JANE BOLIN

Jane Bolin

Not only was Jane Bolin the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, but she also made history by becoming the first Black female judge in the United States. On the eleventh of April in the year 1908, Bolin was born in Poughkeepsie, Massachusetts. Bolin had known from the time she was a little child working in her father’s law office that she wanted to pursue a career in the legal field. It was in 1928 that she received her degree from Wellesley College, and it was in 1931 that she received her law degree from Yale Law School.

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Following her successful completion of the New York Bar examination in 1932, Jane Bolin worked as a clerk in the law practice of her father. A year later, she tied the knot with Ralph E. Mizelle, a fellow attorney, and the two of them went on to establish a company in New York City. While serving on the Domestic Relations Court, Bolin was appointed to the position of Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of New York in the year 1937. A judge on the Domestic Relations Court, Jane Bolin was appointed by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1939, and she served in that capacity for a total of forty years.

Jane Bolin’s Formative Years

Born as Jane Matilda Bolin on April 11, 1908, in the charming town of Poughkeepsie, New York, she was the youngest of four siblings. Her father, Gaius C. Bolin, was not just a lawyer but also the first black graduate of Williams College, while her mother, Matilda Ingram Bolin, hailed from England. When Bolin was a little child, her mother became unwell, and unfortunately, she passed away when she was eight years old.

Despite the fact that he was a sole parent, her father managed to dedicate a significant amount of his time and energy to his children while still operating a modest law firm in Poughkeepsie. Bolin, who was a voracious reader and an outstanding student, had her first idea about becoming a lawyer while she was sitting in her father’s office, which was filled with rows and rows of law volumes.

Yale Law School’s first black female graduate

After completing her secondary school education in Poughkeepsie, Jane Bolin enrolled in Wellesley College in 1924, to become one of just two black women to enroll in that particular year. In retrospect, she described her time at Wellesley as a period of her life that was marked by social isolation and a lack of encouragement from the teaching staff.

After she informed her advisor that she intended to pursue a career in law when she was a senior, she was given a severe warning to consider other options. According to what she was told, a black woman’s career as a lawyer had no prospects for the future. When Bolin graduated in 1928, she was honored with the title of “Wellesley Scholar,” which is a distinction that is bestowed upon the top twenty women in their class.

Jane Bolin Judge — Jane Bolin during official duty

When compared to her advisor at Wellesley, Bolin’s father was aware that his daughter had the potential to become a lawyer; yet, he did not want her to pursue this career path. According to what Bolin recounted to Judy Klemesrud of the New York Times, he initially had a strong aversion to the concept since he believed that Bolin would hold a position in the education field. He believed that women ought not to be exposed to the unpleasant realities that lawyers encounter.

Bolin was so concerned about her father’s rejection that she refrained from informing him of her plans until after she had received an acceptance letter from Yale Law School and had completed the interview process. Despite the fact that her father was hesitant to give his approval, Bolin attended the school and graduated in 1931, making her the first black woman to ever do so.

As soon as Bolin had her legal degree, Jane Bolin pinned her name to the front door of her father’s firm in Poughkeepsie. She remained there until 1933, when she married Ralph E. Mizelle, a fellow attorney, and moved to New York. Bolin submitted her application for a position in the Office of the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York in 1937, which was the law office of the city.

Despite the fact that she was first rejected by an assistant during her interview for the post, Corporation Counsel Paul Windell came into the office and hired her on the spot. This achievement gave Bolin the distinction of being the first black woman to be hired as an Assistant Corporation Counsel. As part of her duties in this capacity, Bolin was assigned to the Domestic Relations Court, where she represented petitioners who were unable to afford attorney representation for themselves.

Jane Bolin’s Professional Career

The first African-American woman judge in the US

Jane Bolin had been working as an Assistant Corporation Counsel for two years when she received a call from the office of New York’s Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. The call was to meet with the mayor in the New York City building of the World’s Fair, which had just opened its doors. Bolin was concerned that someone had complained about her work in the Corporation Counsel’s office, and she was going to be reprimanded by the mayor. As a result, she convinced her husband to accompany her to the meeting.

Upon learning that Mayor LaGuardia intended to appoint her as a judge, her first fear morphed into amazement, which was followed by numbness. She is notable for being the first Black woman to be appointed to a judgeship in the US. Friday was the day that Bolin was sworn in, and the following Monday was the day that She is notable for being the first Black woman to be appointed to a judgeship in the US. took her seat on the bench. Over the course of the following four decades, she would continue to serve in that capacity.

Judge Jane Bolin

Bolin was designated to the Domestic Relations Court, which in 1962 was rebranded as the Family Court of the State of New York. As a result of his position, Bolin was able to observe practically every facet of legal litigation that could involve a family in the state of New York. Over the course of her forty-year career, she handled cases ranging from paternity disputes and cases involving abused spouses and neglected children to those involving homicides perpetrated by adolescents.

At the time of her retirement, Bolin shared with Klemesrud of the New York Times that although there were always homicides, the number of homicides committed was not as high as it was during that time period. According to her, she had never witnessed anything even somewhat similar to the level of violence that was taking place. In addition, she mentioned that she occasionally asked the children why, while sitting on the bench, but she never received an explanation that was adequate since the youngsters looked at her, stared at her, and did not say anything more.

A Reluctant Retiree

At the same time that she was serving as a justice, Jane Bolin worked to transform the way that things were handled within the New York legal bureaucracy. A change that was made was that probation officers were assigned to cases without regard to the individual’s race or religion. She claimed that when she first started working there, the only black families who were being served by the one or two black probation officers were black families. However, she managed to change that.

Making sure that private childcare organizations that received public funds would welcome children of any ethnic origin was the second modification that was made. She asserted that in the past, they would label the front of each petition with a large letter N or PR to designate whether the family was of Puerto Rican or African descent, but she had that practice stopped.

Bolin was compelled to step down from the bench in 1978, four years after the death of her husband, when she reached the obligatory retirement age of 70. Despite the fact that she was strongly opposed to the concept, she was forced to go. Following that, she joined the New York State Board of Regents’ Regents Review Committee, where she was responsible for evaluating disciplinary complaints from the institution.

The Child Welfare League, the National Board of the NAACP, the New York Urban League, the Dalton School, and Wiltwyck School for Boys, which she helped organize along with Eleanor Roosevelt and others, were among the many organizations and institutions that Bolin served on the board of directors for in addition to her work on the bench.

Jane Bolin’s Private Life

Within the context of her own family, Jane Bolin gave birth to a son named Yorke Bolin Mizelle in the year 1941. Her first husband passed away in 1943, and she remained a widow until 1950 when she wedded a clergyman named Walter P. Offutt, Jr. for the second time. In 1974, he succumbed to lymphoma and passed away.

Death

At the age of 98, Bolin passed away on January 8, 2007, in Long Island City, which is located in the metropolitan area of Queens, New York.