NHEG-July-August2022

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issues. One of the mentors who made the biggest impression upon Marshall was Charles Houston, who
taught him to defeat racial discrimination through the use of existing laws. Marshall graduated as
valedictorian of his class in 1933 and moved back to Baltimore.
Marshall denied a postgraduate scholarship to Harvard in order to start his own practice and opened an
office in east Baltimore. A few people did come to him for help, though unable to pay. Marshall turned
none of them away. He began to develop his style as he took cases dealing with police brutality, evictions
and harsh landlords. Marshall was respectful but forceful in presenting his case. As his name began to gain
notice, he earned big clients such as labor organizations, building associations, and corporations.
Marshall started to volunteer with the NAACP and eventually became one of their attorneys, joining his
mentor Houston to argue cases together. He won his first case arguing that the University of Maryland Law
School should allow an African-American admission. In 1935, Houston got Marshall appointed as Assistant
Special Counsel for New York in the organization.
From then on, the two began planning on how to have the Supreme Court overrule the separate but
equal doctrine. After Houston resigned and Marshall took over as Special Counsel in 1938, he traveled to
dangerous areas in the South in order to investigate lynching, the denial of voting rights, jury service, and
fair trials to African-Americans. The face of the NAACP had soon become that of Marshall’s.
In 1940, the NAACP set up a legal activist organization known as Fund, Inc., of which Marshall was hired to
be special counsel. He was able to work toward his goal of challenging segregation in education. He won his
first Supreme Court case dealing with forced confession; and after President Truman rejected the separate
but equal doctrine in relation to the G.I. Bill, Marshall was ready to bring the education issue into full light.
Marshall finally got the case he had been hoping for, and in 1952 argued Brown v. Board of Education. The
case was reargued in 1953, and after five months of waiting, the Supreme Court delivered its opinion that
invalidated the separate but equal doctrine. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed Marshall as federal judge
to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City. Marshall spent four years on the court, and none of
his opinions were reversed on appeal to the Supreme Court. In 1965, President Johnson called upon Marshall
to be the country’s next Solicitor General. Marshall was sworn into office, but only spent two years in
the position. In 1967, the President appointed him as the first African-American to be an Associate Justice
on the U.S. Supreme Court. Marshall’s voice was a liberal one that held great influence early on in his term.
As a proponent of judicial activism, he believed that the United States had a moral imperative to move
progressively forward. He staunchly supported upholding individual rights, expanding civil rights, and
limiting the scope of criminal punishment. Justice William Brennan shared many of Marshall’s opinions
and they usually voted in the same bloc. In Furman v. Georgia, these justices argued the death penalty
was unconstitutional in all circumstances, and dissented from the subsequent overruling opinion, Gregg v.
Georgia, a few years later. He also made separate contributions to labor law (Teamsters v. Terry), securities
law (TSC Industries, Inc. v. Northway, Inc.), and tax law (Cottage Savings Ass’n v. Commissioner of Internal
Revenue). He had strong views on affirmative action and contributed greatly to opinions on constitutional
law. Marshall maintained a down-to-earth style and would oftenjoke with Chief Justice Burger as they
passed in the hallways by asking “What’s shakin’, Chief baby?”
July - August 2022
As the court made a shift towards conservatism, however, Marshall became frustrated and his
influence weakened. Despite the change of currents, Marshall’s voice remained strong until
his retirement, when he was succeeded by Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. Marshall died
on January 24, 1993 of heart failure in Bethesda, Maryland.
“Thurgood Marshall.” Oyez, www.oyez.org/justices/thurgood_marshall. Accessed 2 Jun. 2022.
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https://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/gov/marshall.pdf
Justice for All: The Legacy of Thurgood Marshall
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https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/brown-v-board-ofeducation#:~:text=On%20May%2017%2C%201954%2C%20
U.S.,amendment%20and%20
was%20therefore%20unconstitutional.
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
In this milestone decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was
unconstitutional. It signaled the end of legalized racial segregation in the schools of the United States, overruling the
“separate but equal” principle set forth in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case.
On May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling
in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Statesanctioned segregation of public schools
was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. This historic decision marked the end of the
“separate but equal” precedent set by the Supreme Court nearly 60 years earlier
in Plessy v. Ferguson and served as a catalyst for the expanding civil rights movement
during the decade of the 1950s.
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Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood is famous for the Brown v. Board of Education case
where “separate but equal” was held to be unconstitutional in public schools.
He is a hero for the Civil Rights Era and for the future
where his determination, strength, and courage
enabled him to stop racism and inequality
in schools by taking action.
Thurgood Marshall, Happy Birthday.
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