Thurgood Marshall example essay topic

Thurgood Marshall By: Michael Davis 1st Period Febuary 13, 2003 Thurgood Marshall, one of the greatest lawyers for the NAACP and the first black justice on the united states supreme court. All through his c arrear he fought for rights for non-whites with a fierce, never tiring stamina until his case was won. His acheviements created many civil rights for the afracian-american and other non-white races, such as outlaw discrimination in school. Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland on 1908. Thurgood was named after his grandfather, a former slave who later changed his name to thurgood when he joined the United States Army. Thurgood's mother, Norma Arica Marshall, became one of the first African-Americans to graduate from Columbia Teacher's College in New York City.

Thurgood's Father, William Marshall, worked in an exclusive white club as a railroad porter and as head steward. Later on Thurgood's father became the first African-american to serve on a grand jury in Baltimore. Thurgood graduated from an all black high school in Baltimore, where he was raised, at the age of 16. After graduating from high school, Thurgood attended Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania. During college Thurgood attended many sit-ins at local movie theaters within the "whites-only" seats. In 1930 Thurgood meet his wife, Vivien "Buster" B urey, which he stayed with until his death, and also graduated from Lincoln College with honors.

After graduating from Lincoln college, he applied to the University of Maryland School of Law, which turned him down because of his African-American race. Since he was rejected he attended Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C., and graduated top in his class in 1933. Marshall left a private law practice in Baltimore in 1933 and moved to New York City, where he then worked for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as a staff lawyer. While working at the NAACP Thurgood he developed and used a strategy to fight racial segregation within the United States. While fighting against racial seperation, he also worked with local communities and individuals for support. Working with the NAACP got him into many cases in the local, state, and federal courts, as well as the United States Supreme Court.

Thurgood won a majority of his cases before he argued in the Supreme Court. Thurgood's most important case was fought within the Supreme Court of the United States, Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), he fought for the declaration of segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The ruling of the court set the foundation of the civil rights movements in the 1950's and 1960's. In 1961 Thurgood was appointed to the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals by John F. Kennedy, which had jurisdiction over federal district courts in New York, Connecticut, and Vermont.

In four years Marshall wrote 98 opinions none of which were reversed by the Supreme Court. In June of 1967 Thurgood was nominated by President Johnson to the Supreme Court. Marshall was confirmed as associate justice of the Supreme Court by the United States Senate just two months later. As supreme court justice under both Earl Warren and later by William Brennan he opposed decisions that he thought supported hostile police practices, neglected the poor, or opposed civil rights.

Health later forced Thurgood to retire from the supreme court in 1961. Later Marshall died of heart failure in Washington, D.C. in January 1993 and buried in Arlingotn National Cemetery. After his death he left all his papers and notes to the Library of Congress.