VICTORIOUS
THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN TO ARGUE BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT, MOTLEY WON 9 OF HER 10 CASES
1961
RIGHT TO COUNSEL
Hamilton v. Alabama
Accused of breaking
and entering with plans to “ravish” a white woman, Charles Clarence Hamilton, a mentally disabled
Black man, faced capital punishment.
But Motley persuaded all nine justices that the Alabama courts had violated Hamilton’s
14th Amendment rights because he had first been arraigned without a lawyer present. The case was a land
mark in preserving capital defendants’ right to counsel.
1962
HIGHER EDUCATION
Meredith v. Fair
In 1962, after Motley convinced the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Cir
cuit to allow James Meredith to attend the University of Mississippi, the state appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled
in Motley and Meredith’s favor. Meredith went on to attend the university and pursue further
civil rights work.
1963
DESEGREGATION Watson v. City of Memphis
Memphis had agreed to desegregate its public recreational facilities over a transitional period of several years. Representing the city’s Black population, Motley argued that such a delay was unconstitutional and the facilities should be desegregated immediately. Motley prevailed, and the city’s Parks Commission obeyed, integrating parks and playgrounds—but it closed the city’s pools in protest.
1964
DUE PROCESS
Bouie v. City of Columbia
Defending two Black students arrested for staging a sit-in at a whites-only lunch counter in Columbia, South Carolina, Motley successfully argued that the arrests stemmed from the state supreme court’s unconstitutional expansion of trespassing laws, and that the state had not respected due process. Ten days after the decision, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.