Thurgood Marshall Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Thurgood Marshall - Research Paper Example Thurgood’s mother, Norma Arica Marshall was a schoolteacher and also the first black woman to graduate from the Colombia Teacher’s College, New York. At the early age of six, he started his schooling in the Douglas High School. He was always known as a B grade average student in his entire school life. In the year 1925, he went to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Thurgood received his law education from the Howard University Law School in Washington D.C. (Pena, â€Å"Thurgood Marshall†). It was also said that by the age of 16, Thurgood had memorized most of the Constitutions of the US, which signified his potentialities to become an influential Justice of the US Supreme Court (United States Postal Service, â€Å"Thurgood Marshall†). THESIS STATEMENT The thesis intends to present a biographic study of the early life, initial career and later professional life of Thurgood, the first African-American Justice of the US Supreme Court. The focus of the thesis also emphasizes the contributions of the Justice in the formation of the Civil Rights as included in the US Constitution and his entire journey throughout. To be precise, a detailed study of his life including his family background and his beginning of the career as a judge has been covered in the thesis. NOMINATION OF THE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT Initially, after the completion of his studies in the Howard University Law School, he became the Chief Counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Later, in 1954, he was appointed in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by John F. Kennedy. Also in the year 1965, he was engaged in the Office of the US Solicitor General being elected by the President Lyndon Johnson. It is worth mentioning in this context that Thurgood Marshall had already won 14 cases out of 19 on behalf of the government in the Supreme Court, before his nomination in the Supreme Court in the year 1967 (Friedman 1-4). It was President Lyndon Johnson who had nominated Thurgood for the designation of Justice in the US Supreme Court. Thurgood was nominated to succeed Associate Justice Tom C. Clark after his retirement. He was appointed to the US Court of Appeals in the early 1961, but due to many controversies raised the Southern senators, his nomination to the Supreme Court judge was not confirmed. The controversial issues were majorly reported as related to racial inequality, wherein the debate involved the whites, commonly as opposers to the nomination of Thurgood and the non-whites, as defenders. Finally in the month of July 1967, Thurgood was again nominated for the Supreme Court. Thurgood was confirmed with 69 votes in his favor on August 30th in the year 1967. After two days of the event, Thurgood Marshall was handed over with the position by Chief Justice Earl Warren and thus, became the first African American judge of the Supreme Court (A&E Television Networks, â€Å"Thurgood Marshall appoin ted to Supreme Court†). President Johnson had once stated that Thurgood had already acquired his significant position in the history of the US and the country will be blessed by his services in the court, which after his 10th death anniversary also remains an undisputable truth. After his confirmation as a Justice in the US Supreme Court, he became one of the major supporters to the legitimate rights of labor, development of women in every dimension and racial