THURGOOD MARSHALL
CIVIL RIGHTS
Early Life
Thurgood Marshall was born on July 2, 1908, in Baltimore, Maryland. Thurgood Marshall grew up in Baltimore and graduated from an all-black high school at age 16. The schools Thurgood went to had older books then the white schools. Thurgood knew this was unfair since he was not receiving an equal education. Later he attended Lincoln University. While in college Marshall participated in a successful sit-in at a local movie theater. Protesters occupied “whites-only” seats to force the theater to cease making black patrons sit in a segregated balcony section.
Becoming a Lawyer
After graduating with high honors from Lincoln in 1930, Marshall went to Howard University in Washington, D.C., and graduated first in his class in 1933. He began private law practice in Baltimore in 1933. After a while he joined the legal department of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
During this time he coordinated the organization's lawsuits challenging segregation in housing and education. Thurgood Marshall wanted all Americans to be treated equally, regardless of their race.
During this time he coordinated the organization's lawsuits challenging segregation in housing and education. Thurgood Marshall wanted all Americans to be treated equally, regardless of their race.
Thurgood Helps to Change Schools
In the 1950's, Thurgood Marshall and other lawyers went to the Supreme Court to fight school segregation. Segregation means separating people by race. The case was Brown vs. The Board of Topeka Kansas. At that time in some parts of America, black children and white children had to go to different schools. Marshall said that schools should not be segregated. In 1954, the Supreme Court said that racial segregation in public schools was against the law. It went against the rights given to all the people by the Constitution of the United States.
Supreme Court Justice
In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall was the first African American on the Supreme Court. As a Supreme Court justice, Marshall supported people's rights in many areas, such as free speech, no school segregation, and welfare, or aid from the government. He retired in 1991. Marshall died on Jan. 24, 1993. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
