More than 200 dignitaries, scholars, and guests joined SIPA for the launch of the Deepak and Neera Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies on October 5.

Constance Baker Motley, a legal advocate and a pivotal figure in the Civil Rights movement, was the first black woman to serve in the New York State Senate, as well as the first woman to be Manhattan borough president. In 1966, following the encouragement of New York’s Democratic Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Republican Senator Jacob K. Javits, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Motley to the federal bench of the Southern District of New York.