Jane Matilda Bolin was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, on April 11, 1908, to an interracial couple, Matilda Ingram Emery and Gaius C. Bolin. Her father was an attorney who headed the Dutchess County Bar Association and cared for the family after his wife’s illness and death, which occurred when Bolin was a child.  Bolin was a superb student who graduated from high school in her mid-teens and went on to enroll at Wellesley College. Bolin worked with her family’s practice in her home city for a time before marrying attorney Ralph E. Mizelle in 1933 and relocated to New York.

On July 22, 1939, a 31-year-old Bolin was called to appear at the World’s Fair before Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who completely unbeknownst to the attorney had plans to swear her in as a judge. Thus Bolin made history again as the first African American female judge in the United States. Bolin was reinstated as a judge for three additional terms, 10 years each, after her first, also serving on the boards of several organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the New York Urban League. She died in Long Island City, Queens, New York, on January 8, 2007, at the age of 98.