Thurgood Marshall

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. Before becoming a judge, he was a lawyer who was best remembered for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in brown v. board of education. He was nominated to the court by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967.

Early life

Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 2, 1908, the great-grandson of a slave. His original name was Thoroughgood, but he shortened it to Thurgood in second grade because he disliked spelling it. His father, William Marshall, who was a railroad porter, instilled in him an appreciation for the constitution of the United States and the rule of law. Additionally, as a child in Baltimore, he was punished for his school misbehavior by being forced to write copies of the constitution, which he later said piqued his interest in the document.

Marshall was married twice; to Vivian "Buster" Burey from 1929 until her death in February 1955 and to Cecilia Suyat from December 1955 until his own death in 1993. He had two sons from his second marriage; Thurgood Marshall, Jr., who is 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.

Law career

Marshall received his law degree from the Howard University School of law in 1933 where he graduated first in his class. He then set up a private practice in Baltimore. The following year, he began working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Baltimore. He won his first major civil rights case, Murray V. Pearson, 169 Md. 478 (1936). This involved the first attempt to chip away at the Plessy V. Ferguson decision, a plan created by his co-counsel on the case Charles Hamilton Houston. 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. This policy required black students to accept one of three options, attend: Morgan College, the princess Anne Academy, or out-of-state black institutions. 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. However, 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. Whatever system is adopted for legal education now must furnish equality of treatment now". While it was a moral victory, the ruling had no real authority outside the state of Maryland.

Thurgood Marshall Award

The legislative assembly of Puerto Rico instituted in 1993 the annual Thurgood Marshall award, given to the top student in civil rights at each of Puerto Rico's four law schools. The awardees are selected by the United States territory’s attorney general and include a $500 monetary award.

Death and legacy

Marshall died of heart failure at the national naval medical center in Bethesda, Maryland, at 2:58 p.m. on January 24, 1993 at the age of 84. he is buried in Arlington national cemetery. His second wife and their two sons survived him.

Marshall left all of his personal papers and notes to the library of congress. The librarian of congress, James H. Billington, 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 claim. The decision to make the documents public was supported by the American library association. A list of the archived manuscripts is available.

There are numerous memorials to justice Marshall. One is near the Maryland state house. the primary office building for the federal court system, located on capitol hill in Washington D.C., is named in honor of justice Marshall and contains a statue of him in the atrium. In 1976, Texas southern university renamed their law school after the sitting justice. In 1980, the University of Maryland School of law opened a new library which they named the Thurgood Marshall law library. In 2000, the historic Twelfth Street YMCA building located in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C. was renamed the Thurgood Marshall center. The major airport serving Baltimore and the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C, was renamed the Baltimore-Washington international Thurgood Marshall airport on October 1, 2005.