Thurgood Marshall

U.S. Supreme Court
On June 13, 1967, President Johnson appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Tom C. Clark, saying that this was "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place." He was the 96th person to hold the position, and the first African-American. President Johnson confidently predicted to one biographer, Doris Kearns Goodwin, that a lot of black baby boys would be named "Thurgood" in honor of this choice (in fact, Kearns's research of birth records in New York and Boston indicates that Johnson's prophecy did not come true).

Marshall served on the Court for the next twenty-four years, compiling a liberal record that included strong support for Constitutional protection of individual rights, especially the rights of criminal suspects against the government. His most frequent ally on the Court (indeed, the pair rarely voted at odds) was Justice William Brennan, who consistently joined him in supporting abortion rights and opposing the death penalty. Brennan and Marshall concluded in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty was, in all circumstances, unconstitutional, and never accepted the legitimacy of Gregg v. Georgia, which ruled that the death penalty was constitutional three years later. Thereafter, Brennan or Marshall took turns, joined by the other, in mechanically issuing a dissent in every denial of certiorari in a capital case, and from every decision in a case which the court did take which failed to vacate a sentence of death. See Woodward, The Brethren; Lazarus, Closed Chambers.

Although he is best remembered for his jurisprudence in the fields of civil rights and criminal procedure, Marshall made significant contributions to other areas of the law as well. In Teamsters v. Terry he held that the Seventh Amendment required the plaintiff in a suit against a labor union for breach of duty of fair representation. In TSC Industries, Inc. v. Northway, Inc. he articulated the doctrine of materiality in United States securities law, a rule which is still used today. In Cottage Savings Association v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, he weighed in on the tax consequences of the Savings and Loan crisis, permitting a Savings and loan association to deduct a loss from an exchange of mortgage participation intrests.

Among his many law clerks were Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, well-known law professors Cass Sunstein and Eben Moglen, and prominent critical legal studies advocate and constitutional law professor Mark Tushnet.

Marshall announced his retirement at the end of his term on June 28, 1991, citing his age and declining health as reasons. He told reporters, "I'm getting old and coming apart."


Death
Marshall died of heart failure at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, at 2 p.m. on January 24, 1993. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He was survived by his second wife, Cecilia Marshall, and their two sons, Thurgood Marshall Jr. and John W. Marshall. Marshall left all of his personal papers and notes to the Library of Congress. He also declared that his papers should be open for immediate use by scholars, journalists and the public. There is a memorial to Justice Marshall near the Maryland State House.


Timeline of Marshall's life
1930 - Marshall graduates with honors from Lincoln University, PA (cum laude)

1933 - Receives law degree from Howard University (magna cum laude); begins private practice in Baltimore, Maryland

1934 - Begins to work for Baltimore branch of NAACP

1935 - Worked with Charles Houston, wins first major civil rights case, Murray v. Pearson

1936 - Becomes assistant special counsel for NAACP in New York

1940 - Wins Chambers v. Florida, the first of 29 Supreme Court victories

1944 - Successfully argues Smith v. Allwright, overthrowing the South's "white primary"

1948 - Wins Shelley v. Kraemer, in which Supreme Court strikes down legality of racially restrictive covenants

1950 - Wins Supreme Court victories in two graduate-school integration cases, Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents

1951 - Visits South Korea and Japan to investigate charges of racism in U.S. armed forces. He reported that the general practice was one of "rigid segregation".

1954 - Wins Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, landmark case that demolishes legal basis for segregation in America

1956 - Wins Gayle v. Browder, Ending the practice of segregation on buses and ending the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1961 - Defends civil rights demonstrators, winning Supreme Circuit Court victory in Garner v. Louisiana; nominated to Second Court of Appeals by President J.F. Kennedy

1961 - Appointed circuit judge, makes 112 rulings, all of them later upheld by Supreme Court (1961-1965)

1965 - Appointed United States Solicitor General by President Lyndon Johnson; wins 14 of the 19 cases he argues for the government (1965-1967)

1967 - Becomes first African American elevated to U.S. Supreme Court (1967-1991)

1991 - Retires from the Supreme Court

1993 - Dies at age 84 in Bethesda, MD, near Washington, D.C.

For more, see Bradley C. S. Watson, "The Jurisprudence of William Joseph Brennan, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall" in History of American Political Thought.


Dedications
The Thurgood Marshall Living Learning Center is a 324 room Modern Dormitory/Conference Center located at Chief Justice Marshall's alma mater Lincoln University, PA .
The University of Maryland School of Law, which Marshall fought to desegregate, renamed and dedicated its law library in his honor.
The University of California, San Diego has named one of its colleges after Thurgood Marshall.
On February 14, 1976, the law school at Texas Southern University was formally named The Thurgood Marshall School of Law[2]. The school's mission is to "significantly impact the diversity of the legal profession."
Justice Middle School, at one time a predominantly white school located in Marion, Indiana, changed its name to Justice Thurgood Marshall Middle School in honor of Justice Marshall's work on the Court.
In 1987, the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund was established to carry on Justice Marshall's legacy of equal access to higher education by supporting exceptional merit scholars attending America's Public Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
On October 1, 2005, Baltimore-Washington International Airport was renamed Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in his honor.
On August 3, 2004, Thurgood Marshall Middle School, in St. Petersburg, Florida, was opened.
The Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C. voted at its annual meeting January 2006 to propose sainthood when the national church holds its general conference in June. He could become a saint in 2009.
Near his longtime home in Lake Barcroft, VA, Columbia Pike is dedicated as the Thurgood Marshall Memorial Highway. In addition, the Lake Barcroft community awards the Thurgood Marshall scholarship to two graduating students of nearby J.E.B. Stuart High School.
 

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