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05/19/2022 12:01 AMAn award-winning documentary, The Trials of Constance Baker Motley, will be shown in the Chester Meeting House on Sunday, May 22 at 3 p.m., followed by discussion led by Joel Motley, son of Constance Baker Motley, and co-producer of the film. The program, sponsored by the Chester Historical Society, is the kick-off event of the Barbara and Edmund Delaney Series, which will feature programs of historical and cultural significance in their honor.
Baker Motley, born and raised in New Haven, was a top lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a New York state senator, and president of the Manhattan Borough Council—all firsts for an African-American woman. She was also the nation’s first Black female federal judge, appointed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. That year, the Motleys purchased their seasonal home in Chester, and for the next 40 years spent weekends, holidays, and vacations in Chester, while Baker Motley served as a distinguished New York federal judge.
The Trials of Constance Baker Motley, Joel Motley’s short film, primarily documents his mother’s courageous civil rights work in the Deep South in the 1950s and early 1960s when she helped desegregate hundreds of public schools after the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled “separate but equal” schools unconstitutional. The film’s excellence and drama derive from the use of historic archival footage, and according to Vice Magazine, “is an exceptional short documentary that profiles Motley’s life’s work as a courageous and unprecedented champion for civil rights.” The film, directed by Rick Rodgers, has won Audience and Jury Awards from the Austin and Tribeca Film Festivals.
Motley will share his memories of his mother and his own time in Chester, and will invite the audience to share their memories of his family. The program will be free, and light refreshments will be offered. CDC guidelines re masking and serving food will be followed.
Motley is chairman emeritus, Human Rights Watch; a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; and on the board of the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. Motley is a frequent national speaker on the life and legacy of his mother. Most recently, in 2020-’21, he was a distinguished guest on the Constance Baker Motley Series on Racial Inequality established by the Connecticut Bar Association and Connecticut Bar Foundation as an ongoing forum for the Connecticut legal community to explore issues of racial inequality and systemic racism.
“Our program featuring Judge Motley is both appropriate and timely,” says Marta Daniels, curator of the Constance Baker Motley Archive at the Chester Historical Society. “Judge Motley was a founding trustee of the society in 1970, and remained close friends with the Delaneys during her family’s long residence in Chester from 1965 to 2005.
“The program is also very timely because of the recent spotlight placed on Judge Motley by Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, whose appointment to the United States Supreme Court spurred national interest about Motley. Jackson, as the first Black female jurist to win a Supreme Court seat, repeatedly praised Judge Motley as her role model, resulting in hundreds of national media stories about Motley. Put simply,” says Daniels, “Judge Motley is no longer a ‘hidden figure.’”
Barbara and Edmund Delaney were founders, patrons, and creative forces of the Chester Historical Society from its inception in 1970. A wide and diverse set of programs are planned for the future, mirroring Barbara and Edmund’s interests, loves and concerns.