· The list below are of cases between 1943-1961, brought before the Supreme Court of the United States by the NAACP or the Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., in which Thurgood Marshall argued the case. These are arranged in chronological order by the dates the Supreme Court decided the case. Cases Argued: Adams v. United States, 319 U.S. 312 (1943)
· Thurgood Marshall—perhaps best known as the first African American Supreme Court justice—played an instrumental role in promoting racial equality during the civil rights movement. As a practicing...
· Thurgood Marshall won about 90% of the cases he presented before the U.S. Supreme Court. Marshall famously won 29 out of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court. Examples of the famous cases he argued and won before the Supreme Court of the United States include, Shelly v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948); Sweatt v.
Marshall became one of the nation's leading attorneys. He argued 32 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning 29. Some of his notable cases include: Smith v. Allwright (1944), which found that states could not exclude Black voters from primaries; Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), which struck down race-based restrictive housing covenants; Sweatt v.
Throughout the 1940s and ’50s Marshall distinguished himself as one of the country’s top lawyers, winning 29 of the 32 cases that he argued before the Supreme Court. Among them were cases in which the Court declared unconstitutional a Southern state’s exclusion of African American voters from primary elections ( Smith v.
(Marshall would lose only three of the 32 cases he argued there.) In a 6-to-3 decision that was inexplicable to him, Marshall learned that the court affirmed the conviction, ruling that Lyons' second confession, made hours later, was obtained without coercion.
Marshall founded LDF in 1940 and served as its first Director-Counsel. He was the architect of the legal strategy that ended the country's official policy of segregation and was the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court.
Paul ClementPaul Clement argued the most times with 30 total arguments. Neal Katyal was second with 21 arguments. Jeffrey Fisher had the third most with 18 arguments and Kannon Shanmugam had the fourth most with 15 arguments.
Justice Thurgood MarshallJustice Thurgood Marshall: First African American Supreme Court Justice. On June 13, 1967, President Lyndon B.
Known for his earlier work in helping end legal segregation through the 1954 landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, he once described his judicial approach by simply saying, "You do what you think is right and let the law catch up."
Gerald Leonard Spence (born January 8, 1929) is a semi-retired American trial lawyer. He is a member of the American Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame. Spence has never lost a criminal case either as a prosecutor or a defense attorney, and has not lost a civil case since 1969.
#1 Abraham Lincoln Lincoln represented clients in both civil and criminal matters. In all, Lincoln and his partners handled over 5,000 cases.
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Below, find links to clear, concise descriptions of each case argued by Thurgood Marshall before the Supreme Court of the United States (1943 - 1961), written by Marilyn Howard, Associate Professor, Humanities.
Charles Hamilton Houston, Dean of Howard University's Law School and mentor to Thurgood Marshall. "Marshall credited Houston with teaching him that the practice of law could and should serve as a tool for creating equality in society."
Jack Greenberg, who was part of Thurgood Marshall's legal team of seven lawyers involved in arguing "Brown v. Board of Education" and he took on many other civil rights cases, died in 2016.
As a practicing attorney, Marshall argued a record-breaking 32 cases before the Supreme Court, winning 29 of them. In fact, Marshall represented and won more cases before the high court than any other person.
Life as a Lawyer. In 1935, Marshall’s first major court victory came in Murray v. Pearson, when he, alongside his mentor Houston, successfully sued the University of Maryland for denying a Black applicant admission to its law school because of his race.
Throughout his historic tenure as justice, Marshall developed a reputation as a passionate member of the court who supported expanding civil rights, enacting affirmative action laws and limiting criminal punishment.
In 1967, following the retirement of Justice Tom C. Clark, President Johnson appointed Marshall, the first Black justice, to the U.S. Supreme Court, proclaiming it was “the right thing to do, the right time to do it, and the right man and the right place.”
Supreme Court Appointment. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals, and in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson made him the first Black Solicitor General. It was clear the successful attorney was well on his way to making a case for a Supreme Court nomination.
Personally, Marshall suffered a great loss when Vivian, his wife of 25 years, died of cancer in 1955. Shortly after her death, Marshall married Cecilia Suyat, and the couple went on to have two sons together.
Chambers v. Florida (1940): Marshall successfully defended four convicted Black men who were coerced by police into confessing to murder. Smith v. Allwright (1944): In this decision, the Supreme Court overturned a Texas state law that authorized the use of whites-only primary elections in certain Southern states.
Marshall famously argued numerous cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. The most famous of those cases was Brown v. Board of Education in 1940. Thurgood Marshall served on the bench of our nation’s highest court (the U.S. Supreme Court) from October 1967 to October 1991.
Thurgood Marshall in 1957. Prior to his appointment to the position of associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Thurgood Marshall made huge waves as a civil rights activist/lawyer. Marshall famously argued numerous cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Marshall ’s meteoric rise did not end as a Solicitor General. In 1967, he etched his name in the annals of history as he became the first African American to serve on the bench of the US Supreme Court. Marshall replaced Justice Tom C. Clark.
