Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall
Robert S. Oakes · Public domain · source
Name	Thurgood Marshall
Caption	Marshall in 1976
Office	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Nominator	Lyndon B. Johnson
Term start	October 2, 1967
Term end	October 1, 1991
Predecessor	Tom C. Clark
Successor	Clarence Thomas
Office1	32nd Solicitor General of the United States
President1	Lyndon B. Johnson
Term start1	August 23, 1965
Term end1	August 30, 1967
Predecessor1	Archibald Cox
Successor1	Erwin Griswold
Office2	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Nominator2	John F. Kennedy
Term start2	October 5, 1961
Term end2	August 23, 1965
Predecessor2	Seat established
Successor2	Wilfred Feinberg
Birth name	Thoroughgood Marshall
Birth date	2 July 1908
Birth place	Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Death date	24 January 1993
Death place	Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Party	Democratic
Spouse	Cecilia Suyat, 1955
Education	Lincoln University (BA), Howard University School of Law (LLB)

Thurgood Marshall was an American lawyer and jurist who served as the first African American Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He served from 1967 until his retirement in 1991, having been appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Prior to his judicial service, he was a pioneering civil rights attorney who successfully argued the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court of the United States. Marshall's career was dedicated to using the law to dismantle racial segregation and advance equality under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Early life and education

Thoroughgood Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Norma and William Marshall. He shortened his first name to Thurgood in the second grade. His mother, a teacher, emphasized education, and his father, a steward at an all-white country club, often took him to observe court proceedings in Baltimore City Courthouse. Marshall attended the historically Black Frederick Douglass High School and graduated a year early. He then attended the historically Black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where his classmates included future leaders like Kwame Nkrumah and Langston Hughes. After being denied admission to the University of Maryland School of Law due to its segregation policy, he enrolled at Howard University School of Law. At Howard, he was mentored by the school's dean, the pioneering civil rights lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston, who instilled the strategy of using the law as a tool for social change.

Legal career

After graduating first in his class from Howard University School of Law in 1933, Marshall began a private practice in Baltimore. In 1936, he joined the legal staff of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He later became the founding director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Over more than two decades, he argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, winning 29. His most famous victory came in the 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, where the Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, overturning the "separate but equal" doctrine established by Plessy v. Ferguson. Other significant cases he argued included Smith v. Allwright, which outlawed white primaries, and Shelley v. Kraemer, which struck down racially restrictive housing covenants.

Supreme Court justice

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. After four years on the appellate bench, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him as the first African American Solicitor General of the United States in 1965. On June 13, 1967, Johnson nominated Marshall to the Supreme Court of the United States following the retirement of Justice Tom C. Clark; he was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 30, 1967. On the Court, Marshall was a consistent liberal voice, championing individual rights, opposing the death penalty, and advocating for expansive interpretations of the Equal Protection Clause. He often dissented as the Court's composition grew more conservative in the 1980s, notably in cases like San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez and Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.

Legacy and honors

Thurgood Marshall is remembered as a towering figure in the American Civil Rights Movement and a principal architect of legal desegregation. His portrait hangs in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court. Numerous institutions bear his name, including the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University, and Baltimore's Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1993 from President Bill Clinton. His life and work have been depicted in films like the HBO biopic Thurgood and the play Thurgood. The United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in his honor in 2003.

Personal life

Marshall married his first wife, Vivian Burey, known as "Buster," in 1929. Their union lasted until her death from cancer in 1955. Later that year, he married Cecilia Suyat, a secretary at the NAACP; they had two sons, Thurgood Jr. and John. Marshall was known for his sharp wit, love of storytelling, and fondness for Scotch whisky. He enjoyed playing cards and was an avid fan of the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Redskins. After retiring from the Supreme Court of the United States in 1991, he remained in the Washington, D.C. area. He died of heart failure on January 24, 1993, at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, and is interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

Category:Thurgood Marshall Category:Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States Category:American civil rights lawyers