Jane Bolin was born April 11, 1908, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Her father was a lawyer, and she spent much time in his office, deciding at an early age that she, too, wanted to practice law. Bolin graduated from Wellesley College in 1928 and got a law degree from Yale University in 1931.
Bolin was one of two black people in her class at Wellesley and one of three women and the only black person in her class at Yale. She wrote later in life about the discrimination she experienced at both schools, and she said the treatment helped form her devotion to working on social problems such as poverty and racism.
Bolin clerked in her father’s law office until she passed the New York State Bar exam in 1932. She then married an attorney, Ralph Mizelle, and the couple opened a law practice in New York City. In 1937, she was named Assistant Corporation Counsel for the city of New York, becoming the first black woman named to the office.
In 1939, during the World’s Fair, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia appointed Bolin to a judgeship on the Domestic Relations Court, where she served for 40 years. During her time on the court, she helped bring about two major changes: Assigning probation officers to cases without regard to religion or race, and requiring private child care agencies that received public money to accept children without regard to ethnic background.

— Michael J. Kleckner