Thurgood Marshall [1908-1993]

By: Bradley Ford

Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 2, 1908. Marshall graduated from high school with honors, and he was a good student. He worked for the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, and got involved in the civil rights movement. He showed courage by trying to be the first black man to work in the Supreme Court. He received a law degree from Howard University in 1933. He began practicing private law. In 1936, he became the Assistant Special Counsel for the NAACP in New York .

He was the legal director of the NAACP from 1940 to 1961. Marshall's job was to overturn segregation. Marshall first worked on ending segregation in schools. He first tried to end segregation in graduate and professional schools. Marshall tried to work on white judges to get them to see the other side so that the laws could be changed about integration in schools. In 1954 a case came up about elementary schools integrating.

The case was called Brown vs. Board of Education. In the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, nine black children wanted to go to the school near their homes in Topeka, Kansas. They couldnít go to school near their homes because the school was not integrated. Marshall won the case of Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954. The decision said that all public schools would be integrated.

In 1965, he was appointed the first black U.S. Solicitor. He was appointed the first black Supreme Court justice in 1967. In 1991 he retired. Marshall always believed in hard work. He was a man who never gave up in doing his work. Others can also learn from him by never giving up. I admire Marshall as a great leader.