This year the Law Department is observing Women’s History Month by recognizing the Hon. Jane Bolin – the first African-American woman to serve as an Assistant Corporation Counsel, the first to graduate from Yale Law School, the first to be admitted to the New York State Bar, and the first to be appointed as a judge in the United States. In 1933, Judge Bolin told The New York Times, “Everyone else makes a fuss about it, but I didn’t think about it, and I still don’t. I wasn’t concerned about first, second or last. My work was my primary concern.”

Jane Matilda Bolin was born on April 11, 1908, in Poughkeepsie, New York. Her mother, Matilda (Emery) Bolin, died when she was only 8. Her father, Gaius C. Bolin, was the first African-American graduate of Williams College, and a successful lawyer. His was a strong influence on Ms. Bolin’s interest in the American justice system, with its ideals and its flaws: “My wonderful father was an earnest supporter of the NAACP from its beginning and helped organize its Dutchess County branch. As a child I read the Crisis regularly. It was the Crisis and the conversations I heard in my home which brought my first awareness that by the superficial difference of skin color some people are treated differently than others. This is a shocking realization for a child, especially a child who was fascinated and made to glow by American history and took literally our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. I recall the horror with which I learned … the meaning of the brutal word ‘lynching’. I remember the shock and dismay and anger I experienced when first I heard of compulsory racial segregation. I was confused by these realities and the teachings I had at home, in school and in church about the dignity of man and the equality of all people. I had been taught that in my country there were the same opportunities for all, limited only by one’s intellectual endowment or personal conduct. I was slowly and painfully awakening to the realization that there might be other limitations over which one had no control. As I grew an older child I was prevented from feeling hopeless and helpless only because I knew there were people like Dr. Dubois on a larger scale and my father on a smaller scale who were uncompromising in fighting for the democratic ideal my school taught and for the brotherhood my religion taught.”

In 1924, Ms. Bolin enrolled in Wellesley College. She described her college experience in a 1974 essay titled Wellesley After Images by saying, “I am saddened and maddened even nearly half a century later to recall many of my Wellesley experiences, but my college days for the most part evoke sad and lonely memories.” Ms. Bolin was one of two African-American women who graduated in 1928 as a “Wellesley Scholar” and one of the top 20 students in her class.

An advisor at Wellesley counseled Ms. Bolin to consider teaching as a profession “because no Black woman would ever make it as a lawyer.” In tears, she called her father, who was shocked to learn of his daughter’s interest in the legal profession. She reported his reaction: “I always thought you were going to be a school teacher. I don’t like you becoming a lawyer because lawyers have to hear such dirty things sometimes and a woman shouldn’t have to hear some of the things a lawyer has to hear.” However, having failed to dissuade her, he advised his daughter to “make application to the finest law school admitting women.”

Jane Bolin graduated Yale Law School in 1931, one of only three women in her class, and the first African-American woman to graduate from the prestigious institution. In 1932, she became the first African-American woman to be admitted to the New York State Bar. From 1932 until 1937 she practiced law with her father in Poughkeepsie and then in New York City, with her husband, Ralph E. Mizelle, whom she had married in 1933. She sought a position at a private law firm and blamed her lack of success “on account of being a woman, but I’m sure that race also played a part.” Reflecting on her decision to leave Poughkeepsie in pursuit of greater opportunities, Judge Bolin said in 1944, “When I am asked why I ever left such a beautiful town as Poughkeepsie I am forced to answer: ‘Yes, it is physically beautiful, but I hate fascism whether it is practiced by Germans, Japanese, or by Americans and Poughkeepsie is fascist to the extent of deluding itself that there is superiority among human beings by reason solely of color or race or religion.”

Jane Bolin unfortunately encountered some resistance when she applied to our office in 1937, but the problem was quickly rectified by the Corporation Counsel himself. As she recalled, “I was interviewed by the First Assistant Corporation Counsel who was from the south of the United States. He was making short shrift of me by telling me there were no vacancies when the Corporation Counsel himself, Mr. Paul Windels, just happened to come in the office. He treated me very cordially, and said that he knew that I was interested in the position on his staff. Thereupon, his assistant interrupted to say ‘but we have no line for her in the budget.’ And Mr. Windels said, ‘but we do.’ And he shook my hand and said, ‘I welcome you to my staff.” She began her career in public service on April 3, 1937 at an annual salary of $3,500. In March 1939, she was promoted and given a $250 raise. She resigned from the Law Department four months later when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia appointed her as a Justice of the Domestic Relations Court (renamed the Family Court in 1962), making her the first African-American woman to serve as a judge in the United States. She was reappointed for successive ten-year terms by Mayors William O’Dwyer, John Lindsay, and Robert F. Wagner, and retired after 40 years of service on the bench on January 1, 1979.

Judge Bolin’s account of her appointment to the bench reveals much about the status of women in the 1930’s: “I had a telephone call from the Mayor’s office saying that the Mayor wanted to see me the following Saturday… I was frightened because the Mayor was Fiorello H. LaGuardia and he had instituted the practice of an answer for every complaint his office received and the answer had to be given to him within just a few days. I couldn’t imagine who had complained about me. *** Saturday morning I had the appointment with Mayor LaGuardia and I asked [my husband] to come with me because I was certain I was in for a hard time. *** We had to wait a while for [the Mayor] and he came back and just breezed past me saying he wanted to speak to my husband. He took my husband into a private room and left me sitting outside still in great fear because I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. The Mayor and my husband came out of the private office and the Mayor said to one of his assistants, ‘call in the photographers.’ He told me to stand up, raise my right hand, and he swore me in as a judge of the Domestic Relations Court. You can imagine my surprise. I was numb all day.” Later, Judge Bolin graciously commented upon the Mayor’s having consulted her husband, but not herself, about the appointment: “I was so overwhelmed and surprised, that at the time, I really – didn’t think about it. I can understand now and subsequently I could understand why he did that – was because he wanted to know the character of the man who was my husband. I can’t think of any other reason, can you?”

