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How Did Thurgood Marshall Influence The Modern African American Movement

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Thurgood Marshall was an eminent lawyer and civil rights advocate who was also the first African American to sit on the US Supreme Court. During the modern African American struggle, he devoted his life to opposing segregation and injustice in America. Midway through the 19th century, the modern African-American movement was a time of intense dedication to bringing forth equality in America. While the way people of color are treated has changed as a result of Marshall's efforts, the fight for civil rights is still ongoing, as can be seen by examining the contemporary African-American movement.
Boycotts, sit-ins, and protests were just a few instances of the civil disobedience that defined the Modern African American Movement. The goal to eradicate …show more content…

As noted in Ruth Bader Ginsburg's entry in the Encyclopedia of World Biography, Marshall's work helped create a legacy of outspokenness that has continued to this day. The legacy of Marshall's work is still being felt today in the efforts of aspiring judges and attorneys who continue to fight for justice in the courts. Former Supreme Court Judge and feminist icon Ginsburg frequently cited Marshall as having a significant effect on her writing. Like Marshall, Ginsburg understood that legal victories were essential for promoting social change. She recognized that the struggle for women's rights and civil rights correlate and fought to ensure that women received equal protection under the law. One of the many examples where this is evident throughout her career is when Ginsburg went on to argue several other important gender discrimination cases, including Frontiero v. Richardson, which challenged a law that prevented female military spouses from receiving the same benefits as male spouses, and United States v. Virginia, which challenged the Virginia Military Institute's male-only admission policy. Marshall and Ginsburg's legacies highlight the importance of intersectionality in social movements (The Encyclopedia of World Biography). The fights for justice and equality led by the Civil Rights Movement and the Women's Rights …show more content…

Marshall grew up in Baltimore, a city that was deeply segregated, with African Americans living in crowded and impoverished neighborhoods while whites lived in more affluent areas. The discrimination that Marshall experienced firsthand in his community undoubtedly fueled his passion for justice and equality (Rothstein). Sam Kling mentions in his book that Marshall's upbringing in Baltimore gave him a better understanding of the devastating repercussions of segregation and prejudice against communities of color. Marshall was a great civil rights champion who was able to overthrow America's long-standing systems of discrimination and segregation thanks to his personal experiences and legal education. Marshall's legacy continues to inspire people today to fight for justice and equality in their communities, and his example shows us that it is possible to make positive change, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges

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Thurgood Marshall was born on July 2, 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland and died on January 24, 1993 in Bethesda, Maryland. He was a famous African-American lawyer who started working for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1933. While working for the NAACP for twenty-five years, he argued many important cases in front of the Supreme Court against discrimination of African-Americans. Some say Marshall helped to start the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. (Thurgood Marshall was an important figure during the civil rights era because he won the famous case, Brown v. Board of Education, ending racial segregation in public schools and he became the first African-American Supreme Court justice.)

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Ruth Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor both struggled to be able to become judges and over came many challenges to achieve their goals. Ruth Ginsburg struggled trying to become a judge; she was constantly turned down jobs but she kept pushing for what she wanted and got there. Sonia Sotomayor faced many challenges growing up, but with new technology it made her challenges easier and became who she is today. Ruth Ginsburg had to overcome discrimination to achieve what she hoped for. In the text "Ruth Bader Ginsburg" it states, "She was only one of nine women in a class of 600 law students in the late 1950s at Harvard.

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Lyndon B. Johnson on Aug. 30, 1967 . He would later go to fight many times for civil rights before he retired and died of a heart failure. He will go down in history for declaring segregation in schools unconstitutional (naacp.com). Did you know that during the civil rights movement “The civil rights movement was a struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States” It was led by Martin Luther King Jr.

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Thurgood Marshall was the first African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Ccourt. Thurgood Marshall was known “Mr. Civil Rights” because of his court battles against racism and segregation. HeThurgood Marshall was also known as the greatest civil rights lawyer of all time. Thurgood Marshall also lead the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954, in which the cCourt ruled that segregation in the public schools is prohibited by the constitution. Marshall also created the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) legal defense and eEducational fund.

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During the zenith of the Civil Rights Movement, Thurgood Marshall pushed for equal rights for all. Born to a railroad porter and a teacher in Baltimore, Thurgood Marshall became one of the most revered figures in American history for his vehemence for equality. Throughout his career as legal counsel for the for the NAACP, he guided the litigation that helped destroy the legal foundation of segregation under the Jim Crow Laws. In addition, he became the first African American Supreme Court justice: an emblem of social change. He deviated from social norms at the time by having an untiring willingness to dissent, as Thurgood Marshall argued thirty-two cases before the United States Supreme Court; many of such cases became landmark cases for the

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Nevertheless, Chief Justice John Marshall, through his genius was able bring the judicial branch on par with the legislative and executive branches with the self-imposed power of judicial review. With a masterful legal opinion in the Marbury case, Marshall created a system of common law review, which set the legal standard for future cases like Dred Scott v. Sanford and Brown v. Board of Education (O’Brien 167). The outcome of these cases has impacted the lives of Americans over the years. People’s will and desire has evolved over time, from a racially structured society in the 1800’s to the civil rights movement of the 1950’s. The moral views of Americans have changed over time, with a positive collective will.

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The Civil Rights Movement, which was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, was a time period in which African Americans fought to secure equal opportunities and access for basic rights and privileges in the US, nationally and locally. Some ways they attempted this was through negotiations, nonviolent protests and petitions (Civil Rights Movement: An Overview). People also tried to take legal course of action and one prominent figure in this aspect of the Civil Rights Movement was Thurgood Marshall. He was the first African American associate justice in the US Supreme Court and was the legal counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP. He did not conform to the formalities of law and was driven by his strong

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In 1909, the NAACP started its legacy of fighting legal battles to win social justice for African-Americans. The most significant of these battles were won under the leadership of Charles Hamilton Houston and his student, Thurgood Marshall. Nathan Margold found that, the facilities provided for blacks were always separate, but never equal to the facilities provided for whites, violating Plessy’s “separate but equal” principle. Thurgood Marshall continued the Association’s legal campaign, and during the mid-1940s, in Smith v. Allwright, Marshall successfully challenged the “white primaries,” which prevented African Americans from casting a vote in several southern states. In 1946 Thurgood Marshall also won a case in which the Supreme Court ended

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