17 Facts About Jane Bolin

Jane Matilda Bolin was an American attorney and judge.

Jane Bolin was the first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, the first to join the New York City Bar Association and the first to join the New York City Law Department.

Jane Matilda Bolin was born on April 11,1908, in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Jane Bolin's father, Gaius C Bolin, was a lawyer and the first black person to graduate from Williams College, and her mother, Matilda Ingram Emery, was an immigrant from the British Isles who died when Bolin was 8 years old.

Jane Bolin's father practiced law in Dutchess County for fifty years and was the first black president of the Dutchess County Bar Association.

Jane Bolin was influenced as a child by articles and pictures of the murders, by extrajudicial hanging, of black southerners in The Crisis, the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Jane Bolin grew up as an active member of Smith Metropolitan AME Zion Church.

Jane Bolin graduated from Wellesley in 1928 in the top 20 of her class.

Jane Bolin practiced with her father in Poughkeepsie for a short period before accepting a job with the New York City Corporation Counsel's office.

Jane Bolin married attorney Ralph E Mizelle in 1933, with whom she practiced law in New York City.

Jane Bolin ran unsuccessfully for the New York State Assembly as a Republican candidate in 1936.

Jane Bolin remained a judge of the court, renamed the Family Court in 1962, for 40 years, with her appointment being renewed three times, until she was required to retire aged 70.

Jane Bolin worked to encourage racially integrated child services, ensuring that probation officers were assigned without regard to race or religion, and publicly funded childcare agencies accepted children without regard to ethnic background.

Jane Bolin was a legal advisor to the National Council of Negro Women.

Jane Bolin served on the boards of the NAACP, the National Urban League, the City-Wide Citizens' Committee on Harlem, and the Child Welfare League.

Jane Bolin sought to combat racial discrimination from religious groups by helping to open a special school for black boys in New York City.

Jane Bolin received honorary degrees from Tuskegee Institute, Williams College, Hampton University, Western College for Women and Morgan State University.