Judge Jane Bolin

Jane Bolin (1908-2007) a graduate of Yale University marked her entry into the world of firsts. In a 2011 biography, Jacqueline McLeod wrote that assessments of Bolin’s decadeslong career had been “relegated to the vignettes of firsts” for African-American women: first to earn a law degree from Yale University (1931), first to be hired as a lawyer in New York City’s legal department (1937), first to be admitted to the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (1943)— and, the milestone for which she is best-known, the first African-American female judge in the United States (1939).