Jane Bolin

Daughter of The Empire State

Happy Wednesday, Golden Divas!

This is the last Wednesday to honor ‘Women’s Month’ at Club Fifty, according to the calendar. However, you ladies know me, I will continue to drop a name here and there throughout the year for our ‘Lady Warriors.’ We should not be limited to March for all of the contributions that we have shared in this world. So, with that being said, I would like to introduce or reacquaint you with another “Diva of Firsts!”

MEET JANE BOLIN

Jane Bolin was a ‘Trailblazing Attorney’ who became the ‘First African-American Female Judge’ in the United States, serving on New York’s Family Court for four decades. Yaas, ladies, you read that right!

She was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, on April 11, 1908, to an interracial couple, Matilda Ingram Emery and Gaius C. Bolin. Her father was an attorney who headed the Dutchess County Bar Association and cared for the family after his wife’s illness and death, which occurred when Bolin was a child.

Jane Bolin was a diligent scholar and superb student who graduated from high school in her mid-teens and went on to enroll at Wellesley College. Though facing overt racism and social isolation, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1928 and was officially recognized as one of the top students of her class. She then attended Yale Law School, contending with further social hostilities, yet nonetheless graduating in 1931 and thus becoming the first African-American woman to earn a law degree from the institution.

After graduating from Yale Law School, Bolin worked with her family’s practice in her home city for a time before marrying attorney Ralph E. Mizelle in 1933 and moving to New York City. As the decade progressed, after campaigning unsuccessfully for a state assembly seat on the Republican ticket, she took on assistant corporate counsel work for New York City, creating another landmark as the first African-American woman to hold that position.

It was in New York City on July 22, 1939; a 31-year-old Bolin was called to appear at the World’s Fair before Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. Unbeknownst to the attorney, she became sworn in by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia as the first African-American female judge in the U.S. Jane served on the Family Court bench for four decades, advocating for children and families via outside institutions as well.

Having already been assigned to what would be known as Family Court, Bolin was a thoughtful, conscientious force on the bench, confronting a range of issues on the domestic front and taking great care when it came to the plight of children. She also changed segregationist policies that had been entrenched in the system, including skin-color- based assignments for probation officers.

Additionally, Bolin worked with first lady Eleanor Roosevelt in providing support for the Wiltwyck School, a comprehensive, holistic program to help eradicate juvenile crime among boys.

Some personal challenges came with that honor to serve. Her first husband died in 1943, and she raised their young son, Yorke, for several years on her own. She remarried in 1950 to Walter P. Offutt Jr.

Bolin was reinstated as a judge for three additional terms, ten years each, after her first, also serving on the boards of several organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the New York Urban League. Though she preferred to continue, Bolin was required to retire from the bench at the age of 70, subsequently working as a consultant and school-based volunteer, as well as with the New York State Board of Regents. She died in Long Island City, Queens, New York, on January 8, 2007, at the age of 98.

Golden Divas, Jane Bolin was a woman of many ‘FIRSTS’ and is someone you should know that made a difference in our world, especially in Family Court!

Source

https://www.biography.com/political-figure/jane-bolin.