Introduction

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