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While civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. have become household names, some others have been overlooked: Not too many New Yorkers likely know that Constance Baker Motley became the first Black woman elected to the state Senate in 1964, for example. Former state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery of Brooklyn is another Empire State trailblazer whose work remains largely unknown by the general public.
Her recent retirement, however, is giving her former colleagues an opportunity to highlight during Black History Month how Montgomery changed New York over 17 terms in office. “She understood the injustice in the criminal justice system. She understood the inequities in education and access. She understood how marginalized people were and how it hampered their progress and she fought,” state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat who is the first Black woman elected to her post, said at the Capitol Wednesday while awarding the inaugural Majori