Jane Bolin – America’s First Black Woman Judge

With Justice Breyer’s retirement announcement, there has been a lot of buzz about his next replacement. All we know is that the next Supreme Court Justice will be a black woman. This will be the Court’s first black woman judge in our nearly 250-year history. There are a lot of well-qualified jurists such as Ketanji Brown Jackson or Eunice Lee. 

But before all of them, there was Jane Bolin. 

The Top of Her Class

Jane Bolin was born in 1908 in Poughkeepsie, New York, the youngest of four children. Her father was a lawyer and her mother a British immigrant. At 16, Bolin enrolled at Wellesley College where she was one of two black freshmen. 

In 1928, Bolin graduated at the top of her class and enrolled in Yale Law School. She was the only black student and one of three women. 

In 1931, Bolin became the first black woman to receive a law degree from Yale. The next year, she passed the New York state bar examination – the first black woman to do so. 

Our First Black Woman Judge

In 1939, New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia appointed then-31-year-old Bolin as the first black woman judge of the Domestic Relations Court. For 20 years, she was the only black female judge in our country. 

Bolin worked to end racial segregation – specifically involving children. In cases where children may be wards of the state, Bolin worked to ensure that probation officers were assigned without regard to race or religion. She also made an impact in ensuring that publicly funded childcare agencies accepted all children regardless of their ethnic background. 

She would serve on the bench for 40 years. 

A Quiet Legacy

Bolin retired in 1979. In her retirement, she volunteered as a reading instructor in New York City public schools for two years. She also served on the New York State Board of Regents. 

After a life of trailblazing achievements, Jane Bolin died in 2007 at 98 in Long Island City, Queens, New York. 

Jane Bolin, though not necessarily the most immediately recognizable, was a pioneer for black women and worked tirelessly to ensure the advancement of black people – especially children. 

“Those gains we have made were never graciously and generously granted. We have had to fight every inch of the way – in the face of sometimes insufferable humiliations.” 

Whoever is chosen to sit on our nation’s highest court, Jane Bolin will be smiling down on them.