Jane Bolin: Difference between revisions

| caption = Jane Bolin in 1942

| birth_place = [[Poughkeepsie, New York]], USU.S.

| death_place = [[Queens, New York]], USU.S.

| alma_mater = [[Wellesley College]] ([[B.Bachelor A.of Arts|AB]])<br>[[Yale Law School|Yale University]] ([[L. L. B.|LLB]])

| years_active = 1939–19781939–1979

| eraknown_for = First black female judge in =the United States

'''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 Courts|New York City Domestic Relations Court]] in 1939.<ref name=":0" />

As the child of an interracial couple, Bolin was subject to discrimination in Poughkeepsie; she wouldwas occasionally be denied service at businesses.<ref name="goodwin17" /> 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]].<ref name="NYPBolin">{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Jasmin |title=Jane Matilda Bolin – A Woman of Firsts |url=https://nypost.com/2007/02/09/jane-matilda-bolin-a-woman-of-firsts/ |website=nypost.com |date=9 February 2007 |publisher=Post Digital Network |accessdate=25 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190725192535/https://nypost.com/2007/02/09/jane-matilda-bolin-a-woman-of-firsts/ |archive-date=25 July 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Metro">{{cite web |title=Who Are We |url=https://www.smithmetro.com/about-us |website=Smithmetro.com |publisher=Smith Metropolitan AME Zion Church |accessdate=25 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190725192536/https://www.smithmetro.com/about-us |archive-date=25 July 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

She practiced with her father in Poughkeepsie for a short period before accepting a job with the [[New York City Corporation Counsel]]'s office.<ref name="goodwin17" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Katz|first=Elizabeth D.|date=2020-06-30|title="Racial and Religious Democracy": Identity and Equality in Midcentury Courts|url=https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3441367|language=en|location=Rochester, NY|ssrn=3441367 }}</ref> She married attorney Ralph E. Mizelle in 1933, with whom she practiced law in [[New York City]].<ref name="bill" /><ref name="root" /> Mizelle would gowent on to become a member of President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]'s [[Black Cabinet]]<ref name="root" /> before dying in 1943. Bolin subsequently remarried Walter P. Offutt, Jr., a minister who died in 1974.<ref name="conrec">{{cite book|last1=Congress|first1=U. S.|title=Congressional Record, V. 153, PT. 2, January 18, 2007 to February 1, 2007|date=2010|publisher=[[Government Printing Office]]|isbn=978-0160868252|pages=1775–76|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DaFQ_F0bdnYC&q=ralph+mizelle+black+cabinet+death&pg=PA1775|accessdate=28 March 2018|language=en}}</ref> Bolin ran unsuccessfully for the [[New York State Assembly]] as a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] candidate in 1936.<ref name=":0" /> Despite the loss, securing the Republican candidacy boosted her reputation in New York politics.<ref name="root" />

On July 22, 1939, at the [[1939 New York World's Fair|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.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Cover|journal=The Crisis|date=September 1939|volume=46|issue=9|page=262|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NlsEAAAAMBAJ&q=jane+bolin&pg=PA262}}</ref> For twenty years, she was the only black female judge in the country.<ref name="root">{{cite news|last1=Wolf|first1=Julie|title=Judge Jane Bolin Battled Institutional Racism in NYC Courts for Decades|url=https://www.theroot.com/judge-jane-bolin-battled-institutional-racism-in-nyc-co-1790854263|accessdate=28 March 2018|work=[[The Root (magazine)|The Root]]|date=February 18, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180328231439/https://www.theroot.com/judge-jane-bolin-battled-institutional-racism-in-nyc-co-1790854263|archive-date=28 March 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref name="NHR">{{cite web |title=Remembering Jane Bolin, the first African-American female judge in the U.S. |url=https://www.nhregister.com/opinion/article/Remembering-Jane-Bolin-the-first-13649113.php |website=New Haven Resister |date=27 February 2019 |publisher=Herst Media Services Connecticut |accessdate=25 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190725194120/https://www.nhregister.com/opinion/article/Remembering-Jane-Bolin-the-first-13649113.php |archive-date=25 July 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=New York's first black women judge retires|journal=American Bar Association Journal|date=June 1, 1979|volume=65|pages=898–899|url=http://0-web.b.ebscohost.com.alice.dvc.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5f13d6ff-dcca-4394-be76-b7c83e4777fd%40sessionmgr112&vid=8&hid=118}}{{Dead link|date=September 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> 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.<ref name="latimesobit">{{cite news|title=Jane Bolin, 98; first black woman judge in America|url=httphttps://articleswww.latimes.com/2007archives/la-xpm-2007-jan/-13/local/-me-bolin13-story.html|accessdateaccess-date=27 March 2018|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|agency=[[Associated Press]]|date=13 January 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180228064816/http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/13/local/me-bolin13|archive-date=28 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

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.<ref name="goodwin17" /> During her lifetime, judges including [[Judith Kaye]] and [[Constance Baker Motley]] cited Bolin as a source of inspiration for their careers.<ref name="goodwin17" /><ref name="root" /> Upon her death, [[Charles Rangel]] spoke in tribute to BolinBoli on the floor of the [[U.S. House of Representatives]].<ref name="conrec" /> In 2017, [[Jeffrion L. Aubry]] introduced a bill in the New York State Assembly to rename the [[Queens–Midtown Tunnel]] the Jane Bolin Tunnel.<ref name="bill" /> Bolin is interred at [[Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery]].

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[[Category:20th-century African-American peoplelawyers]]