Thurgood Marshall

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VOICE ONE:

This is Gwen Outen.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA Special
English. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the
history of the United States. Today we tell about a man who helped
change the racial separation laws of America, Thurgood Marshall.

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VOICE ONE:

Thurgood Marshall was born a free
man. But the father of his grandfather was a slave. He had lived in
what was the Congo area of Africa. A man from the eastern American
city of Baltimore, Maryland, brought him to the United States. He
later set him free.

Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore on July Second,
Nineteen-Oh-Eight. In that city, and in many other parts of the
United States at that time, black people were separated from white
people by law. Black children did not go to school with white
children. Black people lived only in areas where other blacks lived.

VOICE TWO:

Over the years, Thurgood Marshall became a very good
story-teller. He told stories about himself, or about places he had
visited. Often, the stories were funny. But most also had a serious
message.

One story was about being in trouble with his teachers when he
was a boy in Baltimore.

Mister Marshall said one of his teachers punished him by sending
him to the room where the school's heating equipment was kept. There
he was told to read and remember the words of the Constitution of
the United States.

The Constitution is a long document. Thurgood Marshall said he
read all of it...more than once...and learned to remember most of
it.

He said this school boy punishment gave him a life-long respect
for the Constitution. As he grew older, he began to think about the
Constitution's guarantees of freedom. Those guarantees, he believed,
should be for people of all races, not just for white people.

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VOICE ONE:

Thurgood Marshall attended Lincoln
University in the state of Pennsylvania. He completed his studies,
with honors, in nineteen-thirty. He wanted to go to law school at
the University of Maryland. But officials at that school refused to
let him attend, because he was black. So, he went to law school at
Howard University in Washington D.C. Howard University was a school
for African-Americans. Thurgood Marshall graduated first in his
class.

After completing his law studies, he accepted the case of a young
black man who wanted to become a lawyer, too. The young man wanted
to attend the University of Maryland law school. It was the same
school that had refused to admit Thurgood Marshall. Again, the
school refused to let a black man become a student. So, Mister
Marshall took legal action. He won the case. The young black man was
permitted to attend the university's law school.

Thurgood Marshall would go on to win many more cases dealing with
racial separation laws. And years later, the University of Maryland
would name its law library in his honor.

VOICE TWO:

Thurgood Marshall was a very good lawyer. The people he
represented in court were black and poor. He never earned much
money. But his name soon became well known. The National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People offered him a job. He went to
work as one of its legal representatives.

In time, he became the organization's chief legal representative.
He traveled across the United States. He fought against racial
separation laws. He also defended black people who were charged with
a crime, but who did not have the money to pay for legal help.

Many of those cases reached America's highest court, the Supreme
Court of the United States. During his life as a lawyer, Thurgood
Marshall argued cases before the Supreme Court more than thirty
times. He lost only a few cases. Slowly, the laws of racial
separation in America began to change. Many of those changes were
the result of the work of Thurgood Marshall.

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VOICE ONE:

Legal experts say that Thurgood Marshall's most important case
was the one known as "Brown versus Board of Education." The case
involved the city of Topeka in the middle western state of Kansas.

A law there said that having separate schools for black students
and white students was legal, if the schools were the same. It was
the idea of "separate but equal". But the schools were not equal.
White children received a better education than black children.

Thurgood Marshall agreed to argue the case before the Supreme
Court. When newspapers reported this, he began getting messages,
threatening him with death.

Other civil rights lawyers said he was moving too quickly. They
said a defeat in the Brown case would greatly damage the cause of
civil rights. They told him to wait, to move more carefully and
slowly.

VOICE TWO:

Thurgood Marshall did not listen to the threats against his life.
And he did not listen to those who said he should move more slowly.
The Supreme Court heard the case in nineteen-fifty-four. Mister
Marshall said it was a violation of the Constitution to separate
people because of their race.

So, he argued, the racially-separated schools in Topeka, Kansas,
were illegal. He added that nothing could be equal in
racially-separated schools.

One Supreme Court justice asked him to explain what he meant by
the word equal. He answered: "Equal means getting the same thing, at
the same time, and in the same place. The Supreme Court agreed. It
ruled that no one could be rejected from a school in Topeka because
of race.

VOICE ONE:

The case of "Brown versus Board of Education" provided the basis
for other court decisions. It helped destroy the terrible wall of
legal racial separation throughout the United States. Some people
say it is the most important Supreme Court decision of the Twentieth
century.

That decision was the beginning of
years of legal battles against racial separation in America's
schools. It also sent a message to the people of the nation that
black Americans had the same rights as white Americans.

Many African-Americans said Mister Marshall's victory in
nineteen-fifty-four changed their lives and their futures. For
example, Sherman Parks is the former president of the school board
of Topeka, Kansas. He said that without the victory he would never
have had a chance to get a good education and become a lawyer.

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VOICE TWO:

In nineteen-sixty-one, President John Kennedy named Thurgood
Marshall to be a judge of a federal appeals court. During his years
on that court, Judge Marshall wrote more than one-hundred opinions
on different legal issues. Several of his opinions from those days
have been approved as law by a majority of the Supreme Court.

In nineteen-sixty-seven, President Lyndon Johnson nominated
Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. President Johnson said the
nomination was the right thing to do, and the right time to do it.
Thurgood Marshall became the first black person to serve as a
Supreme Court Justice. He served for twenty-four years.

Justice Marshall wrote opinions about legal representation in
America's criminal justice system. He said everyone has the right to
be represented by a good lawyer, no matter how guilty they may be.

In his last years on the Supreme Court, he often voted against
the majority of the more conservative members. Justice Marshall
always voted in dissent in cases in which the majority voted that a
death sentence was legal. He said no one should be put to death for
any reason.

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen-ninety-one, Thurgood Marshall announced that he would
retire from the Supreme Court. Some reports said he no longer wanted
to fight against the conservative majority of the court. At a news
conference, a reporter asked him why he was retiring. Justice
Marshall looked at the man and said, simply: "I am getting old and
coming apart."

Another reporter asked Justice Marshall how he would like to be
remembered. He sat quietly for a moment. Then Thurgood Marshall
said: "I want to be remembered for doing the best I could with what
I had."

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VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by
Lawan Davis. And our studio engineer was Tony Pollock. This is Doug
Johnson.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Gwen Outen. Listen again next week for People in
America in VOA Special English.