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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Thurgood Marshall
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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Thurgood Marshall
George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James M. Nabrit, 1954
(1908–1993)
Thurgood Marshall was the great-grandson of a slave and the son of a dining car waiter and a schoolteacher. He was the first African American justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
He studied law at Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C. under Charles Hamilton Houston, who has been credited with transforming Howard into a laboratory for civil rights litigation.
Marshall graduated first in his class from Howard in 1933, and he was drafted by Houston to help with the civil rights battles then being waged by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He first served as special counsel for the NAACP and then as the director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. He was the mastermind behind the litigation strategy that challenged racial oppression in education, housing, transportation, electoral politics, and criminal justice. In one of his most famous cases and victories, he represented Linda Brown in the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) case.
In 1967, President Johnson nominated Marshall to be associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He served in this position until 1991. During his tenure, Marshall was a strong advocate for equal protection of the law. He was an ardent supporter of affirmative action and probably influenced court decisions that upheld the use of affirmative action in some cases. Marshall believed that the Constitution was inherently defective in its acceptance of slavery and gave much credit to those who "refused to acquiesce in outdated notions of 'liberty,' 'justice,' and 'equality,' and who worked to better them. The true miracle of the Constitution was not the birth of the Constitution, but its life."
Thurgood Marshall after being appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, 1967
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) was founded in 1940 under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall . Although LDF's primary purpose was to provide legal assistance to poor African Americans, its work over the years has brought greater justice to all Americans.
LDF was originally affiliated with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), but it has been an entirely separate organization since 1957. It has a national office in New York and regional offices in Washington, DC and Los Angeles. Its nearly two dozen staff lawyers are assisted by hundreds of cooperating attorneys across the nation.
LDF has been involved in more cases before the U.S. Supreme Court than any organization except the U.S. Department of Justice. It has more than 100 cases on its docket, one of the largest legal loads of any public-service organization. Its main program areas are education, civic participation, economic access, affirmative action, and criminal justice. Although LDF works primarily through the courts, its strategies include advocacy, educational outreach, legislation monitoring, coalition building and policy research. Additionally, it provides scholarships for exceptional African-American students.
By sharing its legal and functional expertise, LDF has been instrumental in the formation of similar organizations serving other minority constituencies in the United States. It also has been involved in the global campaign for human rights by assisting in the creation of public interest legal organizations in South Africa, Canada and Brazil.
Some key points in LDF's history: - In addition to its landmark Brown v. Board of Education victory, during the 1950s LDF won many important cases that barred discrimination in housing, voting access and jury selection, and the use of forced confessions and denial of counsel.
- Since the 1950s, LDF has been engaged in a monumental effort to enforce the desegregation orders placed on numerous school districts throughout the country.
- During the civil rights protests of the 1960s, LDF was the legal arm of the freedom movement. It represented and provided counsel for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and countless demonstrators. It took 45 of these cases to the Supreme Court, and won nearly all of them.
- Since the 1960s, LDF has been at the forefront of the effort to abolish the death penalty. It furnished counsel in the cases that stopped all executions in the nation for a dozen years after 1965.
- Through hundreds of class-action suits against employers, unions and government at all levels, LDF has helped secure jobs and job rights for tens of thousands of citizens confronted by unfair employment practices.
- LDF has participated in every important Supreme Court case on the issue of voting rights. Rulings in such cases have invalidated restrictions on the right of blacks to vote in primary elections; upheld the right of minority voters to cast write-in ballots and to affits challenges.
All of this work, and much more, proceeds because LDF continues to believe in the right of every individual to equal justice.
A number of national organizations also support the advancement of civil and human rights through education and advocacy. LDF is pleased to provide links to their sites. A. Philip Randolph Institute
Affirmative Action and Diversity Project
African Methodist Episcopal Church
Alliance for Justice
American Association for Affirmative Action
American Baptist Churches, USA-National Ministries
American Bar Association
American Civil Liberties Union
American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations/Dept. Of Civil Rights
Americans for Democratic Action
Americas Charities
Artists Against Racism
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
Asian American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Associated Black Charities
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Medal History
