Featured Book Talk
Dean Brown-Nagin in conversation with Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. about her new book, Civil Rights Queen, hosted by Harvard Radcliffe Institute in February 2022.
Featured Interview
Dean Brown-Nagin speaks with Lester Holt and Savannah Guthrie on NBC News Now during Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirming hearing in March 2022.
Featured Interview
Dean Brown-Nagin speaks with PBS NewsHour about Civil Rights Queen in February 2022.
Featured Event
Dean Brown-Nagin speaks with Washington Post Congressional reporter Rhonda Colvin about Civil Rights Queen in February 2022.
Featured Resources
Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality
Brown-Nagin’s new book and the first major biography of one of our most influential but least known activist lawyers provides an eye-opening account of the twin struggles for gender equality and civil rights in the 20th century. Brown-Nagin’s book tour dates can be found on this page. Click here to order a copy of Civil Rights Queen today.
Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement
In this Bancroft Prize-winning history of the Civil Rights movement in Atlanta from the end of World War II to 1980, Brown-Nagin shows that long before “black power” emerged and gave black dissent from the mainstream civil rights agenda a name, African Americans in Atlanta questioned the meaning of equality and the steps necessary to obtain a share of the American dream.
Harvard Magazine | “Both Sides Now”
For an overview of Dean Brown-Nagin’s work, see “Both Sides Now: Tomiko Brown-Nagin’s bifocal view of the civil-rights movement,” a recent profile by Harvard Magazine.
In the News | Civil Rights Queen
“Illuminating…thoughtful…Civil Rights Queen is the result of diligent research…poignant… a balanced assessment of a brave and brilliant woman who helped to reconfigure the system before she became a part of it….Brown-Nagin honors her subject by being resolutely direct and unsentimental — steely, if you will.” —New York Times
Click here to read “‘Civil Rights Queen,’ the Story of a Brave and Brilliant Trailblazer” in The New York Times.
Washington Post | “Here is a hard historical truth: Slavery powerfully shaped Harvard” (Opinion)
CNN | “Ketanji Brown Jackson is the beginning, not the end, of this story” (Opinion)
Oprah Daily | “Constance Baker Motley, Civil Rights Queen, Paved the Way for Ketanji Brown Jackson” (Opinion)
Slate | “The Right to Counsel Shouldn’t Be Controversial: Ketanji Brown Jackson’s past is an asset, not a liability” (Opinion)
Washington Post | “A Black lawyer who dismantled barriers, for herself and many others” (Review)
POLITICO | “This Black Woman Could Have Served on the Supreme Court Decades Ago. She Has Some Lessons for Ketanji Brown Jackson” (Opinion)
Connecticut Post | “Connecticut and Constance Baker Motley, civil rights giant” (Opinion)
Smithsonian Magazine | “Constance Baker Motley Taught the Nation How to Win Justice The pathbreaking lawyer and “Civil Rights Queen” was the first Black woman to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court”
WNYC | Melissa Harris-Perry and Dorian Warrem speak with Brown-Nagin about “The Life and Legacy of Constance Baker Motley” during an episode of The Takeaway.
WNYC | Alison Stewart speaks with Brown-Nagin about Civil Rights Queen during an episode of All Of It.
NPR | Steve Inskeep speaks with Brown-Nagin about about Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s judicial philosophy during an episode of Morning Edition.
NPR | Ailsa Chang speaks with Brown-Nagin about Ketanji Brown Jackson as Supreme Court nominee during an episode of All Things Considered.
NPR | Terry Gross speaks with Brown-Nagin about Constance Baker Motley during an episode of Fresh Air.
NPR | Ailsa Chang speaks with Brown-Nagin about Constance Baker Motley during an episode of All Things Considered.
NPR | Karen Grigsby Bates speaks with Brown-Nagin about Constance Baker Motley during an episode of Code Switch.
NPR | Sandhya Dirks interviews Brown-Nagin: “A Black woman on the High Court is a good start. But representation has limits.”
Upcoming Events
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Latest News
wbur | Here & Now | Harvard confronts lucrative and painful legacy of slavery
April 27, 2022
PBS News Hour | Harvard University details its ties to slavery and promises a reckoning
April 27, 2022
Washington Post | Here is a hard historical truth: Slavery powerfully shaped Harvard (Opinion)
April 26, 2022
NPR | Connecticut Public: Constance Baker Motley is a civil rights icon. Why don’t more people know her name?
April 20, 2022
The Graduate School, Duke University | Legal Scholar and Historian Brown-Nagin Receives 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award
April 14, 2022
The Takeaway | The Life and Legacy of Constance Baker Motley
April 8, 2022
Visit this page for more news.