Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality
By: Tomiko Brown-Nagin / Narrated By: Karen Chilton
Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
Okay, this jumps around ALL OVER THE PLACE, but boy is it awesome!!!
It’s like this, see: Civil Rights Queen is practically 16-hours, so it covers pretty much EVERYthing you would hope in a book about a Trailblazing Woman Extraordinaire. What I had difficulty with was that author Tomiko Brown-Nagin would start something in a chronological fashion, would then flesh out what historically was happening, how things went, and then would jump to the future ramifications… and then jump back to what was next on the chronological spectrum in this aMAZing woman’s life.
YIKES!
Still, in the oooodles of time this Bio covers, in the many many cases, in the development of Constance Baker Motley and each of her historical milestone achievements, at no point was I ever even reMOTEly bored. This is a flat-out engaging (Sometimes enraging) Listen from first word to last.
Constance Baker was born to parents who’d lived in the Caribbean island Nevis before moving to America. Once in the States, they did fairly menial work, but even tho’ her mom became a domestic worker, and even tho’ her dad worked as but a chef for varied student societies at Yale, the family felt that they’d come from upper-British stock (Think: Nevis, part of the British Empire). As such, dad esPECially looked down on American Negroes as being lazy and deserving of their status as second-class citizens, and he was very vocal about it.
Despite, or p’raps BECAUSE of, this, Baker seemed to develop her voice as champion of the Underdog. And there were absolutely no Underdogs like American Negroes. Her family might not have had much in the way of finances, but they had a LOT in the way of education, and to speak well was a priority. Baker’s impassioned speaking skills earned her the notice of a philanthropist who, after being so moved from listening to her, offered to pay for her education, as far as she wanted to go.
Far indeed!
All the way through Columbia Law School. Whilst there she met Thurgood Marshall and went on to be hired by him. Soon, she’d be working her way up, and she’d be working on some of THE most impactful civil rights cases around.
Most of this reads from a woman’s perspective, and I do NOT mean that in a bad way. But while civil rights are covered, while the history of lynchings, racism, Jim Crow, all that is covered, a LOT of what happens, a LOT of what Baker (Soon to marry and become Constance Baker Motley) experiences is based upon the egREGious norms of the time. Noted womanizer Marshall hires her after looking at her, p’raps (Kinda sorta not comPLETEly corroborated) requesting that she climb a stepladder so that he might admire her feminine form. And do NOT expect MLK Jr. to come outta this looking like a saint (I’ve done four audiobooks on him, by this point in 2022, and while most DO paint him as flawed and human, ALL have glossed over the incredible sexism he displayed!). His philandering and betrayals of his wife are spoken of, and it’s readily apparent that he only treated Motley with respect because he viewed her as an atypical creature, her education, her well-spoken manner, her poise, marked her as unique. Still, he approved of her femininity, something she never discarded as she completely identified herself as a woman, one of supreme intellect.
Narrator Karen Chilton is just flat-out perfect for this, carrying the entirety of the audiobook with as much verve and enthusiasm from Hour One all the way to the Final Moments. There are some pretty horrific to-dos going on, and there’s plenty of passion to be displayed, and gosh, I still canNOT get outta my head: 16-hours went by soooo quickly. Chilton’s pacing is darned near perfect, so much so my usual x1.3 Listening speed was notched down to x1.1 (I refuuuuuse to listen at x1! Why be normal?!). She displays no extreme vocal juggling, and that she handled so many figures of such historical note, fame, and even infamy is beYONd awesome. She has Motley’s even-keel and smooth questioning in court cases argued before the Supreme Court, yes, -BUT- Chilton also conveys Motley’s even-keel and smooth questioning in cases heard in the extremely hostile courts of Mississippi where she’s NOT referred to as anything honorable and proper. In the unsympathetic Jim Crow South, where threats against ALL Blacks are de rigueur, courage under fire is soooo impressive, and Chilton never misses a beat. Motley fears for her life, to be sure, but that doesn’t stop her from doing the right thing, taking the hard road.
Best of all this? Brown-Nagin chronicles EVERYthing, and she doesn’t even shy away from several missteps Motley makes, even stuff that’ll make the listener looking for perfection in a role model cringe. Her treatment of a brave and outspoken young Black woman who, as it turns out, is NOT of comPLETEly unsullied character, is pretty atrocious. Only “exemplary” Blacks could be fought for. I s’pose, given the era and state of things, only perfection in a client WOULD be seen as acceptable to white communities that Motley and the Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) sought to make change in. Still, it was damning, but I’m glad such episodes were included.
Spanning decades, describing eras and history, and most magNIFicently showing how this incredible woman first helped change the law and then later went on to uphold the law as a jurist in some historical cases was breathtaking. It was enlightening and inspiring, even as each and every setback was documented, that Motley persevered, in a time when being Black was well-nigh illegal… and being a woman was even WORSE? I can’t see how Civil Rights Queen could be anything but, dare I shout it?
AWESOME!!! (…I dare…)
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