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| Good Fight: Lawyers Thurgood Marshall (right) and U. Simpson Tate check documents during a 1956 court hearing in Tyler, Texas,
where they were representing the NAACP. AP/File |
Thurgood Marshall: Civil Rights Champion
For kids: US Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall was the first African-American to be appointed to the highest court in the land.
from the February 12, 2008 edition
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Angry at the way they were being treated, the students asked for refunds of the 25 cents they had each paid for their tickets, but the usher refused. "So we had a disturbance ... pulled down curtains, broke the front door," Mr. Marshall's pal Monroe Dowling later recalled, "I don't know who chased us. They didn't catch anybody."
When Mr. Marshall received his college degree in 1930, he wanted to enroll in law school at the University of Maryland. But the all-white school, which had never accepted a black student, rejected his application. He was accepted into the law school at Howard University, a black institution that was founded in 1867 in Washington, D.C., to educate newly freed slaves.
Mr. Marshall graduated first in his class at Howard Law School in 1933. He started his law practice in a small office in Baltimore.
The following year, he began offering legal services to the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The nation's oldest civil rights organization, the NAACP was founded in New York City in 1909.
It was through his association with the NAACP that Mr. Marshall first became involved as a lawyer in the fight against segregation.
By the late 1940s, he had become so famous for his work that some reporters nicknamed him "Mr. Civil Rights." In 1951, he took on a school desegregation case in Clarendon County, S.C. It was the first of the five lawsuits that would eventually become part of the Brown Supreme Court decision.
Oral arguments before the Supreme Court on the Brown case began on Dec. 9, 1952. On May 17, 1954, the court announced its unanimous opinion to a stunned, packed courtroom. Mr. Marshall was right: Legal segregation of public schools was unconstitutional.
When he heard Chief Justice Earl Warren read the court's decision, Mr. Marshall later said: "I was so happy I was numb."
The case marked a major turning point in US history. Largely because of Mr. Marshall's legal victory in the case, laws that discriminated against blacks in housing, employment, and other areas also began to crumble.
In 1961, Mr. Marshall became a federal court judge, and in 1965 he became the first African-American US solicitor general, the lawyer who represents the United States in cases before the Supreme Court.
On Oct. 2, 1967, Mr. Marshall again made history when he took the oath of office to become the first black associate justice of the Supreme Court. African-Americans were very proud of that moment. What an important step it was in the advancement of equality!
Mr. Marshall served on the Supreme Court until his retirement in 1991. After he died on Jan. 24, 1993, Chief Justice William Rehnquist summed up well the impact of Mr. Marshall's life's work. He talked about the words that are inscribed above the front entrance to the Supreme Court building: "Equal justice under law," adding, "Surely no one individual did more to make these words a reality than Thurgood Marshall."
More about Marshall
Thurgood Marshall's 100th birthday is coming this year. He was born in Baltimore on July 2, 1908 – just two days shy of sharing his birthday with America!
Check out these resources to find out more about Mr. Marshall and the US Constitution.
Books
"A Picture Book of Thurgood Marshall," by David Adler. Taking you back to Mr. Marshall's childhood in Baltimore, this basic biography highlights some of the most interesting episodes in his life.
"Thurgood Marshall: Champion for Civil Rights," by Wil Mara. Besides giving an overview of Mr. Marshall's life, this book also weaves in stories of other historical figures – such as Abraham Lincoln and Jackie Robinson – who had an impact on the African-American struggle for equal rights.
"Shh! We're Writing the Constitution," by Jean Fritz. Read about the passionate arguments, the name-calling, the sweltering heat, the annoying flies, and the sometimes funny behind-the-scenes happenings at America's not-so-united Constitutional Convention in 1787.
"Our Constitution (I Know America)," by Linda Carlson Johnson. Using a more serious tone, this book also describes the writing of the Constitution and goes on to explain how later amendments were added to this "living document."
On the Web
National Constitution Center. www.constitutioncenter.org/explore/ForKids/index.shtml. Play an interactive game called Save The Bill of Rights! and solve puzzles about the Brown case, voting rights, and other constitutional issues.
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