This large book rescues one of the great voices of the civil
rights movement – Thurgood Marshall – who fought for civil rights in the
difficult decades before Martin Luther King and before he became the first
African American on the Supreme Court.
The book, however, is not about the Supreme Court, but rather about the
civil rights lawyer who worked tirelessly to pursue injustice.
“For twenty years before King assumed leadership of the
Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, Thurgood Marshall, the young NAACP attorney
known to everyday blacks as “Mr. Civil Rights,” struggling day and night
against racial discrimination and segregation in schools, transportation, the
military, businesses, voting booths, courtrooms, and neighborhoods.”
This book is a unique biography, a collection of letters
rather than a narrative that tries to collect all aspects of his life. In this way we learn about the complex and
horrible aspects of segregation – bias and the many ways that this infection
poisoned the country – from the KKK to Bull Connors, this was a black eye on
the nation and Marshall was strong, outspoken, and effective.
“Marshall firmly believed that deep integration would never
happen until blacks and whites could not only study and work together but also
live together as neighbors.”
His battles were serious issues that set a precedent for our
generation. It is hard to believe that
“Baltimore County maintains, according to its annual report, twelve high
schools designated “white high.” There
were no high schools available to Negroes.
It was the time of lynching and Marshall in continually
frustrating correspondence with his Maryland representative – “When the
officers of the state either act on behalf of the mob or fail to use reasonable
means to prevent them from acting, as was done in the lynching of Claude Neal
in Florida; when daily newspapers told of the proposed outrage and invited all
to attend; and when after the lynching was over, the lawless element with the
sanction of the officials of the state continued to spew their venomous wrath
upon the innocent, law-abiding tax-paying Negro citizens; and when after all
this the state officials, despite numerous requests from individuals and
organizations all over the country refused to act – how in the name of justice
and decency can anyone talk of protecting the rights of such a state when it
has forfeited all rights to be classed as a state because of open treason and
rebellion?”
The book begins during WWII when thousands of African
American men were serving and dying for a country that was tearing down their
homes for urban renewal, but refusing to let them live in the “white
neighborhoods”. The injustices are
amazing and even though it still there during my school years, I find that I am
still overwhelmed and shocked by the base of racism that has still not been
eliminated within our nation.
The fact that this book is a collection of Marshall’s
correspondence gives us a rare glimpse into his tone, frustration and eloquence. He is a man worth meeting and I really
believe his statue deserves to stand beside Martin Luther King.
“WELL OLD BUZZARD TUREAUD.
YOU ARE AT IT AGAIN. YOU KEPT
QUIET FOR AWHILE AND THEN YOU CAME ALIVE.
BETTER GET BACK IN YOUR SHELL.
THERE IS A NICE ALLIGATOR IN A SWAMP THAT WOULD MAKE A GOOD MEAL OUT OF
YOU. I LOOKED RIGHT IN YOUR FACE THE
OTHER DAY. I CAN PUT MY HANDS ON YOUR
SHOULDER ANY HOUR OF THE DAY OR NIGHT.
YOU WILL NOT BE HARD TO PICK UP, ALSO TELL YOUR FRIEND KANGAROO THURGOOD
MARSHALL TO GO BACK HOME BEFORE OUR TEXAS BRANCH GETS ANGRY AND DUMPS HIM IN A
SHARK HOLE. BEWARD!!! LAST WARNING. STAY
QUIET AND STAY OUT OF THE LIMELIGHT IF YOU BOTH WANT TO LIVE. WE ARE WELL ORGANIZED IN NEW ORLEANS AND THE
HOUR IS NOT FAR FOR US TO STRIKE. SOME
WHITE TRASH WILL BE PICKED UP WHO HAVE BEEN STURRING THINGS UP. KKK
It was Brown Versus Topeka that is the best known of the
many legal issues that Marshall was involved in, but that victory was prepared
by all the work that preceded it and the final victory still had to be fought
to implement the victory. Marshall had
to do this with the death of his wife coming shortly after the verdict.
It would also have been easier if Truman had still been
president. Through this book I learned
that Truman had really been important to the Negro cause and Eisenhower went
back to the old take your time approach that favored the southerners. It would seem that John Adams, William
Harrison, Abraham Lincoln and Truman were the best advocates for the Blacks that
held the oval office. TR brought in
Booker T Washington to the white house and was castigated for doing what he
thought was right, but the other four exceeded his act of defiance and
indignation.
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