the naacp lawyer who became known as “mr. civil rights”

by Lorena Bartoletti 10 min read

As a lawyer and judge, Thurgood Marshall strived to protect the rights of all citizens. His legacy earned him the nickname "Mr. Civil Rights." Thurgood Marshall was born Thoroughgood Marshall on June 2, 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland.

How did the NAACP help the Civil Rights Movement?

The NAACP’s campaign was largely unsuccessful, but it helped raise the new group’s public profile. In 1917, some 10,000 people in New York City participated in an NAACP-organized silent march to protest lynchings and other violence against Black people. The march was one of the first mass demonstrations in America against racial violence.

Who was the first president of the NAACP?

A white lawyer, Moorfield Storey, became the NAACP’s first president. Du Bois, the only Black person on the initial leadership team, served as director of publications and research.

What did Thurgood Marshall do for the NAACP?

Soon after, Marshall joined Houston at NAACP as a staff lawyer. In 1940, he was named chief of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which was created to mount a legal assault against segregation. Marshall became one of the nation's leading attorneys.

Who was the first African American Supreme Court justice?

Marshall, who founded the LDF in 1940, won a number of other important civil rights cases involving issues such as voting rights and discriminatory housing practices. In 1967, he became the first African American to serve as a Supreme Court justice.

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What was Thurgood Marshall known for?

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.

When did Thurgood Marshall became a lawyer?

In 1933, Marshall received his law degree and was ranked first in his class. After graduation from Howard, Marshall opened a private practice law firm in Baltimore.

What was the name of the first man made satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1957 quizlet?

In October 1957, the Soviet Union surprised the world by launching Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth.

How did the Truman administration try to help Europe recover from the devastation of World War II?

On April 3, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signs the Economic Assistance Act, which authorized the creation of a program that would help the nations of Europe recover and rebuild after the devastation wrought by World War II.

What are 3 facts about Thurgood Marshall?

Interesting Facts about Thurgood Marshall His birth first name was Thoroughgood, but as a child Marshall got tired of having to write out such a long name. He shortened his name to Thurgood in the second grade. While working as a lawyer he argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court and won 29 of them.

Who was the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court?

Ketanji Brown Jackson has been confirmed as the first African-American woman to serve as a justice of the United States Supreme Court.

What did George Kennan do?

Kennan, in full George Frost Kennan, (born February 16, 1904, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.—died March 17, 2005, Princeton, New Jersey), American diplomat and historian best known for his successful advocacy of a “containment policy” to oppose Soviet expansionism following World War II.

Who was the first person to orbit the Earth quizlet?

Yuri Gargarin, Soviet cosmonaut, was the first man in space and the first man to orbit the Earth. He orbited the Earth in the Vostok 1 for almost 2 hours in April 1961.

What country put the first human made space satellite into orbit around Earth quizlet?

1. The former Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite, on Oct. 4, 1957.

Which president established a policy that was named after him and that declared the United States would help any nation resist communism?

In 1947, President Harry S. Truman pledged that the United States would help any nation resist communism in order to prevent its spread. His policy of containment is known as the Truman Doctrine.

What events caused President Truman to propose what became known as the Truman Doctrine?

The immediate cause for the speech was a recent announcement by the British Government that, as of March 31, it would no longer provide military and economic assistance to the Greek Government in its civil war against the Greek Communist Party.

What was the Truman Doctrine and who were the first two countries to benefit from it?

Believing that the Soviet Union sought expansion in the Middle East, he shaped what came to be known as the Truman Doctrine (1947), pledging immediate military and economic aid to the governments of Greece and Turkey.

Who were the two principal officers of the NAACP?

Thurgood Marshall poses with the two principal officers of the NAACP: Walter White, the national secretary, center, and Roy Wilkins, the assistant national secretary.

When did Thurgood Marshall join the NAACP?

Thurgood Marshall moved to New York and joined the NAACP legal staff in 1936.

Who was the African American student who sued the University of Maryland?

Soon after graduating from law school, Thurgood Marshall took the case of Donald Gaines Murray, an African American student seeking admission to the University of Maryland School of Law. This case went to the state Supreme Court and successfully challenged segregated education in Maryland. Shown here are Marshall, Don ald Gaines Murray, and Charles Houston during the 1933 suit against the University of Maryland.

Where did Thurgood Marshall go to law school?

Thurgood Marshall grew up in a nurturing African American community in segregated Baltimore. After graduating from all-black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, he enrolled in Howard University’s law school. In 1934 he began practicing law in his hometown and immediately was drawn into the local civil rights movement.

Who was the chief counsel of the NAACP?

Thurgood Marshall gives a press conference in his role as chief counsel for the NAACP, 1955. Everett Collection Historical/Alamy Stock Photo. In the country’s history, no one had ever filed a case directly challenging public school segregation.

Who was the NAACP leader in the 1930s?

