In honor of Constance Baker Motley, C. Dolores Tucker and Vivian Malone Jones
By Bernie Hayes
For the St. Louis American
It is very sad to announce the untimely death of three women pioneers of the civil and human rights movements over the past three weeks: Constance Baker Motley, C. Dolores Tucker and Vivian Malone Jones, three women who fought segregation, bigotry, hatred, racism and sexism in their lifetime, persevered and went on to greatness.
They all deserve more than a plain obituary. Let’s explore the lives of three individuals who broke new ground in civil liberties.
Constance Baker Motley was a civil rights lawyer who fought nearly every important civil rights case for two decades and then became the first black woman to serve as a federal judge.
From 1945 to 1964, Judge Motley worked on all of the major school segregation cases supported by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In the area of housing, Judge Motley represented African-American plaintiffs in public housing cases from Detroit to Savannah, Georgia, Pittsburgh and St. Louis.
Judge Motley was also counsel for African-American plaintiffs in the Jackson, Mississippi transportation facilities case which resulted in desegregating railroad and bus terminals and local buses in Jackson.
On May 20, 1963, the Supreme Court handed down decisions in several sit-in cases reversing the convictions of many African-American students. One of these cases, Gober v. City of Birmingham (involving 10 African-American students who had sat in at dime store lunch counters in Birmingham), was argued by Judge Motley. In total, Judge Motley won nine out of the 10 cases she argued before the Supreme Court. She died of congestive heart failure on Sept. 28 at the age of 84.
C. Dolores Tucker was national chair and convening founder of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc. (NCBW), a scholar, activist and public servant who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama and was also a delegate to the White House Conference on Civil Rights. She fought tirelessly throughout her life for racial equality and women’s rights and was well known for her activism against gangsta rap music in the mid- to late-90s. She sued her nemesis Tupac Shakur for defamation because of certain lyrics on his recording of “All Eyez On Me.”
Tucker lectured around the country on the issue of rap music. In 1996, she told one reporter that record companies “have the blood of their children on their hands.” She added that rap music “denigrates and demoralizes young girls and women and glorifies drugs, gang rape, criminal behavior and death for young boys.”
“For us African Americans,” she said, “the music is race-driven, greed-driven and drug-driven. Our kids are growing up to emulate the gangster image.” She died October 12 of undisclosed causes at the age of 78.
Vivian Malone Jones was one of two African-American students who sought to enroll at the University of Alabama in 1963, only to find her way blocked by Gov. George C. Wallace’s infamous “stand in the schoolhouse door.” Jones went on to become the first black to graduate from the school. After graduating, she worked for the U.S. Justice Department in Washington and for the Environmental Protection Agency in Atlanta. She died of a stroke Oct. 13 at the age of 63.
Each of these three women did wonderful things against all odds. They were courageous, fascinating and spirited women who were makers of history and prevailed in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. Who will take their place?
I can be reached by fax at (314) 837-3369 or by e-mail at: berhay@swbell.net.