Thurgood Marshall, 1908 - 1993
In Oval Office, 13 June 1967. Photo by Yoichi R. Okamoto
Born: 2 July 1908, Baltimore, Maryland
Died: 24 January 1993, Bethesda, Maryland
Named Thoroughgood at birth, Marshall was the great-grandson of a slave. He didn't enjoy spelling his name, so he shortened it in second grade. When he misbehaved in school, his punishment was copying the Constitution, which he later attributed to piquing his interest. He graduated from Frederick Douglass High School at Baltimore in 1925, then went to Oxford, Pennsylvania to attended Lincoln University. Wanting to apply to the University of Maryland School of Law, the dean told him that the segregation policy would not allow it. He was first in the class of 1933 at Howard University School of Law. After a brief period in private practice he began working with the Baltimore office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). His first major case, Murray v. Pearson, overturned the policy that prevented him from attending the University of Maryland. At age 32, he argued and won his first U. S. Supreme Court case in 1940 and was soon Chief Council for the NAACP. He argued the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954, the case that ended "separate but equal" in education at the national level. Overall, he won 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the high court. President John F. Kennedy appointed him to the second circuit Court of Appeals in 1961, he served on that court until 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson named him Solicitor General, the first black to hold that post. In June of 1967, Johnson appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court, he was confirmed in August, the first black justice at that level. In addition to supporting civil rights during his 24 years on the high court, he was involved in many other significant cases before his retirement in 1991. He died of heart failure at the National Naval Medical Center and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Biography from Wikipedia and Thurgood Marshall College, UC San Diego
Thurgood Marshall quotes:
Quotes found : 24 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 2) 1 2 Next
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- A child born to a black mother in a state like Mississippi ... has the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It's not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for. permalink
Thurgood Marshall - Certain people have a way of saying things that shake us at the core. Even when the words do not seem harsh or offensive, the impact is shattering. What we could be experiencing is the intent behind the words. When we intend to do good, we do. When we intend to do harm, it happens. What each of us must come to realize is that our intent always comes through. We cannot sugarcoat the feelings in our heart of hearts. The emotion is the energy that motivates. We cannot ignore what we really want to create. We should be honest and do it the way we feel it. What we owe to ourselves and everyone around is to examine the reasons of our true intent. permalink
Thurgood Marshall - Ending racial discrimination in jury selection can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely. permalink
Thurgood Marshall - Even if all parties approach the court's mandate with the best of conscious intentions,... that mandate requires them to confront and overcome their own racism on all levels — a challenge I doubt all of them can meet. permalink
Thurgood Marshall - History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure. permalink
Thurgood Marshall - I have a lifetime appointment and I intend to serve it. I expect to die at 110, shot by a jealous husband. permalink
Thurgood Marshall - International Herald Tribune (15 Jan 1990) - I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust.... We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better. permalink
Thurgood Marshall - I'm the world's original gradualist. I just think ninety-odd years is gradual enough. permalink
Thurgood Marshall - in response to Dwight Eisenhower (19 May 1958) - If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch. permalink
Thurgood Marshall - In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute. permalink
Thurgood Marshall - Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy. permalink
Thurgood Marshall - speech (15 August 1966) - Mere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process. permalink
Thurgood Marshall - None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody — a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony, or a few nuns — bent down and helped us pick up our boots. permalink
Thurgood Marshall - Nothing can be more notorious than the calumnies and invectives with which the wisest measures and most virtuous characters of The United States have been pursued and traduced [by American newspapers]. permalink
Thurgood Marshall - Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds. permalink
Thurgood Marshall
Quotes found : 24 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 2) 1 2 Next
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