Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005), recognized as a “Hero Carrying the Torch Forward” by the Chester Historical Society, was our Chester neighbor for 40 years. As an NAACP civil rights lawyer, she desegregated thousands of public schools under the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling. As the nation’s first Black female federal judge, she presided for 39 years expanding rights for women, workers and the disenfranchised. Her Chester home was later designated a Heritage Site on the CT Freedom Trail. In 2024 the USPS honored her legacy with a first class Forever stamp in the Black Heritage series. A Chester Historical Society program.