Jane Bolin

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Jane Matilda Bolin
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Bolin in 1942
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Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S.
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Queens, New York, U.S.
Alma materWellesley College (AB)
Yale University (LLB)
OccupationTemplate:Pluralize from textJudge
Years active1939–1979
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Known forFirst black female judge in the United States
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Political party
Republican
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Jane Matilda Bolin (April 11, 1908 – January 8, 2007) was an American attorney and judge. She was 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 New York City Law Department. Bolin became the first black woman to serve as a judge in the United States when she was sworn into the bench of the New York City Domestic Relations Court in 1939.[1]

Early life and education

Jane Matilda Bolin was born on April 11, 1908, in Poughkeepsie, New York. She had ten siblings. Her father, Gaius C. Bolin, was a lawyer and the first black person to graduate from Williams College,[2] and her mother, Matilda Ingram Emery,[3] was an immigrant from the British Isles who died when Bolin was 8 years old. Bolin's father practiced law in Dutchess County for fifty years and was the first black president of the Dutchess County Bar Association.[2]

As the child of an interracial couple, Bolin was subject to discrimination in Poughkeepsie; she was occasionally denied service at businesses.[2] Bolin was influenced as a child by articles and pictures of the murders, by extrajudicial hanging, of black southerners in The Crisis, the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Bolin grew up as an active member of Smith Metropolitan AME Zion Church.[4][5][citation needed]

After attending high school in Poughkeepsie, Bolin was prevented from enrolling at Vassar College because it did not admit black students at the time. At 16, she enrolled at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she was one of only two black freshmen.[2] Having been socially rejected by the white students, she and the only other black student decided to live off campus together.[6] She graduated from Wellesley in 1928 in the top 20 of her class.[7] A career adviser at Wellesley College tried to discourage her from applying to Yale Law School due to her race and gender. Nevertheless, in 1931, she became the first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School[2] and passed the New York state bar examination in 1932.

Career

She practiced with her father in Poughkeepsie for a short period before accepting a job with the New York City Corporation Counsel's office.[2][1] She married attorney Ralph E. Mizelle in 1933, with whom she practiced law in New York City.[3][8] Mizelle went on to become a member of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Black Cabinet[8] before dying in 1943. Bolin subsequently remarried Walter P. Offutt, Jr., a minister who died in 1974.[9] Bolin ran unsuccessfully for the New York State Assembly as a Republican candidate in 1936.[1] Despite the loss, securing the Republican candidacy boosted her reputation in New York politics.[8]

On July 22, 1939, at the New York World's Fair, Mayor of New York City Fiorello La Guardia appointed 31-year-old Bolin as a judge of the Domestic Relations Court.[10] For twenty years, she was the only black female judge in the country.[8] She remained a judge of the court, renamed the Family Court in 1962, for 40 years, with her appointment being renewed three times, until she was required to retire aged 70.[11][12] She worked to encourage racially integrated child services, ensuring that probation officers were assigned without regard to race or religion, and publicly funded childcare agencies accepted children without regard to ethnic background.[13][1]

Bolin was an activist for children's rights and education. She was a legal advisor to the National Council of Negro Women.[8] She served on the boards of the NAACP, the National Urban League,[14] the City-Wide Citizens' Committee on Harlem,[1] and the Child Welfare League.[9] Though she resigned from the NAACP due to its response to McCarthyism, she remained active in the Civil Rights Movement.[1] Bolin also sought to combat racial discrimination from religious groups by helping to open a special school for black boys in New York City.[1] She received honorary degrees from Tuskegee Institute, Williams College, Hampton University, Western College for Women and Morgan State University.[citation needed]

Electoral history

1936 New York State Assembly election, 19th district[15]
Party Candidate Votes %
Script error: No such module "Political party". Robert W. Justice (incumbent) 18,557 77.63
Script error: No such module "Political party". Jane Bolin 4,572 19.13
Script error: No such module "Political party". Horace Gordon 504 2.11
Script error: No such module "Political party". Victor Gaspar 271 1.13
Total votes 23,904 100.00
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Legacy

File:Bolin Family Burial Plot.jpg
The Bolin family plot at Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery

After she retired in 1979, Bolin volunteered as a reading instructor in New York City public schools for two years and served on the New York State Board of Regents,[6] reviewing disciplinary cases. After a life of groundbreaking achievements, Jane Bolin died on Monday, January 8, 2007, at the age of 98 in Long Island City, Queens, New York.[16][17]

Bolin and her father feature prominently in a mural at the Dutchess County Court House in Poughkeepsie and the Poughkeepsie City School District's administration building is named for her.[2] During her lifetime, judges including Judith Kaye and Constance Baker Motley cited Bolin as a source of inspiration for their careers.[2][8] Upon her death, Charles Rangel spoke in tribute to Bolin on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.[9] In 2017, Jeffrion L. Aubry introduced a bill in the New York State Assembly to rename the Queens–Midtown Tunnel the Jane Bolin Tunnel.[3] Bolin is interred at Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery.

See also

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Template:Cite SSRN
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Goodwin, David L. (February 13, 2017). "1st African-American female judge 'showed the strength of the subtle'". The Poughkeepsie Journal. Archived from the original on December 16, 2019. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c Script error: No such module "Template wrapper".
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Williams, Jasmin (February 9, 2007). "Jane Matilda Bolin – A Woman of Firsts". nypost.com. Post Digital Network. Archived from the original on July 25, 2019. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Who Are We". Smithmetro.com. Smith Metropolitan AME Zion Church. Archived from the original on July 25, 2019. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  6. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Remembering Jane Bolin, First Black Female Judge in US History". Arthur Ashe Learning Center. July 23, 2015. Archived from the original on March 28, 2018. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Jane Bolin Becomes the First Black". BlackHistory.com. Will Moss. Archived from the original on May 8, 2015. Retrieved May 23, 2015.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Wolf, Julie (February 18, 2016). "Judge Jane Bolin Battled Institutional Racism in NYC Courts for Decades". The Root. Archived from the original on March 28, 2018. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
  9. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Congress, U. S. (2010). Congressional Record, V. 153, PT. 2, January 18, 2007 to February 1, 2007. Government Printing Office. pp. 1775–76. ISBN 978-0160868252. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The Cover". The Crisis. 46 (9): 262. September 1939.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Remembering Jane Bolin, the first African-American female judge in the U.S." New Haven Resister. Herst Media Services Connecticut. February 27, 2019. Archived from the original on July 25, 2019. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."New York's first black women judge retires". American Bar Association Journal. 65: 898–899. June 1, 1979.[permanent dead link]
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Jane Bolin, 98; first black woman judge in America". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. January 13, 2007. Archived from the original on February 28, 2018. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Who's who in Colored America. Who's Who in Colored America Corporation. 1942. p. 371. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Our Campaigns - NY Assembly-New York 19 Race - Nov 03, 1936". www.ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Jane Bolin Biography". Biography.com. A&E Television Networks. Archived from the original on July 25, 2019. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Douglas, Martin. "Jane Bolin, the country's first black woman to become a judge, is dead at 98". New York Times. Template:ProQuest.[permanent dead link]

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