Kings County Civil Court honors a pair during Women’s History Month celebration

March 29, 2018 By Rob Abruzzese, Legal Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The Kings County Civil Court’s Gender Fairness Committee and Hon. Robin Sheares (left) honored a pair including Gladys Boddie, the mother of Judge Reginald Boddie (pictured center) and Helene Blank (right) during a ceremony at the courthouse on Wednesday. Eagle photos by Rob Abruzzese

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The Kings County Civil Court held a Women’s History Month ceremony during which it celebrated the theme “Nevertheless She Persisted” and honored a pair in Downtown Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon.

This year’s honorees were Gladys Boddie, the lead plaintiff in U.S. Supreme Court, Boddie v. State of Connecticut and the mother of Justice Reginald Boddie; and Helene Blank, who owns a law firm Blank & Star that is run out of East New York.

“This committee works in conjunction with the Brooklyn Women’s Bar who has helped to sponsor this event,” said Hon. Ingrid Joseph, supervising judge of the Civil Court. “Our program today features representation of our theme which is, ‘nevertheless she persisted.’

“Judge Reginald Boddie will be telling you about his mother and how she persisted and helped change the course of history,” Joseph continued. “We also have Helene Blank who will tell you about how she came to own her own practice and the process it took for her to get there.”

Justice Robin Sheares presented Blank with her plaque but first explained that the Gender Fairness Committee was so impressed with her speech at last year’s event that members felt compelled to honor her.

“Yes, I’m a woman who persisted,” said Blank. “I’m the child of a single mother. My dad died when I was very young. I had a great example from a woman who was basically fearless.”

Boddie shared the story of his mother, who was a single mother living in Connecticut and wanted to file for a divorce, but couldn’t afford the court fees. She was the named plaintiff in a class action lawsuit that sued the state of Connecticut and won. The result was the courts decided that denying a divorce solely because of an inability to pay was a violation of due process, which led to the creation of the fee waiver.

“She did not even learn of her notoriety until my oldest brother David attended Texas Southern Law School where his friends joked about our mother creating controversy in Connecticut and he called home to inquire,” Boddie said. “That was a funny day.”

Boddie’s mother, who was also known as an advocate for public housing conditions, didn’t benefit from the outcome of the lawsuit because while it was winding its way through the courts, she had gotten a job as a nurse’s assistant and was no longer eligible financially. She also was a seamstress and trained as an auto mechanic.

“As you can imagine in those days I suffered a lot of jokes from my friends each time my mother worked on her car,” Justice Boddie said. “Today I can fully appreciate her determination, after all, I learned most of my mechanic skills from my mother. Few other people can say that.”

During the event, Sheares also recognized Hon. Cheryl J. Gonzales during the event for a role she played in helping the court handling sexual harassment issues it faced.

“Judge Gonzales was very instrumental with the attorney general’s office that we had some sexual harassment issues in the building and they have developed a CLE [continuing legal education seminar] to handle that situation.”