First African American to become Solicitor General of the United States. As a result of his stellar performances and arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, Marshall’s status among the African American communities and the U.S. in general was very high.
Fergusson (1896) which held the doctrine of “separate but equal”. Thurgood Marshall won Smith v. Allwright, 339 U.S. 649 (1944) This case was in relation to voting rights for blacks.
Kind courtesy to his arguments, the court arrived at a unanimous decision (9-0) and stated that segregation in public schools, regardless of whether the facilities were the same in the segregated schools, resulted in inherently unequal quality.
It was a huge case which caused considerable amount of racial tension in the United States. Marshall was at the heart of it all from start to finish.
Patricia Daniels. Updated January 23, 2020. Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908–January 24, 1993), whose great-grandparents were enslaved, was the first Black justice appointed to the United States Supreme Court, where he served from 1967 to 1991. Earlier in his career, Marshall was a pioneering civil rights attorney who successfully argued ...
Fast Facts: Thurgood Marshall 1 Known For: First Black Supreme Court justice, landmark civil rights lawyer 2 Also Known As: Thoroughgood Marshall, Great Dissenter 3 Born: July 2, 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland 4 Parents: William Canfield Marshall, Norma Arica 5 Died: January 24, 1993 in Bethesda, Maryland 6 Education: Lincoln University, Pennsylvania (BA), Howard University (LLB) 7 Published Works: Thurgood Marshall: His Speeches, Writings, Arguments, Opinions, and Reminiscences (The Library of Black America series) (2001) 8 Awards and Honors: The Thurgood Marshall Award, established in 1992 by the American Bar Association, is presented annually to a recipient to recognize "long-term contributions by members of the legal profession to the advancement of civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights in the United States," the ABA says. Marshall received the inaugural award in 1992. 9 Spouse (s): Cecilia Suyat Marshall (m. 1955–1993), Vivian Burey Marshall (m. 1929–1955) 10 Children: John W. Marshall, Thurgood Marshall, Jr. 11 Notable Quote: "It is interesting to me that the very people...that would object to sending their white children to school with Negroes are eating food that has been prepared, served, and almost put in their mouths by the mothers of those children."
Soon, Marshall began taking cases for the NAACP and was hired as part-time legal counsel in 1935. As his reputation grew, Marshall became known not only for his skill as a lawyer but also for his bawdy sense of humor and love of storytelling. In the late 1930s, Marshall represented Black teachers in Maryland who were receiving only half the pay that White teachers earned. Marshall won equal-pay agreements in nine Maryland school boards and in 1939, convincing a federal court to declare unequal salaries for public school teachers unconstitutional.
Marshall became increasingly active in the local NAACP, recruiting new members for its Baltimore branch. Because he was well-educated, light-skinned, and dressed well, however, he sometimes found it difficult to find common ground with some of the other Black members. Some felt Marshall had an appearance closer to that of a White man than to one of their own race. But Marshall's down-to-earth personality and easy communication style helped to win over many new members.
It did not help that Marshall opened his practice in the midst of the Great Depression .
Marshall and his wife lived with his parents in Baltimore to save money. Marshall commuted by train to Washington every day and worked three part-time jobs to make ends meet. Marshall's hard work paid off. He rose to the top of the class in his first year and won the plum job of an assistant in the law school library. There, he worked closely with the man who became his mentor, law school dean Charles Hamilton Houston.
After graduating from Lincoln in 1930, Marshall enrolled at Howard University Law School, a historically Black college in Washington, D.C., where his brother Aubrey was attending medical school. Marshall's first choice had been the University of Maryland Law School, but he was refused admission because of his race.
Marshall became one of the nation's leading attorneys. He argued 32 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning 29. Some of his notable cases include: Smith v. Allwright (1944), which found that states could not exclude Black voters from primaries. Shelley v.
Marshall's most famous case was the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case in which Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren noted, "in the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.".
His mission was equal justice for all. Marshall used the power of the courts to fight racism and discrimination, tear down Jim Crow segregation, change the status quo, and make life better for the most vulnerable in our nation.
President John F. Kennedy nominated Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1961. Four years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson named Marshall U.S. solicitor general and on Aug. 30, 1967, Marshall was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and joined the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first Black justice.
After graduating from Howard, one of Marshall's first legal cases was against the University of Maryland Law School in the 1935 case Murray v. Pearson. Working with his mentor Charles Hamilton Houston, Marshall sued the school for denying admission to Black applicants solely on the basis of race.
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Marshall graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1930. He applied to the University of Maryland Law School but was rejected because he was Black. Marshall received his law degree from Howard University Law School in 1933, graduating first in his class.
Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood Marshall was a civil rights lawyer who used the courts to fight Jim Crow and dismantle segregation in the U.S. Marshall was a towering figure who became the nation's first Black United States Supreme Court Justice.
Throughout the 1940s and ’50s Marshall distinguished himself as one of the country’s top lawyers, winning 29 of the 32 cases that he argued before the Supreme Court. Among them were cases in which the Court declared unconstitutional a Southern state’s exclusion of African American voters from primary elections ( Smith v.
