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Summary
Summary
Presents a biography of the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court, from his crusade against segregation to his friendships with other famous Black figures.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Thirteen years before becoming the first African-American justice on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall's place in American history was secured, with his victory over school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education. Williams (Eyes on the Prize) offers readers a thorough, straightforward life of "the unlikely leading actor in creating social change in the United States in the twentieth century." Although he was denied access to the files of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where Marshall devoted more than 40 years of his law career, and worked without the cooperation of Marshall's family, Williams has managed to fill in the blanks with over 150 interviews, including lengthy sessions with Marshall himself in 1989. Marshall is portrayed as an outspoken critic of black militancy and nonviolent demonstrations. Williams mentions, but does not dwell on, Marshall's history of heavy drinking, womanizing and sexual harassment. But his private contacts with J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, even while that organization was working to discredit Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, receives critical attention. This relationship "could have cost him his credibility among civil rights activists had it become known," writes Williams. Likewise, it would appear that his extra-legal activities and charges of incompetence and Communist connections would, if publicized, have kept him from the Supreme Court, as he himself admitted. Nevertheless, this work will stand as an accessible and fitting tribute to a champion of individual rights and "the architect of American race relations." Photos not seen by PW. Author tour. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
In this saga of the U.S. quest for what it has yet to achieve--peaceful racial coexistence--Marshall is presented as a revolutionary "of grand vision." Williams renders an exceptional biography, inclusive of Marshall's vanities and warts. He opens with Marshall as the first black solicitor general, engaged with President Lyndon Johnson in a cat-and-mouse game on his possible appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Williams draws on the ironies of the meeting: two southerners from humble backgrounds, both hard-drinking, somewhat socially crude, apparently mutually respectful despite their positions on opposite sides of the racial divide. From this dramatic beginning, Williams traces Marshall's life from his ascension, to his deflation, and subsequent redemption. At the turn of the century, in the relatively racially enlightened Baltimore, Marshall's status as a light-skinned, middle-class black person informed his worldview. Rejected by the University of Maryland Law School based on his color, Marshall was accepted at Howard University. His awakened racial consciousness transformed him from an undisciplined prankster to a brilliant student. After a short-lived career in private practice, Marshall entered his natural niche as an attorney for the NAACP, where he worked with others to lay the foundation for the civil rights movement. Though Marshall reached legendary status, generational discord during the civil rights era caused most baby boomers to identify with such personalities as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, or Stokely Carmichael, for whom Marshall had little respect. But his symbiotic relationship with J. Edgar Hoover raised some questions and may reflect a low transition point. And his experience of 24 years on the High Court revealed that the failure of the integration strategy was not caused primarily by the misdirection of the black power movement but by the substantial and powerful national resistance to the ideals of integration. Yet Marshall's legal feats remain substantial. This is a must-read for all Americans and others concerned with the struggle for civil and individual rights. --Vernon Ford
Choice Review
