On a January night in Manhattan, a team of lawyers is working to crack open an organised crime case. And at the centre of it all, is Eunice Carter - the first black woman to graduate from Fordham Law and the first African-American woman to pass the New York state bar.
Matthew Syed tells the story of how Carter’s brilliance and meticulous attention to detail blew open a case that would bring down the most notorious mobster - Lucky Luciano - and he explores the experience, the pressure and the role of being "a first".
With Yun Li and Marilyn Greenwald, authors of the biography Eunice Hunton Carter: A Lifelong Fight for Social Justice;
Dr. Tsedale M Melaku, sociologist and author of You Don't Look Like a Lawyer: Black Women and Systemic Gendered Racism;
and Claude M Steele Professor of Psychology at Stanford University.
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Sandra Labady
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Researcher: Nadia Mehdi
Music, sound design and mix: Rob Speight
Additional mixing: Alex Portfelix
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
