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VOICE ONE:
This is Gwen Outen.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA SpecialEnglish. Every week we tell about a person who was important in thehistory of the United States. Today we tell about a man who helpedchange the racial separation laws of America, Thurgood Marshall.
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VOICE ONE:
Thurgood Marshall was born a freeman. But the father of his grandfather was a slave. He had lived inwhat was the Congo area of Africa. A man from the eastern Americancity of Baltimore, Maryland, brought him to the United States. Helater set him free.
Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore on July Second,Nineteen-Oh-Eight. In that city, and in many other parts of theUnited States at that time, black people were separated from whitepeople by law. Black children did not go to school with whitechildren. Black people lived only in areas where other blacks lived.
VOICE TWO:
Over the years, Thurgood Marshall became a very goodstory-teller. He told stories about himself, or about places he hadvisited. Often, the stories were funny. But most also had a seriousmessage.
One story was about being in trouble with his teachers when hewas a boy in Baltimore.
Mister Marshall said one of his teachers punished him by sendinghim to the room where the school’s heating equipment was kept. Therehe was told to read and remember the words of the Constitution ofthe United States.
The Constitution is a long document. Thurgood Marshall said heread all of it…more than once…and learned to remember most ofit.
He said this school boy punishment gave him a life-long respectfor the Constitution. As he grew older, he began to think about theConstitution’s guarantees of freedom. Those guarantees, he believed,should be for people of all races, not just for white people.
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VOICE ONE:
Thurgood Marshall attended LincolnUniversity in the state of Pennsylvania. He completed his studies,with honors, in nineteen-thirty. He wanted to go to law school atthe University of Maryland. But officials at that school refused tolet him attend, because he was black. So, he went to law school atHoward University in Washington D.C. Howard University was a schoolfor African-Americans. Thurgood Marshall graduated first in hisclass.
After completing his law studies, he accepted the case of a youngblack man who wanted to become a lawyer, too. The young man wantedto attend the University of Maryland law school. It was the sameschool that had refused to admit Thurgood Marshall. Again, theschool refused to let a black man become a student. So, MisterMarshall took legal action. He won the case. The young black man waspermitted to attend the university’s law school.
Thurgood Marshall would go on to win many more cases dealing withracial separation laws. And years later, the University of Marylandwould name its law library in his honor.
VOICE TWO:
Thurgood Marshall was a very good lawyer. The people herepresented in court were black and poor. He never earned muchmoney. But his name soon became well known. The National Associationfor the Advancement of Colored People offered him a job. He went towork as one of its legal representatives.
In time, he became the organization’s chief legal representative.He traveled across the United States. He fought against racialseparation laws. He also defended black people who were charged witha crime, but who did not have the money to pay for legal help.
Many of those cases reached America’s highest court, the SupremeCourt of the United States. During his life as a lawyer, ThurgoodMarshall argued cases before the Supreme Court more than thirtytimes. He lost only a few cases. Slowly, the laws of racialseparation in America began to change. Many of those changes werethe result of the work of Thurgood Marshall.
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VOICE ONE:
Legal experts say that Thurgood Marshall’s most important casewas the one known as “Brown versus Board of Education.” The caseinvolved the city of Topeka in the middle western state of Kansas.
A law there said that having separate schools for black studentsand white students was legal, if the schools were the same. It wasthe idea of “separate but equal”. But the schools were not equal.White children received a better education than black children.
Thurgood Marshall agreed to argue the case before the SupremeCourt. When newspapers reported this, he began getting messages,threatening him with death.
Other civil rights lawyers said he was moving too quickly. Theysaid a defeat in the Brown case would greatly damage the cause ofcivil rights. They told him to wait, to move more carefully andslowly.
VOICE TWO:
Thurgood Marshall did not listen to the threats against his life.And he did not listen to those who said he should move more slowly.The Supreme Court heard the case in nineteen-fifty-four. MisterMarshall said it was a violation of the Constitution to separatepeople because of their race.
So, he argued, the racially-separated schools in Topeka, Kansas,were illegal. He added that nothing could be equal inracially-separated schools.
One Supreme Court justice asked him to explain what he meant bythe word equal. He answered: “Equal means getting the same thing, atthe same time, and in the same place. The Supreme Court agreed. Itruled that no one could be rejected from a school in Topeka becauseof race.
VOICE ONE:
The case of “Brown versus Board of Education” provided the basisfor other court decisions. It helped destroy the terrible wall oflegal racial separation throughout the United States. Some peoplesay it is the most important Supreme Court decision of the Twentiethcentury.
That decision was the beginning ofyears of legal battles against racial separation in America’sschools. It also sent a message to the people of the nation thatblack Americans had the same rights as white Americans.
Many African-Americans said Mister Marshall’s victory innineteen-fifty-four changed their lives and their futures. Forexample, Sherman Parks is the former president of the school boardof Topeka, Kansas. He said that without the victory he would neverhave had a chance to get a good education and become a lawyer.
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VOICE TWO:
In nineteen-sixty-one, President John Kennedy named ThurgoodMarshall to be a judge of a federal appeals court. During his yearson that court, Judge Marshall wrote more than one-hundred opinionson different legal issues. Several of his opinions from those dayshave been approved as law by a majority of the Supreme Court.
In nineteen-sixty-seven, President Lyndon Johnson nominatedThurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. President Johnson said thenomination was the right thing to do, and the right time to do it.Thurgood Marshall became the first black person to serve as aSupreme Court Justice. He served for twenty-four years.
Justice Marshall wrote opinions about legal representation inAmerica’s criminal justice system. He said everyone has the right tobe represented by a good lawyer, no matter how guilty they may be.
In his last years on the Supreme Court, he often voted againstthe majority of the more conservative members. Justice Marshallalways voted in dissent in cases in which the majority voted that adeath sentence was legal. He said no one should be put to death forany reason.
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen-ninety-one, Thurgood Marshall announced that he wouldretire from the Supreme Court. Some reports said he no longer wantedto fight against the conservative majority of the court. At a newsconference, a reporter asked him why he was retiring. JusticeMarshall looked at the man and said, simply: “I am getting old andcoming apart.”
Another reporter asked Justice Marshall how he would like to beremembered. He sat quietly for a moment. Then Thurgood Marshallsaid: “I want to be remembered for doing the best I could with whatI had.”
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VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced byLawan Davis. And our studio engineer was Tony Pollock. This is DougJohnson.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Gwen Outen. Listen again next week for People inAmerica in VOA Special English.