Williams's portrait of the public and private Thurgood Marshall successfully captures the essence of an American icon. The book offers a perceptive analysis of Marshall's work and legacy and of the NAACP's battles to attain legal equality for black Americans. It also vividly portrays the heroes and antiheroes of the Civil Rights Movement. Williams views Thurgood Marshall as the architect of US race relations for the 20th century; his grand design, based on an unwavering vision, led to a new cultural and sociological structure. But what manner of man was he? On the one hand Marshall was a chain smoking, hard-drinking, skirt-chasing raconteur, addicted to late night parties. On the other he was a skillful advocate, a wily political player who got along well with blacks, whites, even white racists. Appropriately, since Marshall made his most significant contribution to America's constitutional revolution as a crusading attorney, not as a judge, only one-fifth of the book is devoted to Marshall's 24 years on the Supreme Court. Toward the end of his life he lost his charm. Suffering multiple health problems and unable to persuade his conservative colleagues to support his posture on civil liberties, he became embittered as his vision of a racially integrated society appeared to be slipping away. He was out of synch with the new black militants, especially the separatists who, in Marshall's view, were courting disaster. This is biographical writing at its best--charming, witty, and objectively honest. Recommended for all literate adults. R. J. Steamer; emeritus, University of Massachusetts at Boston
Kirkus Review
Written with the cooperation of its subject, this is a solid, comprehensive biography that brings into focus a historical giant who has, sadly, faded from view. As his subtitle suggests, former Washington Post reporter Williams (author of the best-selling Eyes on the Prize, companion volume to the PBS documentary of the same name) is interested foremost in Thurgood Marshall's role as the leader ``of a burgeoning social revolution'' during the early years of the civil rights movement. What's surprising is how deeply opposed the brilliant lawyer was to the other two members of what Williams dubs ``the black triumvirate.'' Marshall disdained Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolent protests as ineffective and resented the media attention King garnered; he saw Malcolm X as a destructive thug. Reviewing Marshall's stunning impact on the nation's legal systemfirst as the NAACP's chief counsel, later as President Lyndon Johnson's solicitor general, and finally as the first black Supreme Court justiceWilliams dramatically and persuasively makes the case that Marshall, the man who ended legal segregation with his landmark Brown v. Board of Education victory, is by far the most important of the three. Though Marshall's string of legal victories brought him fame as a crusader and savior of his race during the 1950s, he was rejected by militant black-power advocates in the late '60s, when his gradualism and respect for law and order were out of step with the times. Williams does a good job of bringing alive the private Marshall, a necessary task, since the justice's seclusion during the last 30 years of his life removed him from the public eye. A confirmed drinker and womanizer, Marshall was a charismatic man whose gift of gab was equally useful for negotiating political tightropes, neutralizing critics like J. Edgar Hoover, or putting bigoted southern sheriffs at ease. Williams is uncritical of Marshall's personal flaws, but his reconstruction of Marshall makes for a lively and immensely valuable portrait of a first-rate legal mind and true American hero. (16 pages b&w photos not seen) (Author tour)
Library Journal Review
It was a cold Sunday afternoon when Thurgood Marshall died at age 84, reports Williams, a national correspondent for the Washington Post and author of Eyes on the Prize (LJ 1/15/87), in this revealing portrait of the late Supreme Court justice. It was also the end of a legend and of an important era in Civil Rights history. Marshall lived life to the fullest, with his drinking, partying, and womanizing. But as legal counsel for the NAACP, he fought diligently to end school segregation, winning the most important case of the century, Brown v. Board of Education, which ended the legal separation of black and white children in public schools. He promoted affirmative action and battled racist politicians, lawyers, and judges in the South. Less admirably, though, Marshall kept secret ties to FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, both to protect himself from investigation and to prevent his being linked with radicals like Malcolm X or even Martin Luther King Jr., whom he despised. This is a well-researched, fascinating biography despite some tedious legal details. (See also Carl Rowan's Dream Makers, Dream Breakers, LJ 2/15/93.) Recommended for law and black history collections.Ann Burns, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
