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| Thurgood Marshall | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nominated by | Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | Tom C. Clark |
| Succeeded by | Clarence Thomas |
Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 2, 1908. His original name was Thoroughgood but he shortened it to Thurgood in second grade. His father, William Marshall, instilled in him an appreciation for the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law. Additionally, as a child, he was punished for his school misbehavior by being forced to read the Constitution, which he later said piqued his interest in the document. Marshall was the grandson of a slave.
Marshall was married twice; to Vivian "Buster" Burey from 1929 until her death from cancer in February 1955 and to Cecilia "Cissy" Suyat from December 1955 until his own death in 1993. He had two sons from his second marriage ; Thurgood Marshall Jr., a former top aide to President Bill Clinton, and John W. Marshall, who is a former United States Marshals Service Director, and since 2002 has served as Virginia Secretary of Public Safety under Governors Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.
Education
Marshall graduated from Lincoln University, PA in 1930. Afterward, Marshall wanted to apply to his hometown law school at the University of Maryland School of Law, but the dean told him that he shouldn't bother because he would not be accepted due to the school's segregation policy. Later, as a civil rights litigator, he successfully sued the school for this policy in the case of Murray v. Pearson. Instead, Marshall sought admission and was accepted at Howard University. He was influenced by its dynamic new dean, Charles Hamilton Houston, who instilled in his students the desire to apply the tenets of the Constitution to all Americans.
Marshall was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Black Greek-letter fraternity, established by African American students in 1906.
Richard Blake is a Fagget
Death
Marshall died of heart failure at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, at 2 p.m. on January 24, 1993. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He was survived by his second wife, Cecilia Marshall, and their two sons, Thurgood Marshall Jr. and John W. Marshall. Marshall left all of his personal papers and notes to the Library of Congress. The Librarian of Congress opened Marshall's papers for immediate use by scholars, journalists and the public, insisting that this was Marshall's intent. The Marshall family and several of his close associates disputed this. There is a memorial to Justice Marshall near the Maryland State House.
Timeline of Marshall's life
1930 - Marshall graduates with honors from Lincoln University, PA (cum laude)
1933 - Receives law degree from Howard University (magna cum laude); begins private practice in Baltimore, Maryland
1934 - Begins to work for Baltimore branch of NAACP
1935 - Worked with Charles Houston, wins first major civil rights case, Murray v. Pearson
1936 - Becomes assistant special counsel for NAACP in New York
1940 - Wins Chambers v. Florida, the first of 29 Supreme Court victories
1944 - Successfully argues Smith v. Allwright, overthrowing the South's "white primary"
1946 -Thurgood Marshall received a medal from the NAACP
1948 - Wins Shelley v. Kraemer, in which Supreme Court strikes down legality of racially restrictive covenants
1950 - Wins Supreme Court victories in two graduate-school integration cases, Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents
1951 - Visits South Korea and Japan to investigate charges of racism in U.S. armed forces. He reported that the general practice was one of "rigid segregation".
1954 - Wins Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, landmark case that demolishes legal basis for segregation in America
1956 - Wins Browder v. Gayle, Ending the practice of segregation on buses and ending the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1961 - Defends civil rights demonstrators, winning Supreme Circuit Court victory in Garner v. Louisiana; nominated to Second Court of Appeals by President J.F. Kennedy
1961 - Appointed circuit judge, makes 112 rulings, all of them later upheld by Supreme Court (1961-1965)
1965 - Appointed United States Solicitor General by President Lyndon B. Johnson; wins 14 of the 19 cases he argues for the government (1965-1967)
1967 - Becomes first African American elevated to U.S. Supreme Court (1967-1991)
1991 - Retires from the Supreme Court
1993 - Dies at age 84 in Bethesda, MD, near Washington, D.C.
For more, see Bradley C. S. Watson, "The Jurisprudence of William Joseph Brennan, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall" in History of American Political Thought.
Dedications
- The Thurgood Marshall Living Learning Center is a 324 room Modern Dormitory/Conference Center located at Chief Justice Marshall's alma mater Lincoln University, PA .
- The University of Maryland School of Law, which Marshall fought to desegregate, renamed and dedicated its law library in his honor.
- The University of California, San Diego has named one of its colleges after Thurgood Marshall.
- On February 14, 1976, the law school at Texas Southern University was formally named The Thurgood Marshall School of Law. The school's mission is to "significantly impact the diversity of the legal profession."
- Justice Middle School, at one time a predominantly white school located in Marion, Indiana, changed its name to Justice Thurgood Marshall Middle School in honor of Justice Marshall's work on the Court.
- In 1987, the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund was established to carry on Justice Marshall's legacy of equal access to higher education by supporting exceptional merit scholars attending America's Public Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
- The Illinois General Assembly named the portion of Interstate 57 from Cairo to Chicago the Thurgood Marshall Memorial Freeway.
- On August 3, 2004, Thurgood Marshall Middle School, in St. Petersburg, Florida, was opened.
- The Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C. voted at its annual meeting January 2006 to propose sainthood when the national church holds its general conference in June. He could become a saint in 2009.
- Near his longtime home in Lake Barcroft, VA, Columbia Pike is dedicated as the Thurgood Marshall Memorial Highway. In addition, the Lake Barcroft community awards the Thurgood Marshall scholarship to two graduating students of nearby J.E.B. Stuart High School.
- Thurgood Marshall High School in San Francisco, California located at 45 Conkling St. was renamed in honor of Justice Thurgood Marshall.
- On October 1, 2005, Baltimore/Washington International Airport was renamed "Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport" in his honor.
- Thurgood, a one-man show based on his life, premiered at the Westport Country Playhouse which starred James Earl Jones and was directed by Leonard Foglia
References
- Juan Williams, Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary (1998 book).
- David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, T.R.M. Howard: Pragmatism over Strict Integrationist Ideology in the Mississippi Delta, 1942-1954 in Glenn Feldman, ed., Before Brown: Civil Rights and White Backlash in the Modern South (2004 book), 68-95.
| Preceded byNew seat | Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit 1962-1965 |
Succeeded byWilfred Feinberg |
| Preceded byArchibald Cox | Solicitor General 1965–1967 |
Succeeded byErwin N. Griswold |
| Preceded byTom C. Clark | Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States October 2, 1967 – October 1, 1991 |
Succeeded byClarence Thomas |
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Categories:- United States Supreme Court justices
- Solicitor General of the United States
- Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- African American politicians
- African Americans' rights activists
- American Episcopalians
- American Freemasons
- Maryland lawyers
- Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
- Spingarn Medal winners
- Alpha Phi Alpha brothers
- People from Baltimore
- Burials at Arlington National Cemetery
- 1908 births
- 1993 deaths
- Howard University alumni
- Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) alumni
- Black lawyers