Story Archive

The first Black professor at Columbia Law School was a scholar, a jazz musician, and a beloved mentor to a generation of students.

The plaque, unveiled on October 9, memorializes the Indigenous history of Columbia’s campus and the Law School’s ongoing commitment to justice.

A pioneering civil rights lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund who argued 10 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, Motley was the first Black woman to serve as a federal judge.

His pathbreaking career was nearly crushed by McCarthy-era ostracism, but Paul Robeson’s voice, in song and speech, continues to be heard in support of Black freedom.

The fourth dean of Columbia Law School and 12th chief justice of the United States is the namesake of the Law School’s prestigious Harlan Fiske Stone Moot Court Competition held every spring.

Renowned for breaking glass ceilings, winning important victories for gender equality, and making history in the country’s highest court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s journey to becoming a legend started in the classroom. 

Long before intersectionality became a watchword, Florynce Kennedy ’51 identified the confluence of race and gender discrimination, bringing to second-wave feminism a Black voice that was impossible not to hear. But first, she took on Columbia Law School.

Alexander’s biographer and an alumni panel moderated by Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw discuss the pioneering judge’s law school days and her legacy as the first Black woman in North Carolina to practice law, to argue before its Supreme Court, and to be elected a judge.

The first Black woman to graduate from Columbia Law School was a pathbreaking litigator and jurist.

In 2018, the Law School commissioned a custom lace collar to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the investiture of Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’59 to the United States Supreme Court. Elena Kanagy-Loux of the Brooklyn Lace Guild created the intricate custom pattern mirroring the interlocking 25s that appear on the Law School’s commemorative book.