Jun 05, 2018 · Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood Marshall is the 96th Supreme Court Justice of the United States, and the first African-American to hold the title. His legal career was one of dazzling success, earning decisions on nearly every level, as well as his activism against institutionalized racism and segregation in public spaces.
Jan 21, 2016 · Education and Early Career. Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. was born on October 2, 1937, in Shreveport, Louisiana, to Hattie and Johnnie L. Cochran Sr. The family moved to California in 1943, where the ...
Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. keeps making headlines along with money and respect for clients all over the country. He is loved and hated, but also respected and feared. And that’s why he’s the most famous lawyer in America.
Black Power Movement in the 1970s, you would have been hard-pressed to find more than 3,000 African American lawyers. Today, their numbers surpass 20,000. Yesteryear’s black attorneys were champions of civil rights and social justice. Today, their scope of expertise has broadened, from defending corporate
Thurgood Marshall is the 96th Supreme Court Justice of the United States, and the first African-American to hold the title. His legal career was one of dazzling success, earning decisions on nearly every level, as well as his activism against institutionalized racism and segregation in public spaces.
Constance Baker Motley broke the figurative glass ceiling in multiple ways, becoming the first African-American woman to hold a federal judiciary position after being appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. She also served as an associate council to Thurgood Marshall in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case, for which she wrote the original complaint.
Upon the retirement of Thurgood Marshall, George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas as his replacement, where he still serves today. Thomas’s history is also one of activism, serving under President Ronald Regan as the Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Johnnie Cochran established himself as a sought after attorney dealing with high-profile police brutality cases involving the African American community . He attracted famous clients like Michael Jackson and led O. J. Simpson 's defense team in the 1995 murder trial.
In 1966, a Black motorist named Leonard Deadwyler, while attempting to get his pregnant wife to a hospital, was killed by police officer Jerold Bova. Cochran filed a civil suit on behalf of Deadwyler's family; though he lost, the attorney was nonetheless inspired to take on police abuse cases over the ensuing years. During the early 1980s, he oversaw a settlement for the family of African American football player Ron Settles, who died in a police cell under questionable circumstances. The following decade, Cochran won a huge, unprecedented court payment for a 13-year-old molested by an officer.
Cochran penned the books Journey to Justice (1996) and A Lawyer's Life (2002). He appeared on Court TV’s Inside America’s Courts and was also featured on a number of TV programs, including Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Chris Rock Show and The Roseanne Show as well as the Spike Lee film Bamboozled (2000). Cochran continued to take on new cases into the new millennium, ranging from work for clients like Abner Louima, who was tortured while in New York City police custody, and rapper/music mogul Sean "Puffy" Combs, to an anti-trust litigation issued against racing giant NASCAR.
Cochran thus made controversial closing statements in which he compared the detective’s philosophy to that of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Simpson was found not guilty in his murder trial, yet nonetheless faced civil litigation, with millions in damages awarded to the Brown and Goldman families.
Over the years, Cochran's roster included famous entertainers like actor Todd Bridges, who was charged with attempted murder, and pop icon Michael Jackson, with Cochran arranging an out-of-court settlement for the singer in relation to child molestation charges.
During the early 1980s, he oversaw a settlement for the family of African American football player Ron Settles, who died in a police cell under questionable circumstances. The following decade, Cochran won a huge, unprecedented court payment for a 13-year-old molested by an officer.
Pratt was convicted and imprisoned, while Cochran maintained that the activist was railroaded by authorities, pushing for a retrial. (The conviction was eventually overturned after more than two decades. Pratt was released, with Cochran also overseeing a wrongful imprisonment suit.)
As the first black solicitor general andSupreme Court Justice, Thurgood Mar-shall is one of the most celebrated figuresin the history of civil rights in America.Along with his mentor Charles HamiltonHouston (the first black lawyer to win acase before the Supreme Court), Mar-shall, who served as a justice for 24 years,developed a strategy for eradicating seg-regation in schools that culminated in thelandmark 1954 case Brownv.The Boardof Education.