In the 1930s, Marshall’s legal mentor and NAACP colleague Charles Hamilton Houston had warned the association against overreach, saying, “Don’t shout too soon.” Under Houston’s steady leadership, the NAACP enacted a careful case-by-case, year-over-year strategy to undermine the doctrine of separate but equal established by the Supreme Court’s 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision. Under this gradualist approach, the NAACP pursued litigation that could clearly demonstrate that separate educational resources for Black students were unequal to those of whites. Houston’s blueprint had pushed at Plessy’s edges rather than trying to overturn it, however. Association attorneys argued for equal resources rather than attempt to abolish segregation outright.

What would happen if the NAACP lost Plessy v Ferguson?

If the NAACP were to lose this appeal before the highest court in the land, Plessy v. Ferguson would be reaffirmed and decades of dogged, meticulous work would be lost. It might be decades more before there would be another opportunity to challenge segregation head on. Marshall was conflicted, but decided to move forward with Waring’s plan. Briggs v. Elliott would now be heard before a three-judge panel including Waring.

What case was the first to end segregation in schools?

Before Brown v. Board of Education, there was Briggs v. Elliot —the case that launched Thurgood Marshall’s fight to end segregation in America’s schools.

Why was Clarendon County important to Marshall?

To Marshall, Clarendon County was a perfect opportunity to litigate for equal facilities, transportation and other resources for the county’s Black children. But it would be foolhardy to push for full desegregation. Marshall knew how slim the odds were of victory in South Carolina.

Who was the lawyer who faced the question of whether to continue to play the long game?

Source photo: Library of Congress. In May 1950, lawyer Thurgood Marshall faced a question that confronts so many activists in pursuit of a goal: Should they continue to play the long game, pressing for incremental social change, or has the time come to attempt a big leap forward, despite the risks?

Was Marshall a pragmatist?

At 42, Marshall was a pragmatist with hard-won knowledge of America’s judicial system. He was on the lookout for a case outside of the deep South, where NAACP lawyers had better chances for success with more open-minded judges and juries. But in the meantime there was Clarendon County, South Carolina.

Who was the chief of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund?

Soon after, Marshall joined Houston at NAACP as a staff lawyer. In 1940, he was named chief of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which was created to mount a legal assault against segregation. Marshall became one of the nation's leading attorneys.

Who was the first black justice?

Four years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson named Marshall U.S. solicitor general and on Aug. 30, 1967, Marshall was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and joined the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first Black justice.

What did Marshall do for the Supreme Court?

During his nearly 25-year tenure on the Supreme Court, Marshall fought for affirmative action for minorities, held strong against the death penalty, and supported of a woman's right to choose if an abortion was appropriate for her.

What was the impact of Marshall's rule on the Supreme Court?

His mission was equal justice for all. Marshall used the power of the courts to fight racism and discrimination, tear down Jim Crow segregation, change the status quo, and make life better for the most vulnerable in our nation.

What was Marshall's most famous case?

Marshall's most famous case was the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case in which Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren noted, "in the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.".

Who was the first black supreme court justice?

Thurgood Marshall. 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.

Where did Marshall go to law school?

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Marshall graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1930. He applied to the University of Maryland Law School but was rejected because he was Black. Marshall received his law degree from Howard University Law School in 1933, graduating first in his class.

Who abducted the boy in the middle of the night?

Emmett Till. -made a remark to the white woman behind the counter. -A few days later, the husband and brother-in-law of the woman came to the home of Till's relatives in the middle of the night and abducted the boy. Till's beaten and mutilated body was found in a nearby river three days later.

What was the Serviceman's Readjustment Act?

Serviceman's Readjustment Act, a program that gave substantial benefits to those who served in World War II

Who was the leader of the Chinese Communist Party in 1949?

On October 1, 1949, Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong announced the triumph of the Chinese Communists over their Nationalist foes in a civil war that had been raging since 1927. -The Nationalist forces, under their leader Chiang Kai-shek, departed for Taiwan in December 1949. Joseph McCarthy.

What was the NAACP's role in the Civil Rights Movement?

The NAACP played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. One of the organization’s key victories was the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education that outlawed segregation in public schools.

What was the NAACP's role in the 1963 March on Washington?

history, and had a hand in running 1964’s Mississippi Freedom Summer, an initiative to register Black Mississippians to vote.

Why did the NAACP march in 1917?

In 1917, some 10,000 people in New York City participated in an NAACP-organized silent march to protest lynchings and other violence against Black people. The march was one of the first mass demonstrations in America against racial violence.

How many branches does the NAACP have?

During the civil rights era in the 1950s and 1960s, the group won major legal victories, and today the NAACP has more than 2,200 branches and some half a million members worldwide.

What issues did the NAACP face?

Today, the NAACP is focused on such issues as inequality in jobs, education, health care and the criminal justice system, as well as protecting voting rights.

What did the NAACP do in 1964?

During this era, the NAACP also successfully lobbied for the passage of landmark legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, barring racial discrimination in voting.

Why was the NAACP criticized?

At the same time, NAACP members were subject to harassment and violence.

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