Presidents and the Supreme Court: LBJ and Thurgood Marshall
On June 13, 1967 President Lyndon Johnson nominated Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first African-American to be a member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Johnson nominated Marshall to the court following the retirement of Justice Tom C. Clark. In announcing the nomination, Johnson said that this was "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place." Marshall was confirmed as an Associate Justice of the court on August 30, 1967, by a Senate vote of 69–11. Marshall served on the court following a distinguished career both as a civil rights lawyer and as a civil servant.
Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 2, 1908. His original name was Thoroughgood, but he shortened it to Thurgood. His father, William Marshall, worked as a railroad porter, and his mother Norma, as a teacher. Marshall attended Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore and graduated a year early in 1925. He went to Lincoln University. According to his application to Lincoln University, Marshall said his goal was to become a lawyer. His classmates included poet Langston Hughes and musician Cab Calloway. He was not exactly a serious student at first, and was suspended twice for hazing and pranks. However he excelled at on the debating team. In his second year Marshall participated in a sit-in protest against segregation at a local movie theater. In 1929 he married Vivien Burey, who he called "Buster". She is credited with getting him to take his studies seriously, and he graduated from Lincoln with honors, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities, with a major in American literature and philosophy.
Marshall wanted to study in his hometown law school, the University of Maryland School of Law, but did not apply because it was a segregated school. Instead he attended Howard University School of Law. There his views on civil rights were heavily influenced by the dean Charles Hamilton Houston. In 1933, he graduated first in his law class at Howard.
After graduating from law school, Marshall started a private law practice in Baltimore and began his 25-year affiliation with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1934 he represented the NAACP in the law school discrimination suit Murray v. Pearson. In Murray v. Pearson, Marshall represented Donald Gaines Murray, an African American Amherst College graduate with excellent credentials, who was denied admission to the University of Maryland Law School because of its segregation policy. Marshall argued that Maryland's segregation policy violated the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson because the state did not provide a comparable educational opportunity at a state-run black institution. The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled against the state of Maryland and its Attorney General, who represented the University of Maryland. The court said in its ruling, "Compliance with the Constitution cannot be deferred at the will of the state. Whatever system is adopted for legal education must furnish equality of treatment now."
In 1936, Marshall became part of the national staff of the NAACP. In 1940, at the age of 32, Marshall was the successful counsel in U.S. Supreme Court case Chambers v. Florida, 309 U.S. 227. Later that year, he founded and became the executive director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He argued many other civil rights cases before the Supreme Court, most of them successfully. His most famous case as a lawyer was Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 in 1954. In that case the Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" public education, as established by Plessy v. Ferguson, did not apply to public education because it could never be truly equal. Marshall won 29 out of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court.
During the 1950s, Marshall developed an amicable relationship with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, largely because of Marshall's opposition to Communist Party influence in the NAACP. In 1956, Marshall praised Hoover's campaign to discredit T.R.M. Howard, a maverick civil rights leader from Mississippi. In a private letter to Hoover, Marshall said that Howard did not speak for the NAACP.
President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1961 to a new seat created on May 19, 1961. But a group of Senators from the South, led by Mississippi's James Eastland, held up his confirmation. He served for the first several months under a recess appointment. Marshall remained on that court until 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to be the United States Solicitor General, the first African American to hold the office. At the time, this made him the highest-ranking African American government official in American history. As Solicitor General, he successfully argued 14 out of the 19 cases that he argued for the government.
On June 13, 1967, President Johnson nominated Marshall to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Tom C. Clark, calling this "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place." Marshall was confirmed as an Associate Justice by a Senate vote of 69–11 on August 30, 1967. He was the first African American Justice of the Court.
Marshall once said, of his approach to questions of law, "You do what you think is right and let the law catch up". He was criticized for excessive judicial activism by his opponents. Marshall served on the Court for the next 24 years. His record can be described as one that demonstrated strong support for Constitutional protection of individual rights, especially the rights of criminal suspects. His most like-minded colleague on the Court was Justice William Brennan, who consistently joined him in supporting abortion rights and opposing the death penalty. Brennan and Marshall concurreed (in Furman v. Georgia) that the death penalty was, in all circumstances, unconstitutional. They never accepted the legitimacy of Gregg v. Georgia, which ruled four years later that the death penalty was constitutional in some circumstances.
In 1987, Marshall gave a famous speech on the occasion of the bicentennial celebrations of the Constitution of the United States in which he said:
"The government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war, and major social transformations to attain the system of constitutional government and its respect for the freedoms and individual rights, we hold as fundamental today. Some may more quietly commemorate the suffering, struggle, and sacrifice that has triumphed over much of what was wrong with the original document, and observe the anniversary with hopes not realized and promises not fulfilled. I plan to celebrate the bicentennial of the Constitution as a living document, including the Bill of Rights and the other amendments protecting individual freedoms and human rights."
Many of his law clerks were attorneys who went on to become judges themselves, including Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. Marshall retired from the Supreme Court in 1991 due to declining health. In his retirement press conference on June 28, 1991, he said that race should not be a factor in choosing his successor. He denied that he was retiring because of frustration or anger over the conservative direction in which the Court was heading. But he expressed his displeasure when President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas as his replacement.
