Thurgood Marshall
His Speeches, Writings, Arguments, Opinions, and Reminiscences
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
Much has been written about Thurgood Marshall, but this is the first book to collect his own words. Here are briefs he filed as a lawyer, oral arguments for the landmark school desegregation cases, investigative reports on race riots and racism in the Army, speeches and articles outlining the history of civil rights and criticizing the actions of more conservative jurists, Supreme Court opinions now widely cited in Constitutional law, a long and complete oral autobiography, and much more. Marshall's impact on American race relations was greater than that of anyone else this century, for it was he who ended legal segregation in the United States. His victories as a lawyer for the NAACP broke the color line in housing, transportation, voting, and schools by overturning the long-established "separate-but-equal" doctrine. But Marshall was attentive to all social inequalities: no Supreme Court justice has ever been more consistent in support of freedom of expression, affirmative action, women's rights, abortion rights, and the right to consensual sex among adults; no justice has ever fought so hard against economic inequality, police brutality, and capital punishment.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tushnet (Making Constitutional Law: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court, 1961 1991), a constitutional law professor at Georgetown, captures the major facets of Marshall's remarkable career. The slim section of briefs and oral arguments, which Marshall presented as a lawyer to the Supreme Court, includes his Brown v. Board of Education brief, a 1944 brief against coerced confessions and an oral argument against halting the desegregation of Little Rock's schools. These are supplemented by a selection of writings for Crisis and other publications, including brief overviews of the progress made by different groups at various points from 1939 onward, riveting reports on the 1943 Detroit race riot and Marshall's investigation of 39 racially motivated courts-martial during the Korean War. His judicial writings include 12 of his annual remarks at the Second Circuit Judicial Conference, tributes to his Supreme Court colleague William Brennan and to his mentor, Charles Houston, reflections on the social responsibilities of the bar (such as adequate counsel for indigents and public interest litigation) and his famous speech on the Constitution's bicentennial, criticizing its flawed birth and celebrating the struggle to redeem it. The 12 opinions (mostly dissents) cover equal protection, affirmative action, privacy and free expression, poverty and criminal justice. Randall Kennedy's foreword cites Marshall's "unflagging persistence directed at exposing massive defects in American democracy," but these decisions display equal zeal for constructing and defending thoughtful, principled remedies. The concluding 100-page interview of 1977, from the Columbia Oral History Research Office, revisits earlier themes in an informal setting, while Tushnet supplies context sparingly, never intruding on Marshall's voice.
