It is Jane Bolin’s birthday. She was a woman of many firsts.
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