專八人文知識需知的美國名人--瑟古德.馬歇爾
民權(quán)革命推動者Thurgood Marshall
生于: 1908年7月2日
死于: 1993年1月24日
瑟古德.馬歇爾是第一位擔任美國最高法院大法官的非裔美國人，他從1967年開始在最高法院服務(wù)、直到1991年退休為止;在任此職之前，馬歇爾擔任「全國有色人種協(xié)進會」(NAACP)的律師，協(xié)助1954年廢除種族隔離政策的案件 -「布朗控訴投陴卡教育局案」(Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,Kansas) - 贏得勝訴;他終其一生都致力于運用法律爭取公民權(quán)和社會正義。
瑟古德.馬歇爾是美國20世紀的一位英雄：他承接并勝訴的"布朗訴教育委員會案"導致美國廢除了種族隔離法。他后來成為美國最高法院法官，始終致力于增進包括少數(shù)族裔、婦女和移民在內(nèi)的全體美國人的權(quán)利。
Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American jurist and the first AfricanAmerican to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Before becoming a judge, he was alawyer who was best remembered for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Courtand for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education. He was nominated to the court by PresidentLyndon Johnson in 1967.
Early life
Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 2, 1908, the great-grandson of a slave. His originalname was Thoroughgood, but he shortened it to Thurgood in second grade because he dislikedspelling it. His father, William Marshall, who was a railroad porter, instilled in him an appreciation forthe Constitution of the United States and the rule of law.[2] Additionally, as a child in Baltimore, hewas punished for his school misbehavior by being forced to write copies of the Constitution, whichhe later said piqued his interest in the document.
Marshall was married twice; to Vivian "Buster" Burey from 1929 until her death in February 1955and to Cecilia Suyat from December 1955 until his own death in 1993. He had two sons from hissecond marriage;[3] Thurgood Marshall, Jr., who is a former top aide to President Bill Clinton, andJohn W. Marshall, who is a former United States Marshals Service Director and since 2002 hasserved as Virginia Secretary of Public Safety under Governors Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.
Law career
Marshall received his law degree from the Howard University School of Law in 1933 where hegraduated first in his class.[4] He then set up a private practice in Baltimore. The following year, hebegan working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) inBaltimore. He won his first major civil rights case, Murray v. Pearson, 169 Md. 478 (1936). Thisinvolved the first attempt to chip away at the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, a plan created by hisco-counsel on the case Charles Hamilton Houston. Marshall represented Donald Gaines Murray, ablack Amherst College graduate with excellent credentials who had been denied admission to theUniversity of Maryland Law School because of its separate but equal policies. This policy requiredblack students to accept one of three options, attend: Morgan College, the Princess AnneAcademy, or out-of-state black institutions. In 1935, Thurgood Marshall argued the case forMurray, showing that neither of the in-state institutions offered a law school and that such schoolswere entirely unequal to the University of Maryland. Marshall and Houston expected to lose andintended to appeal to the federal courts. However, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled against thestate of Maryland and its Attorney General, who represented the University of Maryland, stating"Compliance with the Constitution cannot be deferred at the will of the state. Whatever system isadopted for legal education now must furnish equality of treatment now". While it was a moralvictory, the ruling had no real authority outside the state of Maryland.
Thurgood Marshall Award
The Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico instituted[19] in 1993 the annual Thurgood MarshallAward, given to the top student in civil rights at each of Puerto Rico's four law schools. Theawardees are selected by the United States territory's Attorney General and includes a $500monetary award.
Death and legacy
Marshall died of heart failure at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, at 2:58p.m. on January 24, 1993 at the age of 84. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.His secondwife and their two sons survived him.
Marshall left all of his personal papers and notes to the Library of Congress. The Librarian ofCongress, James H. Billington, opened Marshall's papers for immediate use by scholars, journalistsand the public, insisting that this was Marshall's intent. The Marshall family and several of his closeassociates disputed this claim.[14] The decision to make the documents public was supported bythe American Library Association. A list of the archived manuscripts is available.
There are numerous memorials to Justice Marshall. One is near the Maryland State House. Theprimary office building for the federal court system, located on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., isnamed in honor of Justice Marshall and contains a statue of him in the atrium. In 1976, TexasSouthern University renamed their law school after the sitting justice.[17] In 1980, the Universityof Maryland School of Law opened a new library which they named the Thurgood Marshall LawLibrary.[18] In 2000, the historic Twelfth Street YMCA Building located in the Shaw neighborhoodof Washington, D.C. was renamed the Thurgood Marshall Center. The major airport servingBaltimore and the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, was renamed the Baltimore-WashingtonInternational Thurgood Marshall Airport on October 1, 2005.
