Table of Contents Who was Thurgood Marshall? Movie Early Life Education Early Career Career “America’s outstanding civil rights lawyer” Important cases that he argued Out come of Brown v. Board of Education Brown v. Board of Education combined these cases First African American justice Things to think about…

Who was Thurgood Marshall? Thurgood Marshall was an American jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Attorney Thurgood Marshall led the civil rights case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka to a successful hearing at the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954.

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Early Life Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 2, He was the great grandson of a slave. His father instilled in him an appreciation for the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law. 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.

Education Marshall attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, working a number of jobs to pay his tuition. He became more serious about his studies after being suspended briefly in his second year. After receiving his bachelor's degree, he enrolled in the law school at Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1930 and graduated in While at Howard he was influenced by Charles Houston (1895–1950) and other legal scholars who developed and perfected methods for winning civil rights lawsuits.

Passing the Maryland bar exam (an exam that is given by the body that governs law and that must be passed before one is allowed to practice law) in 1933, Marshall practiced in Baltimore until He also served as counsel for the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Early Career

In 1935 he successfully attacked segregation (separation based on race) and discrimination (unequal treatment) in education when he participated in the desegregation of the University of Maryland Law School, to which he had been denied admission because of his race. Marshall became director of the NAACP's Legal Defense and Education Fund in A year earlier he had been admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the fourth, fifth, and eighth circuits, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Career

After winning twenty-nine of the thirty- two civil rights cases that he brought before the Supreme Court, Marshall earned the reputation of "America's outstanding civil rights lawyer." During the trials, he and his aides were often threatened with death in the lower courts of some southern states. Some of the important cases he argued became landmarks in the ending of segregation as well as constitutional precedents (examples to help justify similar decisions in the future) with their decisions. “America’s outstanding civil rights lawyer” Cases he brought before the Supreme Court

YearCourt CaseWhat it’s about 1944Smith v. AllwrightGave African Americans the right to vote in Democratic primary elections 1946 Morgan v. VirginiaOutlawed the state’s policy of segregation as it applied to bus transportation between different states. 1950Sweatt v. PainterRequired the admission of an African American student to the University of Texas Law School. 1954Brown v. Board of EducationOutlawed segregation in public schools and more or less ended the practice once and for all. Important cases that he argued

Number of Justices Outcome of Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education Briggs v. Elliott Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County Gebhart v. BeltonBolling v. Sharpe Brown v. Board of Education combined these cases

In 1967 President Johnson nominated Marshall as associate justice to the U.S. Supreme Court. Marshall's nomination was strongly opposed by several southern senators on the Judiciary Committee, but in the end he was confirmed by a vote of sixty-nine to eleven. He took his seat on October 2, 1967, becoming the first African American justice to sit on the Supreme Court. During his time on the Supreme Court, he remained a strong believer in individual rights and never wavered in his devotion to end discrimination. Marshall vowed to serve until he was 110; however, he was finally forced by illness to give up his seat in He died in 1993 at the age of eighty-four. First African American justice

Things to think about… What is Marshall wearing in all the pictures and videos that you have seen? What would Marshall talk about at a dinner party? Think about what type of food Marshall ate. Think about what music he would have listened to. Click

Food that Marshall may have eaten… o Yams o Rice o Okra o Grits o Macaroni and Cheese o Fried Chicken o Fish o Greens

Types of music Marshall would have listened to… R&B Little Richard, James Brown, and Ray Charles Gospel Music Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland, and Andrae Crouch Soul Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Booker T.