Last week, I explored the work and legacy of one of the nation’s finest current Supreme Court Justices — Ruth Bader Ginsberg. In sticking with the trend of analyzing some of our country’s most prominent and effective figures in the judiciary, there are few characters who can even be compared to Thurgood Marshall. Aside from being the first African American justice to ever serve on our nation’s highest court, he was also a tremendous advocate for civil rights, civil liberties, and the general equality of man with a firm philosophy of ‘equal justice under law’ serving as his guide in countless opinions.
Despite his incredible impact on the formation of the judicial system that we know today, it would be an incredible disservice to the life and legacy of Thurgood Marshall if I did not first discuss his life prior to the Court. Thurgood was born on July 2nd, 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland where he was raised by parents who instilled in him a great love for the United States Constitution and the concept of rule of law. Thurgood attended Lincoln University, a historically black university that today exists as one of four state-related institutions in Pennsylvania (with Penn State being another of the four). Following his time there, he went on to study law at Howard University in Washington D.C.
Following his law studies, Thurgood went on to establish his own private practice which later allowed him the ability to work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for 25 years. During this time, Thurgood argued cases across the country on behalf of clients disadvantaged by racist policies and laws present throughout the country. Most importantly, he founded and became the executive director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He went on to argue the largest win for racial equality in the history of our nation, Brown v. Board of Education (1954), before the Supreme Court on behalf of affected African American’s across the nation.
Following this, he was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to post of the United States Solicitor General (the highest position for an attorney in the country), serving as the first African American to hold such position. Following this, it was only a matter of time before he was appointed to the Court, with such nomination eventually arriving in June of 1967.
Marshall once self-described his legal philosophy as this: “You do what you think is right and let the law catch up”, a statement which his conservative detractors argued was a sign of his support for judicial activism.
Marshall served on the Court for the next 24 years, compiling a liberal record that included strong support for Constitutional protection of individual rights, especially the rights of criminal suspects. He was an unabashed detractor in every instance presented of the death penalty, viewing it as a fundamentally immoral action imposed by the government on moral actors. To this day, Justice Marshall serves as a prime example of the confluence of social and moral justice playing a role in judicial rulings.
As someone not vastly knowledgeable about the history of the supreme court, this was interesting to know the story behind a name I knew, but only scarcely. You did a nice job of showing how Marshall’s background influenced his views as a justice, and why he was so influential in the history of the court.
I, also, did not know the history of Thurgood Marshall. I also didn’t know that he was the lawyer who won Brown vs. Board of Education, though I have learned about this case, of course. It is interesting to see the path someone takes to become a Supreme Court Justice.
Thank you continuing this kind of blog post, as I completely forgot about Marshall. Thurgood was certainly and still is one of the impactful justices to sit on the supreme court. Although he has passed, his influence and in my opinion revolutionary stance on how to “judge” is pretty awesome and you can see it from both sides.