Thurgood Marshall: Unsung hero?

In 1991, when the late great Thurgood Marshall retired from the Supreme Court, a reporter asked him how he wanted to be remembered. "He did what he could with what he had!" he replied. For his monumental accomplishments, it is proper to pay homage to one of the greatest American citizens who had the greatest impact on law in the 20th century. Early in his civil rights legal career, attorney Thurgood Marshall advocated in school desegregation cases. In 1935, Marshall filed suit on behalf of 20-year old Donald Murray against the University of Maryland Law School, charging the university with violation of the 14th Amendment/Equal Protection, by rejecting Murray's application for admission. Marshall prevailed on behalf of Donald Murray. In 1939, as an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Marshall led a team of victorious lawyers who won a case on behalf of 28 year old Lloyd Gaines for his admission to the University of Missouri Law School. For his enormous, breakthrough accomplishments, in 1946, Marshall received the NAACP's top award, the Springarn Medal. Marshall successfully combated racism and litigated cases in other areas besides education. In 1946, for instance, at the United States Supreme Court, Marshall argued in the case of Morgan v. Virginia to ban segregated seating on buses that traveled between states no matter what local segregation laws were in place. Marshall prevailed when the Supreme Court held that state segregation placed an "unfair burden" on interstate commerce. In 1948, in a housing discrimination case, Shelley v. Kraemer, Marshall led a team of lawyers that argued racial covenants violated the 14th Amendment, which gave equal protection to all Americans. In an unanimous decision, the Supreme Court outlawed the use of restrictive covenants. In the landmark, 1954 United States Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, Marshall successfully argued that segregated schools violated the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause and won the case that legally ended racial segregation in schools. United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren stated in the opinion, "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson selected Marshall to serve as the nation's first Black Solicitor General. Two years later, in 1967, President Johnson selected Marshall to serve as the nation's first Black Supreme Court Justice. Justice Marshall was a strong advocate for individual rights. In the Stanley v. Georgia case, Justice Marshall wrote for a unanimous court that police were wrong to prosecute a man for owning a pornographic film. Justice Marshall stated, "If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch. Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds." In 1969, Justice Marshall wrote the opinion for the Benton v. Maryland case, which gave defendants protection against double jeopardy in state courts. In 1972, in Furman v. Georgia, Justice Marshall voted with the majority of the court to outlaw the death penalty. Justice Marshall quipped, "How are you going to not kill a person after he has been executed if you find out he is innocent?" In 1984, Ake v. Oklahoma, Justice Marshall opined that the state has an obligation to make sure every suspect got the fullest possible defense. In 1986, in Ford v. Wainwright, Justice Marshall opined that the 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment precluded the death penalty for the insane. Last year, for the landmark inauguration of President Barack Obama, I proudly flew into the Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Baltimore, Maryland, Justice Marshall's hometown. Shortly after taking office, President Obama named Justice Sonia Sotomayor as the first Latina Justice. Neither of these monumental moments would have been possible without the racial progress accomplished by the great Thurgood Marshall in his struggle for equal rights. ---------- Jermaine A. Wyrick, attorney, can be reached at (313) 964-8950, or by E-mail: Attyjaw1@Ameritech.net, and is available for speaking engagements on legal topics. Published: Thu, Mar 11, 2010

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