Black History Report on Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall is a very prominent historical figure in the American history. He is very well regarded person in the black community of America due to his remarkable success story in the judicial history of America. Thurgood Marshall was an American lawyer who became the first Afro-American associate justice of US Supreme Court in 1967, where he served for 24 years until 1991, two years before his death. Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore, the largest city of Maryland, USA in the year of 1908.

Thurgood had two mirages, one with Vivian Burey from 1929 to 1955 and second with his secretary Cecilia Suyat after the death of his first wife. He had two sons named Thurgood Jr. and John Marshall. His father’s name was William Marshal whose grandfather was a slave and who used to work in an exclusive club as a steward. His mother’s name was Norma, and she was a kindergarten teacher in a local school. Thurgood Marshall started to develop his interest towards legislation from the beginning of his childhood as his father William has his favorite hobby of listening to the hearing of cases in the local courthouse and discussing them on the dinner table with his family. According to Thurgood, he and his father used to have jurisdiction arguments about everything during the dinner time. And most of the time these arguments used to get the shape of violence. These debates created a nudge for law in the mind of Thurgood, and after years he became the lawyer.

He studied law from the Howard University and as a counselor to NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) he fought a lot of cases for the equal rights of people of color. He gained much fame from the case of “Brown vs. the Board of Education” by which the Supreme Court of USA ended the racial discrimination in the governmental schools (“Thurgood Marshall,” n.d.).

Thurgood marshal got his prominent place in the American history especially in the history of people of color due to following two reasons. He was a great opponent of the legislation of notorious Jim Crow segregation laws. These laws were there to suppress the legal rights of people of color in the southern states of America. Thurgood first great accomplishment was that he guided the lawsuit against the Jim Crow segregation as the legal counselor of NAACP. Jim Crow laws were a great hindrance in front of colored rights movement, and Thurgood played an important role in the destruction of those laws. Secondly, he became the first colored associate justice of Supreme Court. In this role, he molded a unique philosophical theory of law which he based on the tolerance, attention to the detailed and practical considerations keeping the formalities of law aside, and solid disposition to dissent (“Thurgood Marshall – Black History,” n.d.).

His major accomplishments include the serving as Supreme Court justice for 24 years, standing first in his law class in Howard school, serving as a chief counsel of NAACP, and becoming the first Afro-American solicitor general. He held the solicitor general position for just two years as he was appointed as Supreme Court associate justice afterward (wp-admin, 2016).

Thurgood marshal had a very charming and outgoing personality. His some personality traits are equality and justice for all, freedom of expression and conscious, respect and love for others, acceptance of authority and considering himself accountable. His traits and his accomplishments made him a living legend and a role model for whole society (cisturner, 18:24:41 UTC).

People of color have special love for Thurgood Marshal due to his struggle and determination for the rights and justice for the people of color of USA. He made the people of his society proud and made his mark in the history.

References

cisturner. (18:24:41 UTC). Thurgood Marshall. Education. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/cisturner/thurgood-marshall-15978006

Thurgood Marshall. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/people/thurgood-marshall-9400241

Thurgood Marshall – Black History. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/thurgood-marshall

wp-admin. (2016, March 29). 5 Major Accomplishments of Thurgood Marshall. Retrieved from https://healthresearchfunding.org/5-major-accomplishments-of-thurgood-marshall/