#OnThisDay 1908 Thurgood Marshall, NAACP LDF leader, one of the greatest attorneys ever, fighter for human rights, was born in Baltimore, MD. THREAD
Justice Marshall's birth name was "Thoroughgood," but in the second grade - SECOND GRADE - he changed it to Thurgood.

His biography is here: http://thurgoodmarshall.com/ 
After graduating cum laude from Lincoln University, he graduates magna cum laude from Howard University School of Law in 1934, and after a stint in private practice, began his career with the @NAACP_LDF.
Marshall, not a year out of law school, along with his teacher and mentor Charles Hamilton Houston (what a great pair of legal titans!) argued a case of discrimination against the law school that rejected him.

https://aaregistry.org/story/murray-v-pearson-ruled/
Thurgood Marshall won 29 out of 32 Supreme Court cases.

Most lawyers don't ever argue ONE SCOTUS case.

Marshall and his team had to go through the back door.

The justices, and virtually the entire audience, was white.

And HE STILL WON.
He was appointed to the federal bench by JFK. Wrote over 100 opinions, none overturned by the Supreme Court.
He won another 14 out of 19 cases as the first Black Solicitor General of the United States.
He was appointed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson to SCOTUS in 1967 and retired in 1991.
I have read two books about Justice Marshall. One is about his life, but focuses on his nomination, "Showdown," by Wil Haygood. The other is "Dream Makers, Dream Breakers," by the late Carl T. Rowan.

"Showdown" is an absolute page-turner.
FIN/

Thank you, Justice Thurgood Marshall.
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