In the Oval Office, dominated by the president's massive mahogany desk, the unassuming Alexander had walked the same path as Ramsey Clark and Nicholas Katzenbach. Sitting by the side of the desk, Alexander in a soft voice had pressed him to make history by nominating Marshall to replace the retiring Clark. Johnson, again, did not say yes or no. Later, Alexander could only tell Marshall that he had put in a good word for him and not to worry about all the rumors. On June 12, 1967, his last day on the high court, Justice Tom Clark told reporters the president would appoint a replacement "who will fill my shoes to overflowing, possibly break them open."4 His comment sparked a new wave of rumors. Justice Clark's comments raised Marshall's hopes. But as his petite Hawaiian wife later told reporters, she had heard hints before, and "you can't live on hints."5 At the retirement party Johnson was his usual dominating self, alternately bullying and ingratiating himself with both justices and the politicians in the crowd. When Marshall made his way through the faces surrounding Johnson, the president quickly greeted him with a wide smile. The two men loved to drink bourbon and tell stories full of lies. They were the same age and had strong feelings for each other. So it was no surprise when the president threw a long arm around Marshall and briefly pulled him aside. Johnson bluntly told him not to get his hopes up because he was not going to replace Justice Clark. Marshall played it off with a laugh. Standing to his full height, he reminded Johnson that he didn't need a job and there had never been any promise he would get to the high court. Behind his bluster, however, Marshall felt a fierce determination to argue with Johnson right there. It was Marshall's style to apply pressure and fight. But this time he bit his tongue. It didn't make sense to think he could bully Lyndon Johnson in the middle of a party and win. He drove home, cutting across the Mall, with the U.S. Capitol's magnificent white dome glowing to one side and the towering Washington Monument on the other. The nation's grand symbols made him feel small, an outsider. He had missed his chance. The next morning, Tuesday, June 13, Marshall was in his office at the Justice Department on Pennsylvania Avenue when his secretary got a call from the attorney general. It was just before 10:00 a.m., and Clark told her he was coming down to see Marshall and to keep everyone else out. When Clark got into Marshall's office, he asked him what he was doing later that morning. Marshall replied that he was going to the White House to speak with a group of students. Clark told him to go over fifteen minutes early and stop in the Oval Office. Marshall pressed Clark to tell him what was going on. Clark said he didn't know. But given the spate of rumors over the last twenty-four hours and the disaster at the party, Marshall figured this trip was for Johnson to stroke him and tell him why he didn't get the job.6 Meanwhile, the president phoned Louis Martin at the Democratic National Committee that morning and asked him to come to the Oval Office. Before Martin's arrival Johnson placed another call. He told Clifford Alexander to come over as well. Alexander was the first to arrive. He found Johnson sitting in a rocking chair in front of a circular marble coffee table in the middle of the Oval Office. The president was holding handwritten notes on large white index cards. Listed were the names of key members of the Senate Judiciary Committee; the Senate leaders, including Mike Mansfield and Everett Dirksen, the majority and minority leaders; Chief Justice Earl Warren; and a tally of Marshall's record in cases argued before the Supreme Court. Highlighted on one card was the fact that Marshall had been first in his class at Howard Law School. Alexander could barely contain his glee when he realized what was going on. With Alexander standing by, the president, using the white phone built into the coffee table, called Vice President Hubert Humphrey, informing him of the decision. Then Johnson, alternately leaning forward and pushing back as he spoke, called the man who was sure to be the leader in any confirmation fight in the Senate, James Eastland of Mississippi, a hard-line segregationist. "That conversation was mostly in monotone," Alexander recalled. "President Johnson said to him, 'I know you must agree that this is the best-qualified person.' " Johnson then called several more senators. Alexander remembered the conversations all ended the same way: "I am sure with this distinguished record that you will support his nomination." No one, neither Republican nor Democrat, argued. There was hardly any reason for discussion. Johnson had made up his mind, and he spoke with presidential authority. He was not asking for anyone's support. "God knows by the time he finished his monologue, the people at the other end of the phone had to think about what they had agreed to," said Alexander. Louis Martin soon came in and stood with Alexander as the president called Earl Warren, who was in San Francisco. Warren gave his approval to the nomination and later sent a note thanking Johnson for early notice of the nomination. With the calls finished, Johnson asked Alexander and Martin to wait outside while he spoke with Marshall alone. Marshall had been next door since 10:45, talking with Marvin Watson, Johnson's appointments secretary. Watson played dumb when Marshall asked him why the president wanted to see him. When he was finally called into the Oval Office at 11:05, Marshall saw