On August 30, 1967, the United States Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall for the U.S. Supreme Court by a vote of 69-11. Thus, after almost 200 years, the country had its first African-American Supreme Court Justice. It would be even longer until the first woman, Sandra Day O’Connor, joined the Court in 1981.
Marshall, of course, made history in a number of ways. While on the Court, he sided with the rights of the oppressed, becoming a fighter for equal treatment of all Americans while leading on such issues as his opposition to the death penalty.
The following newsreel footage covers President Lyndon B. Johnson’s nomination of Marshall to the Court.
Regarding the 69-11 Senate vote, twenty Senators abstained and did not vote. The vote took place after what has been called a “heated” debate for six hours, with conservative Senators concerned about Marshall’s “liberal” work for Civil Rights as a lawyer. The eleven “Nay” votes came from southern states: both Alabama Senators, both South Carolina Senators, both Louisiana Senators, and one Senator each from North Carolina (other NC Senator abstaining), Florida (other Florida Senator abstaining), Georgia (other Georgia Senator abstaining), West Virginia, and Mississippi (other Mississippi Senator abstaining).
This short video captures some images and a few short interview excerpts from Senators involved in the nomination process. Early on, you may see New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy next to Marshall, and Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy speaks about the nomination.
Marshall’s fight for equal rights went back long before President Johnson nominated him to the Supreme Court. After becoming chief counsel at the NAACP at the young age of 32, he oversaw many important cases. He also won 29 cases before the Supreme Court, including the landmark 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, where the Court struck down “separate but equal” school segregation.
By all accounts, Marshall also was a decent man and fun to be around, as he often regaled his colleagues with stories of his experiences. I have been reading Gilbert King’s Devil in the Grove
, which recounts a fascinating period where Marshall was involved in a case helping defend four black men accused of a 1949 crime in Florida.
In the following video, Mike Wallace interviews Thurgood Marshall on 60 Minutes. The video is undated, but the conversation and the reference to “President Eisenhower” (and apparently to his 1956 re-election) place it within several years after Brown. I like Marshall’s response to the question about who he voted for, as well as Wallace’s promotion of the game Jotto at the end. Check it out.
A few years back, I caught the HBO one-man show Thurgood, where Laurence Fishburne portrayed the legendary lawyer and jurist. Fishburne does a very good job of capturing various sides of Marshall and his long career, and it is worth tracking down.
Here is the trailer.
Thurgood Marshall remains one of the giants of American history. Although I did not learn about him while I was in grade school or probably even high school, every school child should learn about his life.
Photo: Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States
What is your favorite story about Thurgood Marshall? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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Will Forte used to make me laugh on Saturday Night Live. With a certain goofy look or inflection in his voice, he can crack me up. Even though I grew tired of the repeated “MacGruber” segments on the TV show, when I found myself watching the movie MacGruber he made with Kristin Wiig in 2010, I could not help laughing at some of the ridiculous scenes.
