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4. Politics of Practice An African AmericanWoman Judge on the Domestic Relations Court On July 24, 1939, two days after Mayor La Guardia appointed Jane Bolin to the Domestic Relations Court, Justice Jacob Panken inducted her as a justice there, making her the nation’s first African American woman judge.1 Bolin entered a very exclusive fraternity in the legal hierarchy, overwhelmingly male and white. She would remain the only African American woman judge for the next two decades. How she experienced this judicial space of authority was therefore greatly informed by her consciousness as anAfricanAmerican woman.That she was a judicial appointee as opposed to an elected one also impacted her tenure on the bench,which was three times considered for mayoral reappointment.Furthermore , as a wife twice widowed and mother, she faced the burden of double consciousness that had always plagued women lawyers as they tried to balance their gender and professional identity. But, in the case of Judge Bolin, might the tension between her gender and professional identity have been mitigated because her judicial appointment was to the Domestic Relations Court—modeled on the principles of family and children’s courts that“perpetuated theVictorian emphasis on woman’s inherent domesticity” and supposedly allowed women lawyers to be women and lawyers?2 By the 1930s few women lawyers were judges in courts outside of Domestic Relations Court, family courts, children courts, and juvenile courts.What was intended as an ideal and separate judicial sphere for women lawyers, beginning with juvenile courts of the late nineteenth century and women’s courts of the first decades of the twentieth century, grew into virtually the only opportunity for judgeships accessible to women lawyers. Many male lawyers supported the idea that women lawyers were better suited than men to interpret the law for and protect the rights of women and children.3 As a result few men wanted these judgeships that for many represented the lowest rung of the judicial hierarchy.4 Nevertheless, in twentieth-century American society, judges of either gender at all levels of the judicial hierarchy “were the repository of legal knowledge, as well as a model of temperament and respect among other lawyers and the public at large.”5 As appointed, Jane Bolin was first assigned to the Family Court in Manhattan as a justice of the Domestic Relations Court. On the occasion of her induction, Justice Panken welcomed her on behalf of the staff and lawyers who were assigned to the court, and further added,“I want to express to you my entire and complete gratification that the Bench will be graced by you.”“Justice Bolin,I take it that it feels good to be addressed as ‘Justice,’ and I take it also that the term ‘Justice’ is not a vain word. I am sure that it will not be a vain word insofar as you are concerned.”Panken knew of Bolin’s performance as assistant corporation counsel and thought that she had done outstanding work in the two years she had held that position. “You have a great deal of experience in our Court,” he said, and reminded her that it was less than a week ago before she was elevated to the bench that he had complimented her on her outstanding work.6 Panken went on to say that Bolin would make an excellent justice in the Domestic Relations Court because of her sterling qualities, her ability, and because of her humaneness. He explained that if the rehabilitative method of modern jurisprudence,particularly jurisprudence that dealt with crime and delinquency, was going to be effective, then “in this Court we need humane people as judges, we need people who have common sense.” And, he was sure that “no one can rehabilitate or contribute to salvaging when one places himself [herself] on Mount Olympus and tries to pull the maladjusted and underprivileged,the emotionally disturbed,up to Mount Olympus.”Panken believed that a justice of the Domestic Relations Court had to be“part of the people”and“subjective in ones objectivity, in order to be able to contribute towards the effort of readjusting, reeducating, and rebuilding that which has,because of disadvantage,economic,moral,social, or otherwise, been destroyed.” In Bolin he recognized such a person. “You are not only humane,” he said,“but you have a fund of common sense, which will be tremendously helpful to you”; but more importantly,“it will be helpful to those who look to you for justice, justice in the...

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