And when I went down for the trial, a white man met me in the hallway and it was real tense, state troopers and everything. He had become famous for defending cases with black defendants, as an NAACP lawyer, and as head of legal defense for the agency. How Thurgood Marshall became the first Black U.S. Supreme Court justice. After Marshall and Davis made their arguments in 1952, the court was divided. The NAACPs initial goal was to funnel equal resources to black schools. Well Looby wouldn’t leave. Thurgood Marshall was an American civil rights activist with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Date Event; July 2, 1908: Thurgood Marshall is born Thurgood Marshall was born in Maryland. ‘Marshall’ turns Thurgood into the contemporary hero Americans want, but ignores the one he was. I turned around to look and they were gone. I know damn well he was innocent. Four members of the NAACP (from left to right, Henry Moon, Roy Wilkins, Herbert Hill and Thurgood Marshall) hold a poster against racial injustice in Mississippi. The civil rights groups had recently begun to operate a full-time legal office, which was run by his old dean, Charles Houston. A: At one time (W.E.B.) As a lawyer, he championed civil rights and was the lead lawyer in the pivotal Supreme Court Case Brown vs Board of Education, Topeka (1954). They pulled up on this side of this busy street, main street, and they pointed up to the second floor, judges and the police, said see that officer …. I ran down to Mink’s Slide and I told them what happened right quick and they said you’d better get out of here because they’re going to come down here. ‘Marshall’ turns Thurgood into the contemporary hero Americans want, but ignores the one he was. Now, when the jury gives its verdict, I don’t want a man to move in this room until the sheriff takes the defendant out. Marshall died in 1993. I got to tell you one thing, I got to tell somebody, I’ll be goddamned if he’s read every one of ‘em. Do you have information you want to share with HuffPost? His mother was an elementary school teacher. So I went down to Looby’s car and they put another drive in Looby’s car and went one way and another car went the other way and we went right straight down the road. That man hasn’t had a drink in 24 hours, he said, what the hell are you talking about. During this period, Mr. Marshall was asked by the United Nations and the United Kingdom to help draft the constitutions of the emerging African nations of Ghana and what is now Tanzania. (Library of Congress) "He was supposed to have raped this woman four times in one night," recalled Marshall. We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote! Upon his return to his New York office, he is sent to Bridgeport, Connecticut, to defend Joseph Spell, a chauffeur accused of rape by his white employer, Eleanor Strubing, in a case that has gripped the newspapers. He recalled arriving in town one day only to learn that his client had been lynched that afternoon. I said, nothing, just stand up there and when they say are you guilty or not guilty, you say: I’m guilty. I remembe that his whole room was fenced in with books that ran all the way around the room and we were always impressed by it of course. Marshall served on the Court from 1967 to 1991. Thurgood Marshall Recreation Center 5150 Mark Trail Way Dallas, TX 75232 (Temporary Meeting location until renovations are completed at Thurgood Marshall Rec. Thurgood Marshall, earlier named Thoroughgood Marshall (which he changed in the 2nd grade), was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She had the most impressive face I’ve ever seen on a woman, real high cheekbones and a whole lot of red in that black, a whole lot of red, and lot of Indian. He was already a famous lawyer, and certainly America's most prominent black attorney, when Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the Court in 1967. After these victories, he recruited plaintiffs to tackle segregation in public elementary and high schools. Mr. Civil Rights: Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP . When they saw Marshall, they mistook him for the elevator operator. In contrast to cause lawyers, who defend individuals to advance a progressive cause, like Clarence Darrow and Louis Brandeis, Marshall's team (renamed the NAACP Legal Defense Fund) became the first public interest law firm devoted entirely to identifying cases that would change society, not just help a particular plaintiff. “In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.” 2. A Harvard Law School graduate, Houston was the first black lawyer to win a case before the US Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall. And they said we got this Nigger for drunken driving. A: To Nashville. Marshall received the inaugural award in 1992. Considered the leading appellate lawyer in the country, Davis had argued some 140 cases before the Supreme Court. That you raped that woman. In comes the jury. This guy came back and said, weren’t you driving? Once, in Columbia, Mississippi, after an all-white jury acquitted his black clients--a rare occurrence--he was nearly lynched, with the help of local police. Use his name, be present, so much money. "First floor, please," one of them said. Marshall worked on NAACP's national staff under the direction of Charles Houston, his mentor … His dad worked at a club and him mother was a teacher. And she just had these piercing eyes and she told me not once, but four times, don’t you let my son die. From PBS - Civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall’s triumph in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision to desegregate America’s public schools completed the final leg of an heroic journey to end legal segregation. With Houston's help, Marshall recruited a team of brilliant activist lawyers for the NAACP. APPLY NOW . 