Thurgood Marshall and the Central High Crisis

Official portrait of the U.S. Supreme Court: Justice Thurgood Marshall

Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.

Quick Facts

Significance:

Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer and civil rights activist who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court's first African American justice. Prior to his judicial service, he successfully argued several cases before the Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

Place of Birth:

Baltimore, MD

Date of Birth:

July 2, 1908

Place of Death:

Bethesda, MD

Date of Death:

January 24, 1993

Place of Burial:

Arlington County, VA

Cemetery Name:

Arlington National Cemetery

One of the most powerful leaders to emerge during the early days of the U.S. civil rights movement, Thurgood Marshall was at the forefront of many legal battles for racial equality including the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, and influential in key moments during the Little Rock desegregation crisis. 

Born in 1908 in Baltimore, Marshall pursued his undergraduate studies at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania alongside Cab Calloway and Langston Hughes. Hughes later said that Marshall was “rough and ready, loud and wrong.” Barred by a segregated admissions policy from attending the University of Maryland Law School, Marshall instead attended Howard University Law School and was the valedictorian of his graduating class. While at Howard, his views on discrimination were heavily influenced by the Dean of the Law School and his mentor, Charles Hamilton Houston.

Following graduation, Marshall opened his own private law practice in Baltimore. In 1936, he became a staff lawyer alongside Houston for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Two years later, Marshall became the lead chair in the legal office of the NAACP; by 1940, he was the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). While Marshall would argue many critical lawsuits on behalf of the NAACP LDF (Smith v. Allwright, Shelley v. Kramer, Sweatt v. Painter, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents), his most significant victory would come with the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.

Brown argued that the Supreme Court decision, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), could not be applied toward public schools because “separate educational facilities” were “inherently unequal.” His involvement in this case would eventually bring Marshall to Little Rock in 1957 after Governor Orval Faubus attempted to defy federal law by prohibiting integration of Central High School.

On September 20, 1957, Marshall and attorney Wiley Branton appeared in Little Rock before US District Judge Ronald Davies requesting an injunction against Governor Faubus' use of troops to prevent integration. The injunction was granted - three days later, the Little Rock Nine would make a second attempt to integrate Central High School.

In 1958, the Little Rock School Board requested permission to delay their original plan of gradual integration by 30 months and asked to be relieved of the burden of desegregation until the U.S. Supreme Court better defines "all deliberate speed," as specified in Brown v. Board of Education II (1955). In response, Marshall represented the families of Little Rock seeking a stay of this delay in this case, Cooper v. Aaron. In a rare decision, the US Supreme Court issued a joint opinion authored by all nine justices. The Court stated that while they felt the Little Rock School Board had acted in good faith, the problems in the state of Arkansas had stemmed from the state government. The Court ultimately ruled it was unconstitutional to allow the delay under the Equal Protection Clause. Ultimately, Governor Faubus - buoyed by the results of a local vote to determine integration's immediate future - closed the four public high schools in the city of Little Rock; this one-year cessation of education is known now as the Lost Year. 

Further, the court ruled that since the Supremacy Clause of Article VI of the Constitution and the 1803 decision Marbury v. Madison meant that the Supreme Court was the final interpreter of the Constitution, then that meant the earlier Brown decision was the supreme law of the land and thus was binding in all states, despite state laws that may exist to contradict the ruling. This subsequently led to the court rejecting the doctrines of nullification and interposition.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; four years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson named Marshall as Solicitor General – making him at the time that the highest ranking African American government official in the US. Perhaps the most significant moment of Marshall’s career and contribution to US history occurred in 1967; in a 69-11 vote, Thurgood Marshall became the 96th justice appointed to the United States Supreme Court and the first African American to serve in this capacity.

Thurgood Marshall served on the Supreme Court for 24 years. In 1987, he famously generated controversy during the bicentennial celebration of the US Constitution with these statements:

“The government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights we hold as fundamental today.”

“Some may more quietly commemorate the suffering, struggle and sacrifice that has triumphed over much of what was wrong with the original document and observe the anniversary with hopes not realized and promises not fulfilled. I plan to celebrate the bicentennial of the Constitution as a living document, including the Bill of Rights and other amendments protecting individual freedoms and human rights.”

Citing poor health, Marshall retired from the US Supreme Court in 1991. He died in 1993 at age 84 in Bethesda, Maryland. Thurgood Marshall – “Mr. Civil Rights” - was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery and was survived by his second wife Cecilia and their two sons.