By: Aldo Perez & Sacramento Bucio Thurgood Marshall By: Aldo Perez & Sacramento Bucio

Introduction To start off Thurgood Marshall as you may know, was the first African-American to be in the U.S Supreme Court. Not only that he was an elite lawyer that won many of his argued cases. Also he worked in the Civil Rights Movement to argue the famous case of Brown v. Board of Education. Here is a presentation of his life and his long and honored career.

Early Years Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 2, 1908 His father William Marshall, instilled in him from youth an appreciation for the U.S Constitution and the rule of law. When he was in the 2nd grade he thought that his original name Thoroughgood was too long and shortened it to Thurgood As a child, he was punished for his school misbehavior by being forced to write copies of the constitution, later it got his interest in the document.

Education Marshall graduated from Frederick Douglass high school in 1926. Then from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1930. Marshall applied to his hometown law school University of Maryland, but the school did not accept him because of the segregation policy.

Law Career Marshall received his law degree from the Howard University School of Law in 1933. The following year he started to work with the Baltimore NAACP. He then won 2 civil rights cases like Murray v. Pearson and Plessy v. Ferguson

Chief Council of NAACP His first Supreme Court case was Chambers v. Florida in 1940. Appointed as chief he had many cases like Smith v. Allwright, Shelley v. Kraemer, Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents. In total he won 29 out of 32 cases as a lawyer.

Brown v. Board Of Education One of Marshall’s most popular cases was Board v. Board of Education of Topeka. The case in which the Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” public education was unconstitutional because it could never be equal. Marshall argued that school segregation was a violation of individual right under the 14th Amendment. Then on May 17, 1954, chief justice Earl Warren, delivered the unanimous ruling: “We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." After that the Supreme Court reached it’s decision to have school desegregated.

U.S Supreme Court On June 13, 1967, President Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme court following the retirement of John C. Clark. Marshall was confirmed as an Associate Justice by a Senate vote 69-11 on August 31, 1967. He was the 96th person to hold the position in the Supreme Court. Also he was the first African-American appointed to the U.S Supreme Court. Marshall then served 24 years, compiling a liberal record that included strong support for Constitutional protection of individual rights, especially the rights of criminal suspects against the government.

Death and Legacy On January 24th, 1993 Thurgood Marshall died of heart failure at the age of 84. He died at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Marshall left all his personal papers and notes to the Library of Congress.

Timeline

Bibliography CHNM- http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/marshall.htm Thurgood Marshall- http://www.thurgoodmarshall.com/home.htm Landmark Cases- http://www.landmarkcases.org/brown/marshall.html Info Please- http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0831961.html

The End This is the end of my presentation. I hope that you very much enjoyed it and learned a lot about Marshall’s life and career.