Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Thurgood Marshall, 1989.Biographical NoteThurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908-January 24, 1993) was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended Lincoln University and went on to Howard University School of Law where, in 1933, he graduated first in his class. Marshall worked as a lawyer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and successfully argued numerous civil rights cases before the Supreme Court during his time with the organization. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy nominated Marshall to the Second Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals where he remained until 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to be the United States Solicitor General. In 1967, Marshall was nominated and confirmed to serve on the United States Supreme Court as an Associate Justice, a position he held until his retirement in 1991
Scope and ContentsIn the first session of this 1989 interview with Mark Tushnet, Thurgood Marshall discusses: the lasting mystery of the Camp Claiborne rape case (Adams v. United States, 319 U.S. 312) of 1943; the makeup of the American Bar Association (ABA) committee that approved Marshall for the federal Court of Appeals; his near denial by the ABA committee due to his intense focus on civil rights law; Murray v. Pearson; and the Columbia, Tennessee race riots of 1946. He references the influences of: Charles Hamilton Houston, Ulysses Simpson Tate, William Henry Hastie Jr., and Leon Andrew Ransom; especially in their influence in his view on the law as a vehicle for social change.
In the second session, Marshall describes his time in Japan and Korea during WWII investigating reports of racism within military units. He discusses the differences between civilian and military law, the use of drumhead court-martials, and his personal efforts to track down records of these impromptu trials. He discusses the impact of losing the case the State of Texas v. NAACP as well as his memories of Lyons v. the State of Oklahoma. Marshall concludes by referencing those he worked most closely with at the NAACP: Derrick Albert Bell Jr., Robert L. Carter, Jack Greenberg, and Constance Baker Motley
Subjects- African Americans--Civil rights.
- African Americans--Legal status, laws, etc.
- American Bar Association.
- Courts-martial and courts of inquiry--United States.
- Interviews.
- Judges--Interviews.
- Korean War, 1950-1953--Participation, African American.
- Lawyers--Interviews.
- Marshall, Thurgood, 1908-1993--Interviews.
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
- Oral histories (literary works)
- Tushnet, Mark, 1945- interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
- United States--Race relations.
- United States. Supreme Court.
- World War, 1939-1945--Participation, African American.
| |