Thurgood Marshall, originally Thoroughgood Marshall, (born July 2, 1908, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.—died January 24, 1993, Bethesda), lawyer, civil rights activist, and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1967–91) , the Court’s first African American member. As an attorney, he successfully argued before the Court the case of Brown v.
no. LC-USZC6-26) During Marshall’s tenure on the Supreme Court, he was a steadfast liberal, stressing the need for equitable and just treatment of the country’s minorities by the state and federal governments.
Ferguson [1896]), but it was Marshall’s reliance on psychological, sociological, and historical data that presumably sensitized the Court to the deleterious effects of institutionalized segregation on the self-image, social worth, and social progress of African American children. Brown v.
Indeed, students of constitutional law still examine the oral arguments of the case and the ultimate decision of the Court from both a legal and a political perspective; legally, Marshall argued that segregation in public education produced unequal schools for African Americans and whites (a key element in the strategy to have the Court overrule the “separate but equal” doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson [1896]), but it was Marshall’s reliance on psychological, sociological, and historical data that presumably sensitized the Court to the deleterious effects of institutionalized segregation on the self-image, social worth, and social progress of African American children.
Upon his graduation from Howard, Marshall began the private practice of law in Baltimore. Among his first legal victories was Murray v. Pearson (1935), a suit accusing the University of Maryland of violating the Fourteenth Amendment ’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws by denying an African American applicant admission to its law school solely on the basis of race. In 1936 Marshall became a staff lawyer under Houston for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); in 1938 he became the lead chair in the legal office of the NAACP, and two years later he was named chief of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
After being rejected by the University of Maryland Law School because he was not white, Marshall attended Howard University Law School; he received his degree in 1933, ranking first in his class.
He served as Associate Justice from 1967-1991 after being nominated by President Johnson. Marshall retired from the bench in 1991 and passed away on January 24, 1993, in Washington D.C. at the age of 84. Civil rights and social change came about through meticulous and persistent litigation efforts, at the forefront of which stood Thurgood Marshall ...
In 1961, President Kennedy nominated Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in which he wrote 112 opinions, none of which were overturned on appeal. Four years later, he was appointed by President Johnson to be solicitor general, and in 1967 President Johnson nominated him to the Supreme Court to which he commented: “I have a lifetime appointment and I intend to serve it. I expect to die at 110, shot by a jealous husband.” On the appointment, President Johnson later said that Marshall’s nomination was “the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place.”
Marshall’s status as a pillar of the Civil Rights Movement is confirmed and upheld by LDF and other organizations that strive to uphold the principles of civil rights and racial justice. His legacy cannot be overstated: he worked diligently and tirelessly to end what was America’s official doctrine of separate-but-equal.
Among Marshall’s salient majority opinions for the Supreme Court were: Amalgamated Food Employees Union v. Logan Valley Plaza, in 1968, which determined that a mall was “public forum” and unable to exclude picketers; Stanley v. Georgia, in 1969, held that pornography, when owned privately, could not be prosecuted.
To fail to do so is to ensure that America will forever remain a divided society.”. In particular, Marshall fervently dissented in cases in which the Supreme Court upheld death sentences; he wrote over 150 opinions dissenting from cases in which the Court refused to hear death penalty appeals.
On the appointment, President Johnson later said that Marshall’s nomination was “the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place.”.
After founding the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1940, Marshall became the key strategist in the effort to end racial segregation, in particular meticulously challenging Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court-sanctioned legal doctrine that called for “separate but equal” structures for white and Black people. Marshall won a series of court decisions that gradually struck down that doctrine, ultimately leading to Brown v. Board of Education, which he argued before the Supreme Court in 1952 and 1953, finally overturning “separate but equal” and acknowledging that segregation greatly diminished students’ self-esteem. Asked by Justice Felix Frankfurter during the argument what he meant by “equal,” Mr. Marshall replied, “Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time, and in the same place.
Marshall prevailed in 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court. President John F. Kennedy nominated Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1961. President Lyndon Baines Johnson appointed him solicitor general in 1965 (the first African-American to hold this position).
As soon as he graduated, Marshall opened a law office in Baltimore, and the following year he represented the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in a suit challenging the University of Maryland Law School's policy of segregation.
The resulting Court decision overturned the Plessy doctrine of "separate but equal," agreeing that students' self-esteem was harmed by the mere fact of segregation. While the decision applied only to segregation in public education, it set the stage for the civil rights movement.
Justice Clark resigned from the Court to avoid conflicts of interest, and the president appointed Marshall to fill his seat. Marshall is said to have remarked, "I have a lifetime appointment and I intend to serve it. I expect to die at 110, shot by a jealous husband.".
This ultimately led to the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, which Marshall successfully argued before the Supreme Court in 1952 and again in 1953.
He remained with the NAACP for a total of 25 years and served as its key strategist in the legal effort to end racial segregation throughout American society.
His mother was a school teacher. Marshall graduated from Lincoln University in 1930 and applied to University of Maryland Law School but was turned down because of his race. He then attended Howard University Law School, though his mother had to pawn her wedding and engagement rings to pay the tuition.