Judge Bolin was an eloquent advocate for equality among the races and the sexes:

· In a speech to the Urban League during World War II, she argued pragmatically: “It is not necessary to sell Negro labor the need for participation in the war effort. Negro women are ready to take over. Management, in the interest of national unity and security must make this opportunity available to them. *** Discrimination limits production because it keeps needed workers out of war plants. It keeps skilled people on unskilled jobs. It creates artificial labor shortages. Every time a Negro worker is denied employment or promotion for no other reason than his or her color, one more obstacle is placed in the path of all-out production. *** Let us remember that every citizen of this country is entitled to full participation in the life of America, regardless of his color or religion and whether our country is at war or at peace. Let every employer and every labor union, whether large or small, remember that no matter how small and localized the work we do or the attitudes we take may seem when viewed from the global perspective of the times, we can be sure that the concepts of liberty, justice and opportunity for all, for which such appalling sacrifices are being made by people of every race today, will find their realization only as they are constructed bit by bit, and woven thread by thread, out of the tangled fabric of our local community lives. In this direction alone lies the road to ultimate victory. When Negro women are sending their sons abroad to die for this country, we must assure them by deed more than by word that democracy truly lives in the United States.”

· In a letter to the Chair of the Red Cross War Fund, Judge Bolin objected strenuously to the policy of segregating donated blood: “I still believe that any Chapter of the Red Cross in New York State which lacks sufficient courage and determination to stand up and say it will not impede the war effort by offending part of the population whose support it needs and wants is not in a position to make general public appeals for support. *** Neither can I agree with you that the Red Cross has no control over a request from the War Department. In my opinion it has control over any action taken under its name which divides people instead of uniting them, which saps morale rather than bolsters it during the time of war.”

· In 1950 she wrote to then Mayor Impellitteri urging his support for legislation to end discrimination in public housing: “I feel obligated to tell you that as a judge in the Domestic Relations Court I see daily the effects not only of inadequate housing but of segregated housing on families and children. I see little bodies dwarfed by an overcrowded, substandard home and I see little minds warped by the knowledge that ‘we are considered somehow different and inferior. We cannot even live any place we want.’ With that obvious injustice as a starting point, festering over a period of time, it is perhaps little wonder that there should be finally rebellion against law and authority. There is not a resident of this City who should not be able to feel that all public monies are used for the benefit of all people and no resident should be humiliated by the knowledge that his taxes are being used by his city to perpetuate the evils, both material and psychological, of discrimination. I feel confident that you too consider this bill long overdue.”

· In 1957 she wrote to then Mayor Wagner, again urging support for legislation to address housing discrimination: “New York City is to me the finest city in the world and I am very defensive of it. Some friends who have just returned from abroad told me they were astonished by the accurate information Asians and Europeans have about race relations in the United States. People whom they met abroad, they add, were even more scornful of our failure to pass the [local housing discrimination] bill than they were of the failure of our Senate to pass a strong civil rights bill. We are associated in the minds of people, it seems, not only with a beautiful city but with a city that is progressive and a leader in good human relations. I hope we will not disappoint them further. *** In addition to the justice and democracy of the bill it would eliminate the sad and destructive effects of discrimination in housing – antisocial children rebelling against patent discrimination as well as unwholesome living conditions, the criminal adult element similarly reacting, segregated schools, human beings diseased by slum living, the blatant exploitation by unscrupulous real estate interests of people they consider trapped because of their race, religion or national origin. This is an opportunity for us to implement our religious teaching and our democratic principles. *** I am confident that with your record you will meet this challenge to democracy with courage.”

· In a 1958 speech about the rights of women, Judge Bolin observed, “It is apparent our progress was never what might be termed ‘lightning fast.’ Nor have we by any means yet reached the millennium. There is still discrimination against women in the political, professional and business life of our country. There is discrimination in their employment, in their pay and in their advancement. I am always impatient with those who say ‘You women have come a long way.’ Since I am no gradualist, I think to myself that 150 years is too long a time to come a ‘long way’ in that those gains we have made were never graciously and generously granted. We have had to fight every inch of the way – in the face of sometimes insufferable humiliations.”


Judge Bolin worked to eliminate racial injustices that she encountered in the juvenile justice system, including segregated child placement facilities and the assignment of probation officers to children by race. Together with Eleanor Roosevelt and others, she helped to establish the Wiltwyck School for Boys to address the need for facilities that would accept young African Americans.

In 1941, Judge Bolin took a leave of absence from the bench when her son Yorke was born. Ralph Mizelle died when their son was only two years old. Judge Bolin raised Yorke as a single parent until she married Walter Offutt, Jr., a clergyman interested in social action, in 1950. She later reflected on how she balanced her career and motherhood by stating: “I don’t think I short-changed anybody but myself. I didn’t get all the sleep I needed and I didn’t get to travel as much as I would have liked, because I felt my first obligation was to my child.”

Judge Bolin said of her work in the Family Court, “I’ve always done the kind of work that I like. Families and children are so important to our society, and to dedicate your life to trying to improve their lives is completely satisfying.” (The New York Times, December 12, 1978 p A 22).

Throughout her career Judge Bolin served on many boards, including the regional and national boards of the NAACP, the New Lincoln School, the Dalton School, the Child Welfare League of America, and the National Urban League. Following her retirement, she served on a committee of the Board of the New York State Regents. In 1993, Judge Bolin received the Corporation Counsel’s Award for Distinguished Service from Corporation Counsel O. Peter Sherwood in recognition of her life-long service to the people of the State of New York.