Civil-rights advocate and judge, born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The great-grandson of a slave, he graduated as valedictorian from Howard University Law School (1933) and soon began to represent civil-rights activists. Becoming a counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1938), during the next 23 years he won 29 of the 32 major cases he undertook for that organization; several of the cases set constitutional precedents in matters such as voting rights and breaking down segregated transportation and education. His finest moment came with Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and its separate but equal ruling that perpetuated segregated institutions and facilities. President John F Kennedy named him to the US Court of Appeals, a seat he finally took despite the resistance of Southern senators (19625). President Lyndon Johnson appointed him US solicitor general (19657) and then to the US Supreme Court, the first African-American to hold such an office (196791). Consistently voting with the liberal block, he found himself increasingly isolated as the court's make-up changed, and he was forced by ill health to retire and see his seat taken by the conservative Clarence Thomas.
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Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Term in office |
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| June 13, 1967 – June 28, 1991 | |
| Preceded by | Tom C. Johnson |
| Born |
July 2, 1908 Baltimore, Maryland |
| Died |
January 24, 1993 Washington, D.C., USA |
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 father, William Marshall, instilled in him an appreciation for the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law.
Marshall was married twice; 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. Instead, Marshall sought admission and was accepted at Howard University.
Marshall was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Black Greek-letter fraternity, established by African American students in 1906. Pearson
Marshall received his law degree from Howard in 1933, and set up a private practice in Baltimore. Marshall represented Donald Gaines Murray, a black Amherst College graduate with excellent
credentials who had been denied admission to the University of Maryland Law School because of its separate but equal policies. In 1935, Thurgood Marshall argued the case for Murray, showing
that neither of the in-state institutions offered a law school and that such schools were entirely unequal to the University of Maryland. Marshall and Houston expected to lose and intended to
appeal to the federal courts. The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled against the state of Maryland and its Attorney General, who represented the University of Maryland, stating "Compliance with
the Constitution cannot be deferred at the will of the state.
Chief Counsel for the NAACP
Marshall won his first Supreme Court case, Chambers v. In total, Marshall won 29 out of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court.
During the 1950s, Marshall developed a friendly relationship with J. Ironically, two years earlier Howard had arranged for Marshall to deliver a well-received speech at a rally of his Regional Council of Negro Leadership in Mound Bayou, Mississippi only days before the Brown decision. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1961. Marshall remained on that court until 1965, when President Lyndon B.
U.S. Supreme Court
On June 13, 1967, President Johnson appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Tom C.
Marshall served on the Court for the next twenty-four years, compiling a liberal record that included strong support for Constitutional protection of individual rights, especially the rights of criminal suspects against the government. Thereafter, Brennan or Marshall dissented from every denial of certiorari in a capital case and from every decision upholding a sentence of death.
Although he is best remembered for his jurisprudence in the fields of civil rights and criminal procedure, Marshall made significant contributions to other areas of the law as well.
Later Life
Death
Marshall died of heart failure at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, at 2 p.m. on January 24, 1993. He was survived by his second wife, Cecilia Marshall, and their two sons, Thurgood Marshall Jr. The Librarian of Congress opened Marshall's papers for immediate use by scholars, journalists and the public, insisting that this was Marshall's intent. 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. 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. Oklahoma State Regents
1951 - Visits South Korea and Japan to investigate charges of racism in U.S. armed forces. Board of Education of Topeka, landmark case that demolishes legal basis for segregation in America
1956 - Wins Browder v.
1961 - Defends civil rights demonstrators, winning Supreme Circuit Court victory in Garner v. 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 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. Watson, "The Jurisprudence of William Joseph Brennan, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall" in History of American Political Thought.
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