Thurgood Marshall, serving on the Supreme Court of the United States, was one of the prominent American jurists who played a pivotal role in shaping the history of civil rights in America. Being one of the start buttons for civil rights movement in the country, his influence is still felt to date (Gibson, 5). Thurgood served for twenty-four years then retired in 1991 because of old age and deteriorating health. He passed away on January24, 1993 being eighty-five years of age. Through the legal processes, Justice Thurgood eliminated the legacies of racism and segregation, which was even more instrumental in the civil rights revolution than the efforts of the other activists during the 20th century.
In his career as a legal expert, Thurgood had many accomplishments. In collaboration with his mentor, Charles Hamilton, Thurgood strived to come up with appropriate ways of eradicating racial practices at the institutions of learning (Frost and Marshal, 17; Feldman, 34). The two intended to commence their work on the graduate and professional schools since they thought that the judges would assist them. After this, they had plans to shift their focus on the elementary and high schools. These efforts bore fruit during the case of Brown vs. The Board of Education in 1954 in which the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of schools was against the law (Haugen, 9). During this time, Thurgood was a sought-after advocate of the Supreme Court who argued his cases before the Court in a candid, straightforward and characteristic style.
In 1940, when he was only thirty-two years of age, Thurgood won the first United States Supreme Court case, Chambers v. Florida, and that same year, he was appointed the Chief Counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He held this position up to 1961 and he assisted the organization in meeting one of its prime objectives: eliminating racial practices in the U.S. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed him to the Court of Appeals. However, he only managed to work for the initial several weeks by virtue of a congressional recess appointment when some of the legislators slowed down his affirmation. Thurgood served in the court up to 1965. From 1965, “he served as the Solicitor General under President Lyndon B. Johnson, and after the retirement of Justice Tom C. Clark in 1967, he was duly appointed to the Supreme Court” (Nazel, 157). He became the first African American to hold that position, and out of the 32 cases he argued before the body, he managed to be triumphant in 29 of them(Monroe, 4).
The success of Thurgood’s work was based on his belief that integration would permit the rights of every American to be protected. Although he fought for the rights of African Americans, he also succeeded in establishing the framework of individual rights that allowed the protections of the rights of all U.S. citizens. Justice Thurgood was successful in establishing the protections under the constitution for women, children, and the prisoners, and even the media can thank him for his assistance in expanding its liberties. Besides his success in the fields of civil rights and criminal procedure, Thurgood also played a role in the development of other areas of the law such as the formulation of the standard of materiality in the U.S. securities law and advocating for equal employment opportunities for veterans and non-veterans. Due to his unique perspective of the rule of law, Thurgood made significant contributions that has shaped today’s racial landscape.
Works cited
Feldman, Ruth T. Thurgood Marshall. Minneapolis : Lerner Publications, 2001. Print.
Frost, Helen, and Marshall, Thurgood. Thurgood Marshall. Mankato, Minn.: Pebble Books, 2003. Print.
Gibson, Karen B. Thurgood Marshall: a photo-illustrated biography. Mankato, Minn.: Bridgestone Books, 2002. Print.
Haugen, Brenda. Thurgood Marshall: civil rights lawyer and Supreme Court Justice. Minneapolis, Minn.: Compass Point Books, 2007. Print.
Monroe, Judy P. Thurgood Marshall: civil rights champion. Mankato, Minn.: Capstone Press, 2006. Print.
Nazel, Joseph. Thurgood Marshall : supreme court justice. Los Angeles: Melrose Square Pub., 1993. Print.