Black History Month” Jane Bolin”

 Have you heard the story of the first black woman judge in the US. Well let’s dive in! Happiest Black History Month! We been History 365❤️🖤💚!

Throughout her life, Jane Bolin just couldn’t stop making history. In 1931, she became the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School. By 1939, she was sworn in as the first female Black judge in the United States 

Jane Matilda Bolin was born on April 11, 1908, in Poughkeepsie, New York. Bolin inherited a love for the law — and a tendency for “firsts”. Her father, Gaius C. Bolin, was a lawyer and the first Black graduate of Williams College.

Bolin was acutely aware of the harsh world that lay beyond her father’s study. She recalled stares from her neighbors and being denial of services Gaius a founding member of his local NAACP chapter, also let his daughter read Crisis magazine, which chronicled the wave of lynchings targeting Black Americans.

The pervasiveness of local discrimination hit home when Bolin started thinking about attending college. It would have made sense to go to Vassar, nearby but Vassar didn’t accept Black students. Instead, at the age of 16, Jane Bolin enrolled at Wellesley College in 1924. She was one of two Black female students. At the elite women’s college, the pair felt so ostracized they ultimately moved off-campus.

But despite her impressive credentials,Jane Bolin faced a wave of rejections when she first tried to enter the job market. Bolin had never been the kind of woman to give up. If no one would hire her at a law firm, she’d start her own. Bolin built her own practice with her husband, Ralph Mizelle. After five years of working with Mizelle, Bolin snared a spot at the New York City corporation counsel’s office.

Two years later, on July 22, 1939, Bolin received a strange phone call. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia wanted her to come and meet him at the World’s Fair. Bolin went to the World’s Fair with her husband. When the mayor arrived, he spoke to Bolin’s husband for a moment and then turned to Bolin, saying, “I’m going to make you a judge. Raise your right hand.” I was in a state of shock,Bolin said. “I did what he told me. I raised my right hand.” Remembering Jane Bolin, First Black Female Judge in US History | Arthur Ashe Legacy