Marshall established the practice of judicial review by the almighty court of the United States on the constitutionality of any law on a state or federal level. This practice proved essential for countless years to come, and vital towards the Judicial Branch's unequivocal responsibility founded in the right to review.
Thurgood Marshall was a civil rights lawyer who used the courts to fight Jim Crow and dismantle segregation in the U.S. Marshall was a towering figure who became the nation's first Black United States Supreme Court Justice. He is best known for arguing the historic 1954 Brown v.
He also won the landmark Brown v. the Board of Education in 1954, which outlawed segregated schools and paved the way for the integration of all public facilities and businesses. His victories ultimately created legal protections for women, children, prisoners, and the homeless.
Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher Education (1950). Having won these cases, and thus, establishing precedents for chipping away Jim Crow laws in higher education, Marshall succeeded in having the Supreme Court declare segregated public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
He loved to argue and became a star of the debate team. Marshall's dad enjoyed going to court and listening to law cases. This caused Marshall to want to become a lawyer, even though his parents had hoped he would follow in his older brother's footsteps and become a dentist.
After founding the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1940, Marshall became the key strategist in the effort to end racial segregation, in particular meticulously challenging Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court-sanctioned legal doctrine that called for “separate but equal” structures for white and Black people.
Chambers v. Florida (1940)Marshall's first victory before the Supreme Court came in Chambers v. Florida (1940), in which he successfully defended four Black men who had been convicted of murder on the basis of confessions coerced from them by police.
Thurgood MarshallOn June 13, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated distinguished civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall to be the first African American justice to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Constance Baker Motley became the nation's first African American woman to serve as a federal judge in 1966, when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed her to the Southern District of New York.Feb 20, 2020
Thurgood Marshall's Family Marshall was born to Norma A. Marshall and William Canfield on July 2, 1908. His parents were mulatottes, which are people classified as being at least half white. Norma and William were raised as “Negroes” and each taught their children to be proud of their ancestry.
John Scott was a Topeka, KS, based lawyer who initially began the Brown case on behalf of Oliver Brown and the other litigants. Chief Justice Earl Warren, who was born in 1891, secured a unanimous decision in Brown v.Jun 8, 2021
President JohnsonPresident Johnson nominated Marshall in June 1967 to replace the retiring Justice Tom Clark, who left the Court after his son, Ramsey Clark, became Attorney General.Aug 30, 2021