Marshall died of heart failure at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, at 2:58 pm on January 24, 1993, at the age of 84. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Marshall left all his personal papers and notes to the Library of Congress.
Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 2, 1908. His original name was Thoroughgood, but he shortened it to Thurgood. His father, William Marshall, worked as a railroad porter, and his mother Norma, as a teacher. Marshall attended Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore and graduated a year early in 1925. He went to Lincoln University. According to his application to Lincoln University, Marshall said his goal was to become a lawyer. His classmates included poet Langston Hughes and musician Cab Calloway. He was not exactly a serious student at first, and was suspended twice for hazing and pranks. However he excelled at on the debating team. In his second year Marshall participated in a sit-in protest against segregation at a local movie theater. In 1929 he married Vivien Burey, who he called "Buster". She is credited with getting him to take his studies seriously, and he graduated from Lincoln with honors, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities, with a major in American literature and philosophy.
Marshall wanted to study in his hometown law school, the University of Maryland School of Law, but did not apply because it was a segregated school. Instead he attended Howard University School of Law. There his views on civil rights were heavily influenced by the dean Charles Hamilton Houston. In 1933, he graduated first in his law class at Howard.
After graduating from law school, Marshall started a private law practice in Baltimore and began his 25-year affiliation with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1934 he represented the NAACP in the law school discrimination suit Murray v. Pearson. In Murray v. Pearson, Marshall represented Donald Gaines Murray, an African American Amherst College graduate with excellent credentials, who was denied admission to the University of Maryland Law School because of its segregation policy. Marshall argued that Maryland's segregation policy violated the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson because the state did not provide a comparable educational opportunity at a state-run black institution. The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled against the state of Maryland and its Attorney General, who represented the University of Maryland. The court said in its ruling, "Compliance with the Constitution cannot be deferred at the will of the state. Whatever system is adopted for legal education must furnish equality of treatment now."
In 1936, Marshall became part of the national staff of the NAACP. In 1940, at the age of 32, Marshall was the successful counsel in U.S. Supreme Court case Chambers v. Florida, 309 U.S. 227. Later that year, he founded and became the executive director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He argued many other civil rights cases before the Supreme Court, most of them successfully. His most famous case as a lawyer was Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 in 1954. In that case the Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" public education, as established by Plessy v. Ferguson, did not apply to public education because it could never be truly equal. Marshall won 29 out of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court.
During the 1950s, Marshall developed an amicable relationship with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, largely because of Marshall's opposition to Communist Party influence in the NAACP. In 1956, Marshall praised Hoover's campaign to discredit T.R.M. Howard, a maverick civil rights leader from Mississippi. In a private letter to Hoover, Marshall said that Howard did not speak for the NAACP.
President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1961 to a new seat created on May 19, 1961. But a group of Senators from the South, led by Mississippi's James Eastland, held up his confirmation. He served for the first several months under a recess appointment. Marshall remained on that court until 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to be the United States Solicitor General, the first African American to hold the office. At the time, this made him the highest-ranking African American government official in American history. As Solicitor General, he successfully argued 14 out of the 19 cases that he argued for the government.
On June 13, 1967, President Johnson nominated Marshall to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Tom C. Clark, calling this "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place." Marshall was confirmed as an Associate Justice by a Senate vote of 69–11 on August 30, 1967. He was the first African American Justice of the Court.
Marshall once said, of his approach to questions of law, "You do what you think is right and let the law catch up". He was criticized for excessive judicial activism by his opponents. Marshall served on the Court for the next 24 years. His record can be described as one that demonstrated strong support for Constitutional protection of individual rights, especially the rights of criminal suspects. His most like-minded colleague on the Court was Justice William Brennan, who consistently joined him in supporting abortion rights and opposing the death penalty. Brennan and Marshall concurreed (in Furman v. Georgia) that the death penalty was, in all circumstances, unconstitutional. They never accepted the legitimacy of Gregg v. Georgia, which ruled four years later that the death penalty was constitutional in some circumstances.
In 1987, Marshall gave a famous speech on the occasion of the bicentennial celebrations of the Constitution of the United States in which he said:
"The government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war, and major social transformations to attain the system of constitutional government and its respect for the freedoms and individual rights, we hold as fundamental today. Some may more quietly commemorate the suffering, struggle, and sacrifice that has triumphed over much of what was wrong with the original document, and observe the anniversary with hopes not realized and promises not fulfilled. I plan to celebrate the bicentennial of the Constitution as a living document, including the Bill of Rights and the other amendments protecting individual freedoms and human rights."
Many of his law clerks were attorneys who went on to become judges themselves, including Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. Marshall retired from the Supreme Court in 1991 due to declining health. In his retirement press conference on June 28, 1991, he said that race should not be a factor in choosing his successor. He denied that he was retiring because of frustration or anger over the conservative direction in which the Court was heading. But he expressed his displeasure when President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas as his replacement.
Marshall died of heart failure at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, at 2:58 pm on January 24, 1993, at the age of 84. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Marshall left all his personal papers and notes to the Library of Congress.