Jane Bolin 1908–

Judge

First Black Woman Graduate of Yale Law School

First Black Woman Judge in the United States

A Reluctant Retiree

Sources

Although she never cared to think in these terms, Jane Bolin would often have her name followed with the descriptive, “first black woman to…” In her mind, she was simply following her life’s path, pursuing goals in a profession she cared for deeply, not unlike any other man or woman, black or white. Still, the facts are undeniable that part of Bolin’s life path involved opening doors which had been, until her arrival, closed to black women and so the description, while not necessarily welcome, is accurate. Jane Bolin was the first black woman to be graduate from Yale Law School, the first black woman to work as corporate counsel for the city of New York, the first black woman to be admitted to the Bar Association of the City of New York and most significantly, the first black woman judge in the United States. “Everyone else makes a fuss about it, but I didn’t think about it, and I still don’t,” she told David Margolick of the New York Times in 1993. “I wasn’t concerned about first, second or last. My work was my primary concern.”

Born Jane Matilda Bolin on April 11, 1908 in Poughkeepsie, New Yorkshe was the youngest of four children born to Gaius C. Bolin, a lawyer and first black graduate of Williams College, and Matilda Ingram Bolin, a white Englishwoman. Her mother had become ill when Bolin was young and died when she was eight years old. As a single parent her father devoted a great deal of time and energy to his children while simultaneously running his own small law practice in Poughkeepsie. It was in her father’s office with the rows and rows of law books, that Bolin, an avid reader and excellent student, first thought of becoming a lawyer.

First Black Woman Graduate of Yale Law School

After high school in Poughkeepsie Bolin began attending Wellesley College in 1924, one of two black women to enter that year. She later recalled her life at Wellesley as a lonely time where she was ignored socially and received little encouragement from the faculty. As a senior, when she told her adviser about her plans to become a lawyer, she was sternly instructed to think of something else. There was no future for a black woman as a lawyer, she was told. Upon graduating in 1928 Bolin was named a “Wellesley Scholar” a distinction given to the top 20 women in their class.

At a Glance …

Born Jane Matilda Bolin on April 11, 1908 in Pough keepsie, New York. Youngest daughter of Matilda Ingram Emery and Gaius C. Bolin, a lawyer. Married Ralph E. Mizelle, a lawyer, in 1933; he died in 1943; married Walter P. Offutt, Jr., a clergyman, in 1950; he died in 1974; children: Yorke Mrzelle, born 1941, Education: B.A., Welfesley College, 1928; Yale Law School, 1931.

Career: Admitted to New York State Bar, 1932; practiced law 1932–37; Assistant Corporation Counsel in the Office of the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, 1937–39; appointed Justice of Domestic Relations Court (became know as Family Court of the State of New York in 1962), 1939–79; appointed to Regents Review Committee for the New York State Board of Regents, 1979-.

Member Harlem Lawyers Association, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, National Bar Association, New York State Bar Association; New York Association of Family Court Judges, Served on boards of NAACP, New York Urban League, Dalton School, Wiltwyck School, Child Welfare League.

Awards: Honorary degrees from Morgan State College, Tuskegee Institute, Hampton Institute, Western College for Women, Williams College; Corporation Counsel’s Award for Distinguished Service, 1993.

Addresses: Home—Queens, New York.

In sharp contrast to her adviser at Wellesley, Bolin’s father knew his daughter could become a lawyer—he just did notwant her to. “He was very opposed to the idea at first,” Bolin recalled to Judy Klemesrud of the New York Times. “He assumed I’d be aschoolteacher. He didn’t think that women should hear the unpleasant things that lawyers have to hear.” Bolin so feared her father’s disapproval that she did not tell him her plans until she had already interviewed and was accepted by Yale Law School. With her father’s reluctant blessing, Bolin went through the school and graduated in 1931, the first black woman to do so.

With law degree in hand Bolin affixed her name to the front door of herfather’s Poughkeepsie practice until 1933 when her marriage to fellow lawyer, Ralph E. Mizelle took her to New York. The couple practiced law together until 1937 when Bolin applied for a position in the Office of the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, the city’s law office. Although initially dismissed during her inter-view for the position by an assistant, Corporation Counsel Paul Windell walked in the office and hired her on the spot, giving Bolin the distinction as the first black woman to become an Assistant Corporation Counsel. In this role Bolin was assigned to the Domestic Relations Court where she represented petitioners who could not afford their own lawyer.

First Black Woman Judge in the United States

Bolin had held the position of Assistant Corporation Counsel for two years when she was summoned by the office of New York’s mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia, to meet the mayor at the New York City building of the World’s Fairwhich had just opened. Concerned that someonehad complained about her performance in the Corporation Counsel’s office and the mayor was going to reprimand her, Bolin persuaded her husband to accompany her to the meeting. Her concern turned to surprise which then turned to numbness when she learned Mayor LaGuardia’s intent was swear her in as a judge. The first black woman judge in the United States. The swearing in took place on a Saturday and Bolin took her place on the bench the following Monday. It would be a position she would hold for the next 40 years.

Bolin was assigned to the Domestic Relations Court, which in 1962 became known as the Family Court of the State of New York. This position gave Bolin a front row seat to virtually every aspect of legal trouble that could engage a New York family. From battered spouses and neglected children to paternity suits and, increasingly over her 40-year career, homicides committed by juveniles. “We always had homicides, but not in the numbers we have today,” Bolin told Klemesrud of the New York Times at the time of her retirement. “I’ve never seen anything like this, the extent of this violence, never.” Adding, “Sometimes, from the bench, I ask the children,’ Why, why, why?,’ and I never get a satisfactory answer. They look at you, they stare at you, and they don’t say anything.”

A Reluctant Retiree

While a justice Bolin also sought to bring about changes to the waythings were handled in the New York legal bureaucracy. One change was the assignment of probation officers to cases without to race or religion. “When I came in, the one or two black probation officers handled only black families,” she recalled to Klemesrud. “I had that changed.” A second change was ensuring private child care agencies that received public funding would accept children regardless of ethnic background. “They used to put a big N or PR on the front of every petition, to indicate if the family was black or Puerto Rican,” she told Klemesrud. Bolin had that changed as well.

In her own family life Bolin had a son, Yorke Bolin Mizelle, in 1941. In 1943 her husband died and she remained widowed until 1950 when she remarried Walter P. Offutt, Jr., a clergyman. He passed away in 1974 from lymphoma. Four years later, in 1978, Bolin reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 and was forced to step down from the bench, although she was very much opposed to the idea. She then became a member of the Regents Review Committee of for the New York State Board of Regents where she reviewed disciplinary cases.

In addition to her work on the bench Bolin served on the board of many agencies and organizations including the Child Welfare League, the National Board of the NAACP, the New York Urban League, the Dalton School, and Wiltwyck School for Boys, which she helped found with Eleanor Roosevelt and others. All activities that paralleled a lifetime of professional work designed to help people. “I’vealways done the kind of work I like,” she admitted to Klemesrud. “I don’t want to sound trite, but families and children are so important to our society, and to dedicate your life to trying to improve their lives is completely satisfying.”

Sources

Periodicals

Jet, July 28, 1997, p. 19; July 27, 1998, p. 19.

New York Times, April 8, 1937, p. A-3; July 23, 1939, p. A-7; April 14, 1943, p. A-24; December 8, 1978, p. A-22; May 14, 1993, p. B-8.

Other

Additional information for this profile was obtained from the Rare Books and Manuscripts division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

—Brian Escamilla