Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Gary Ford is currently touring the country to promote the Congressional Tribute to Constance Baker Motley Act of 2013, with his film Justice Is A Black Woman: The Life & Work Of Constance Baker Motley.
The feature-length award-winning documentary based on the dissertation research of Gary Ford, chronicles the inspirational life of Constance Baker Motley. After being brought to the Legal Defense and Educational Fund by Thurgood Marshall, Motley became the lead lawyer in desegregation and trespass prosecution cases throughout the South after 1954, and won nine of ten cases before the U.S. Supreme Court from 1961-1965.
She was also the only female attorney of the legal team that won the landmark desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education.
The film debuted on PBS in 2012 and was honored with a 2013 Telly Award, amongst others.
The film is narrated by Juan Williams and includes President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Attorney Vernon Jordan, members of the “Little Rock Nine,” and Dr. Maya Angelou reading her poem Still I Rise.
The Congressional Tribute to Constance Baker Motley Act of 2013 was introduced to congress in September 2013. It authorizes the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to make appropriate arrangements for the posthumous presentation, on behalf of Congress, of a gold medal in commemoration of Constance Baker Motley in recognition of her enduring contributions and service to the United States.
For those in NYC, director Gary Ford will next screen the film at Bronx Community College today (starting at 12pm; sorry, but I only just got the information). Admission is FREE!
I couldn’t locate a trailer for the film online, but there are several clips of Constance Baker Motley available, one of which is embedded below, in which she talks her involvement in Brown v. Board of Education: