Constance Baker Motley

“The peaceful demonstrations are designed to show the weaknesses of a segregated society.”

“Something which we think is impossible now is not impossible in another decade.”

“I rejected the notion that my race or sex would bar my success in life.”

“I think the job of a civil rights lawyer is not to be a prophet but to be a very good plumber. The job is to get the drains unclogged.”

“We have to get to the point where we see that all human beings are related to us.”

“Censorship is the tool of those who have the need to hide actualities from themselves and from others.”

“I was the kind of person who would not be put down.”

“The law can be a powerful instrument for social change.”

“History would have been very different if we had not had the 14th Amendment.”

“What I've learned is that you have to be determined and not take 'no' for an answer.”

“I would not be here today if it were not for the civil rights movement.”

“The work of a trial lawyer is to some degree boring and repetitious. It is for that reason that you can't be a trial lawyer unless you are a master of detail.”

“We knew we were making history. We were conscious of the fact that we were creating a new legal framework for a more just society.”

“I was not a theoretician. I was a practitioner.”

“Desegregation is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end, which is the creation of a truly integrated society.”