1930 Mr. Marshall graduates with honors from Lincoln U. The list below are of cases between 1943-1961, brought before the Supreme Court of the United States by the NAACP or the Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., in which Thurgood Marshall argued the case. Q: You were defending Lloyd Kennedy and William Pillow after a race riot (in Columbia, Tennessee) and they were accused of shooting a cop. Fine. I told them to help themselves. In April 1941, Thurgood Marshall is an NAACP lawyer traveling the country defending people of color who are wrongly accused of crimes because of racial prejudice. But one case in Florida during the 1950s caught his attention. And so go toward them, but not from them. B. Thurgood Marshall & the NAACP The actions of the NAACP played a crucial role on the road to integrating schools in America. From PBS - Civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall's triumph in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision to desegregate America's public schools completed the final leg of an heroic journey to end legal segregation. As his liberal colleagues left the court, to be replaced by four conservative justices appointed by Richard Nixon, the court's center of gravity shifted, and Marshall became well-known for his articulate dissenting opinions. In 1936, Marshall moved to New York to work at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). I said for what? He said, I can tell. ... Until his retirement from the Court in 1991, Marshall continued to strive to protect the rights of all citizens. As a young man, perhaps the person who had the most influence on him was his father, a man who always told his son to stand up for his beliefs. The list below are of cases between 1943-1961, brought before the Supreme Court of the United States by the NAACP or the Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., in which Thurgood Marshall argued the case. Marshall had been one of the NAACP's top lawyers. Wife of Thurgood Marshall This is a must watch movie. They followed us out of town. I’m going to be stuck with that for life. He worked for this organization’s branch from Baltimore. He said well go ahead. Decades before Thurgood Marshall was sworn into the U.S. Supreme Court on October 2, 1967, the man who would become its first Black justice had already transformed American law. This is a timeline of his life events. You ain’t gonna shoot me in the back, we’ll go together. You understand that? However, he lacked experience, and this prevented him from landing in any cases. He handled many of the cases himself, recruited new lawyers, and traveled around the country, especially the South, looking for plaintiffs for future cases. NAACP leaders Henry L. Moon, Roy Wilkins, Herbert Hill, and Thurgood Marshall in 1956. Thurgood Marshall was born Thoroughgood Marshall on June 2, 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland. But Brown was Marshall's crowning achievement at the NAACP. And [name] the judge, I said he sure as hell will give you the death penalty, so it’s up to you. Throughout his life, Marshall--the chief architect of the legal strategy to dismantle segregation--was forced to endure such indignities, but he channeled his outrage by battling racism. So they wanted to see my license. The cases were consolidated under the Kansas lawsuit, Oliver Brown et al. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics and chair of the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College. And he said, well, there’s only one more train comes through here and that’s four o’clock and you’d better be on it because the sun is never going down on a live Nigger in this town. Thurgood Marshall | 1998-2019 © Copyright. With Jose Anderson, Kimberle Crenshaw, Mary Easter, Larry Gibson. Every one of those jurors has got a Shriners pin, did you notice that? Immediately after advancing from law school, Thurgood Marshall began practicing law in Baltimore. Date Event; July 2, 1908: Thurgood Marshall is born Thurgood Marshall was born in Maryland. And he said, watch it. Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP were also wary of the Bureau's prying eyes, but they were more concerned about white supremacist terrorist groups like the KKK. He traveled 30,000 miles a year, on the back roads of the Deep South fighting for desegregation and against Jim Crow law. He earned a solid reputation as a skilled lawyer, particularly after winning a case (with Houston's help) before the state court of appeals--Murray v. Maryland in 1936--that challenged the University of Maryland law school's ban on black students. And you’d go look at the record and he’d got 26 witnesses [supporting him]. We first went down to Mink Slide [the black neighborhood in Columbia] on our way out to get a bottle of whiskey. You want to take a chance? I was driving the car and three or four cars came up, police cars and state troopers, five or six cars, and pulled us over and said they had a search warrant. In 1936, Marshall moved to New York to work at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In his final term, Marshall dissented in 25 of 112 cases. Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American lawyer and civil rights activist who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from October 1967 until October 1991. I didn’t and I’m not going to say so. At least a hundred. His most recent book is The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame, published by Nation Books. He endured repeated death threats. While in law school, Marshall would sometimes cut classes to watch Davis argue before the Court. He is remembered as a lawyer who had one of the highest rates of success before the Supreme Court and the principal counsel in a number of landmark court cases. What happens if he’s found not guilty? The Legal Attack to Secure Civil Rights. I said, well, I’m going to make an objection. Supreme Court justice and civil rights advocate. The team was a laboratory for cutting-edge litigation; its long-term goal was to tear down segregation by finding cases that could set precedents in lower courts and eventually reach the Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall in front of the Supreme Court building (left) and with Autherine Lucy and fellow NAACP attorney Arthur Shore outside Birmingham's Federal Court during Lucy's campaign to desegregate the University of Alabama. Here’s how. "Yowsa, yowsa," Marshall responded, accentuating his southern accent, then pushed the button. Over the next several years, Marshall traveled the country defending African-Americans who were often wrongly accused. “You do what you think is right and let the law catch up.” 4. Directed by Mick Caouette. Marshall's clients included the activists who staged lunch counter sit-ins and integrated southern buses in freedom rides. As one of his clients recalled, "until Marshall came, [that] law was whatever a white lawyer or white policeman or white judge said it was.". Awards and Honors: The Thurgood Marshall Award, established in 1992 by the American Bar Association, is presented annually to a recipient to recognize "long-term contributions by members of the legal profession to the advancement of civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights in the United States," the ABA says. Marshall learned about the US Constitution as a young boy as punishment for being a hell-raiser in school. You didn’t talk to him because one day I told him, I said look Doc, your office and mine are side by side and you come in here this morning and I say good morning to you and you just walk right by. Thurgood Marshall Timeline Timeline Description: Thurgood Marshall worked with the NAACP to find freedom for all people. Part of HuffPost Politics. 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