Thurgood Marshall: Civil Rights Activist

Thurgood Marshall As the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall greatly influenced future generations of black people. His ancestors faced several hardships as slaves, but he was able to accomplish a lot. Marshall was brilliant as a child, but constantly got rejected because of his race. However, these discriminatory ridicules didn’t stop him from chasing after his dreams.

Thurgood Marshall makes an important argument in American history

She also concludes that Marshall “felt that the best way to change the country and gain equality for all was through the court system.” Marshall was an attorney of NAACP between 1934 and 1961. During this period, he argued thirty-two cases before the Supreme Court, prevailing in twenty-nine of them and earning himself the status of “Mr. Civil Rights” . As a result, in 1967 President Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall as the first African American Justice to the United States Supreme Court. He accepted that it was “the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place.”

Thurgood Marshall was born on July 2, 1908. In 1930 he states for to the University of Maryland Law School but was denied because of him being black. However years later when he applied to Howard University when he graduated, he opens up a small law practice in Baltimore. Marshall won the first Major case in civil rights was due to the precedent of Plessy v Ferguson where it states racial segregation laws for public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal", where he sued University of Maryland Law School to admit a young African American named Donald Gaines Murray. With his well-known skills as a lawyer and his passion for the civil rights Marshall because the chief of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,

Ferguson had an unbelievable amount to do with the case of Brown v. Board of Education. The court case, involving Brown v. Board of Education took place in the year 1954. It was filed against the Topeka , Kansas school bored by Oliver Brown who was a parent to a child that was denied admission at a white school in Topeka. Brown argued that the racial segregation in Topeka disobeys the constitutions Equal Protection Clause. He states this because he did not believe that Topeka’s white schools and black schools were equal.

Brown v. Board was a milestone in American History because it began racial integration, and overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. After Brown v. Board, the government could not support segregation because “Separate but equal” was not in effect. However, the most obvious and rewarding result of the case was the integration in public schools in the entire United States, even though the desegregation was a long process. The world we live in today is by far the opposite it has come a long way, it’s not perfect yet because colored people still get discriminated in one way or another

Born in Maryland, Thurgood Marshall was another activist for civil rights. He went to an all-black law school, after being denied entry into the University of Maryland Law School. He would later take the school to court, and win, for violating the 14th Amendment. He went on to handle many landmark cases, as the primary attorney for the NAACP. One of the history making cases was the previous decision on the Plessy v. Ferguson case, convincing the Supreme Court to overturn the original ruling. He eventually went on to become the first African American supreme Court Justice.

Nine years after the United States Supreme Court ruled separate is not equal many schools were still segregated. Judge Bohanon wanted to end this, so he forced a stop to segregation in Oklahoma City Public Schools through his ruling (1). This shows how government leader like Judge Bohanon would try to stop segregation. With them using the power they had they would start with one small area such as schools and it would get the ball rolling to be able to expand the stop of segregation in other areas. Colleges could no be segregated as of June 6, 1955 because of the ruling by Oklahoma’s Board of Higher Education (8).

Thurgood Marshall, Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., among others, have become household names as pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement. Mention of Thurgood Marshall immediately conjures in mind the historic United States Supreme Court Case, Brown vs. Board of Education. A. Philip Randolph immediately reminds us of the “Second Emancipation Proclamation”, Executive Order 8802 which gave thousands of Negroes access to jobs in manufacturing plants receiving contracts from the defense department during World War II. Rosa Parks is inextricably associated in the minds of millions with the Montgomery Bus Boycott. And who cannot think of Dr. Martin L. King together with the March on Washington and his famous

To do this he wanted African-Americans to know how to read, write, and have and organized education system. In his mind, the smarter they got, the more equal that blacks were to the

However, in 1896 Judge Ferguson of the Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana had the right to regulate railroads within state borders and created a “separate but equal” rule that lay the groundwork for future segregation. This shaped America’s future by aggravating the racial discrimination between blacks and whites. Specifically, laws were passed to keep blacks separate from whites in all sections of society, including education, restrooms, hotels, public transportation, and even cemeteries. Blacks were denied the right to vote and even had a curfew in some places. In summary, this court decision significantly worsened race relations and progress in society for many decades.

As the quote reads above, we often only remember Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X and tend to forget about Thurgood Marshall who also and important figure of the civil rights movement as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were. Thurgood Marshall was the first black supreme court justice. Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1908. In his college years he went to the historically black Lincoln University. After, he applied at University of Maryland Law School but was denied because he was black. Later that year he then got admitted to Howard University Law School. Marshalls strategy of attacking racial inequality was through the court. In 1933 Marshall finally won his first major court case. He had successfully sued the University

Over the years, many people have achieved greatness in some form. Whether it is inventing things for the good of mankind, helping the poor, or championing the rights of the mentally ill; many people have made a difference in the world. Others have achieved greatness in strange ways, for example, the few who have achieved posthumous honor. Some examples of people who have worked for the greater good are Dorothea Dix, who was a champion for the rights of the mentally ill; Thomas Edison, who produced hundreds of machines for the good of mankind; and Thurgood Marshall, who fought to end segregation in universities across America. These people all strived to make a difference in the lives of not only the people close to them, but the entire world.

In essence, Brown vs Board of Education began the civil rights movement which motivated the country to restructure its education and end racism within

Booker T. Washington, the head of Tuskegee, helped to advance education and self-improvement for blacks, saying that whites needed to accept that black people were deserving of voting rights. Gomillion and his attorneys appealed to the U.S Supreme Court. The case was argued by Alabama Civil Rights attorney Fred Grey. This was a landmark case, The Supreme Court ruled this was against the 14th and 15th amendment. Martin Luther King Jr. also influenced this case when he marched in Alabama, getting many whites and African Americans on his side helping the final decision of the