Con-firmed in 1937, he becamethe nation’s first black fed-eral magistrate. In 1949,President Harry S. Trumannomina ted him judge of theThird U.S. Circuit Court ofAppeals. It was the highestjudicial position attained byan African American.
This is because Cochran had nothing to do with O.J.'s defense team in the beginning.
He would continue his education at the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where he would receive his Juris Doctor in 1963.
This in part came from some disturbing accusations leveled against him by his first wife and an affair during their marriage.
Cochran is an important figure in the African American and social justice community. His work and leadership have had a lasting legacy almost two decades after his death, and in today's America, with the death of George Floyd and the nationwide protest in the summer of 2020, one wonders what Johnnie Cochran's role would be in the national conversation. Here is the untold truth of Johnnie Cochran.
As for actual portrayals of Cochran, in a season two episode of South Park, Cochran represented a record company and then the character Chef in two lawsuits. For his closing statements, instead of discussing the case, Cochran rambled about the Star Wars character Chewbacca, which led to his victories.
Switching to private practice. In 1965 , Johnnie Cochran switched to the other side of the bench, entering private practice with Gerald Lenior, a prominent local attorney. According to Jrank.org, that partnership did not last long, and by the next year, Cochran had formed a new firm called Cochran, Atkins & Evans.
Given his parents' background, it's easy to see what led Cochran to develop his rhetorical and deal-making skills in his adult life . As told by Sun Signs, his father worked as an insurance salesman, and his mother worked as an Avon Lady, selling beauty products. His dining room table was a lesson in negotiation and oratory techniques.
Johnnie Cochran was born on this date in 1937. He was a Black attorney and entrepreneur.
Johnny Cochran, Jr., died on March 29, 2005, at his home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles of an inoperable brain tumor, according to his brother-in-law Bill Baker. His wife and his two sisters were with him at the time of his death.
Although best known to the general public as a criminal defense lawyer, Cochran 's practice consisted primarily of representing plaintiffs in tort actions. Cochran was best known for his role in the "dream team" of legal defense for O.J. Simpson during his highly-publicized murder trial. During his closing arguments in the Simpson trial, he uttered the now-famous enthymeme, "If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit." Cochran was also an attorney in the defense of Sean P. Diddy Combs.
Childhood & Early Life. Johnnie L Cochran, Jr. was born on October 2, 1937, in Shreveport, Louisiana, US in the family of Johnnie L. Cochran Sr. and his wife, Hattie. His father was with ‘Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company’ as an insurance salesman and his mother used to sell products of Avon. His great-grandfather was a slave.
His early celebrity cases included that of comedian Lenny Bruce that landed up in 1964 when the latter was incarcerated with obscenity charges.
Cochran successfully handled the case of Sean Combs who was charged with weapon stealing and bribery in 2001. The following year he told Comb that this case would mark his last criminal case. He took retirement after this and returned other criminal cases including that of Allen Iverson and R. Kelly.
The trial that continued for 11 months with the opening statements being made on January 24, 1995, eventually took shape of a highly publicised and sensational one in history. Its proceedings were televised and followed by millions across the globe. It was dubbed as “trial of the century”.
Years later in 1997 he joined ‘Cochran Cherry Givens & Smith’, and this partnership provided the launching pad for ‘The Cochran Firm’ which eventually expanded as a national law firm with presence in around 15 states.
Cochran played a leadership role in the defence team of lawyers of Simpson and successfully defended the latter in a highly publicised and televised trial that became somewhat of a “trial of the century”.
Of all his cases, Cochran considered winning freedom of Geronimo Pratt in 1997, who was arrested on charges of kidnapping and murder of elementary school teacher Caroline Olsenz and who served 27 years in prison, was the most gratifying moment of his legal career.