Page 17 - OWLS AdvanceSheet Spring 2017

Daughter of the Empire State:

The Life of Judge Jane Bolin

By Jacqueline A. McLeod (University of Illinois Press, 2011, 170 pages)
Book Review by Joanna Robinson
A her in the face, among other racial slights agencies’ accepting children without
sharply credentialed Wellesley
that made her seem and feel invisible.
regard to ethnic background.
graduate who entered Yale Law
In 1931, Jane Bolin graduated from
School as one of four women was
McLeod gives us a view from Judge
later branded an “unruly” woman for her Yale, its first black woman law graduate. Bolin’s bench in the chapter titled
role in politics. Sound familiar? This is the Earning credentials from a prestigious “Speaking Truth to Power,” in which she
story of Jane Matilda Bolin, the country’s university did not mean much, however, traces the many ways Judge Bolin used
first African American woman judge. her influence to advance and promote
Jacqueline McLeod captures the re- social justice by forming alliances across
markable strength and resilience of a racial and gender lines. At other times,
woman whose story has managed to she engaged in rigorous letter-writing
remain in obscurity to many of us in the campaigns in her fight against injustice.
legal profession. Judge Bolin’s judicial philosophy was
The book traces Bolin’s preparation for simple. She believed that to effectively
entering the law at a time when very few serve on the family court bench, a judge
black women were welcome to do so. needed to understand the different
McLeod perfectly frames Bolin’s daring to cultures that comprised the city and
transgress a script written for her at the reflected the composition of those who
time by recalling that “[i]n 1910, of the came before the court.
558 women lawyers in the United States, Beyond the bench, Judge Bolin was a
two were African American. By 1930 there force in the NAACP. Not swayed by titles
were 22 black women lawyers; by the or internal politics, she stood up to the
1940s there were only 57 black women association’s leadership when she noticed
lawyers in the entire United States.” that the hierarchy would dismantle the
Bolin’s insistence on a career in law organization unless significant changes
was met with resistance from all corners, were made. For her nonconformist po-
but the ugliest came from a guidance sitions and robust dissent, the NAACP
counselor at Wellesley who threw up board labeled her an “unruly” woman
her hands in disbelief after Bolin laid and effectively discharged her from
out her post-graduation plans and said participating in further leadership of the
that “there was little opportunity for given that the barriers for practicing law organization.
women in law and absolutely none for remained extremely difficult to over- Toward the end of the book, McLeod
a ‘colored’ one.” come. McLeod describes the narrative asks the obvious question: how did such
Adding injury to insult, not only was for Bolin and other black lawyers at the a visible political subject become invisible
Bolin rebuked for having ambitious time: “For all their success in self-training, to the historical eye? Was that the result
post-graduation plans, but during her self-employment, and self-association, of Bolin’s desire to protect the sanctity
time at Wellesley, she and the other black lawyers still had to acquit them- of the private aspects of her life, which
African American students were never selves before a judicial system that did enabled her to survive in a hostile envi-
allowed to live in the campus dorms that not always provide for their equality ronment? We will never truly know the
housed the white students. Instead, they under the law or their participation in answer, and although McLeod’s question
were assigned to live away from the col- the legal profession.” may be the most obvious, it may not be
lege in the same room in an apartment In July 1939, Bolin became the nation’s the most important.
of a family who lived in the village of first African American woman judge, This book offers more than a history
Wellesley. after Mayor Fiorello La Guardia appoint- of the nation’s first African American
Life at Yale Law School, which Bolin ed her to the New York City Domestic woman judge. It places Judge Bolin’s life
entered in 1928, was no easier than her Relations Court. Throughout her time in the context of black progress and vis-
time at Wellesley. She was one of four on the bench, Judge Bolin managed to ibility in a profession with longstanding
women enrolled there that year, and the make significant changes in the family traditions, and offers us an opportunity
first and only African American. Judge court. One of those changes involved to decide what is to come next.
Bolin recalled that “a few Southerners” the assignment of probation officers to
at the law school had taken pleasure in cases without regard to race or religion, Joanna Robinson is an associate at Lindsay
letting the swinging classroom doors hit and another involved private childcare Hart in Portland.

OREGON WOMEN LAWYERS AdvanceSheet 17 SPRING 2017