Johnson, all by himself, bent over the news service ticker-tape machine. While Marshall waited for the president to turn around he quickly glanced about the Oval Office. In the far corner was a bronze caricature of a frenetic President Johnson running while holding a phone in one hand. On the marble coffee table Marshall could see a bunch of index cards and papers, some of which had spilled onto the green rug under the president's rocking chair. Nervously, Marshall coughed to get the president's attention. Johnson spun around, as though surprised, and said, "Oh, hi, Thurgood. Sit down, sit down." Marshall moved toward the couch and sat next to Johnson's rocking chair. Johnson made small talk with the fidgety Marshall until he abruptly turned to him and said, "You know something, Thurgood? . . . I'm going to put you on the Supreme Court." Marshall was stunned. All he could say was "Oh, yipe!"7 Johnson laughed and had Martin and Alexander come back into the office. They sat on the couch across from Marshall, with the president occasionally leaning forward in the rocking chair. Johnson joked with Marshall that he appointed him to the Supreme Court because "you are very much like me--brought up in poverty . . . not a Harvard boy like Cliff." Alexander later recalled thinking to himself that Marshall was not brought up in poverty, but that was the image he gave off. For nearly an hour a giddy Marshall joked around, never moving far from the president's rocking chair even as Johnson made phone calls to ecstatic civil rights leaders. Marshall shook his head and laughed at Johnson's trickery as he recalled for Martin and Alexander that just the night before, the president had told him he would not get the job. Johnson just smiled. At noon Johnson led his new nominee out the French doors behind his desk and into the bright June sunshine. The minute the reporters in the Rose Garden saw Marshall, they knew what was coming. His nomination, while historic, somehow was expected because it had been rumored for so long. "I have just talked to the Chief Justice and informed him that I shall send to the Senate this afternoon the nomination of Mr. Thurgood Marshall, Solicitor General, to the position of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court," Johnson said. "He has argued nineteen cases in the Supreme Court since becoming Solicitor General. Prior to that time he had argued some thirty-two cases. Statisticians tell me that probably only one or two other living men have argued as many cases before the Court--and perhaps less than half a dozen in all the history of the Nation. . . . "I believe he has already earned his place in history, but I think it will be greatly enhanced by his service on the Court," continued Johnson. "I believe he earned that appointment; he deserves the appointment. He is best qualified by training and by very valuable service to the country. I believe it is the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place." Surprisingly, there was no express mention of the fact that Marshall was black, just Johnson's singular focus on his legal record and an expression of doing the "right thing," a quick jab at critics, particularly southern senators, who might oppose the idea of putting a black man on the nation's highest court. The president, with Marshall by his side, then began a twenty-minute news conference, most of which, incredibly, had nothing to do with the nomination. Reporters asked about Vietnam, the Middle East, and riots in the big cities. Finally, a reporter asked Johnson if he had been advised to name a more conservative nominee than Marshall. President Johnson shook his head and said, "No, I received very little pressure of any kind in this connection." The American Bar Association found Marshall "highly acceptable," Johnson added. Another reporter jumped in: "I was just going to ask Justice Marshall, if we might, how he feels about this appointment?" Johnson, turning to Marshall, responded: "I hope the justice doesn't go into an extended news conference before his confirmation." Marshall, who was almost as tall as the president, then stepped forward, bent over the microphone, smiled, and looking out through thick, black-framed eyeglasses said: "You speak for me, Mr. President, we will wait until after the Senate acts."8 The president and Marshall, arm in arm and smiling, then marched with long, loping strides back into the Oval Office, where Marshall asked the president for permission to tell his wife the good news before she heard it on the radio. Johnson, with a startled look, said he was surprised Marshall had not already told her. "How could I, sir?" Marshall asked. "I've been with you all the time." Marshall rang up his wife from a phone on the circular coffee table, and an eager Johnson grabbed for the receiver. "Cissy, this is Lyndon Johnson. . . . I just put your husband on the Supreme Court." The stunned wife replied, "I sure am happy I'm sitting down."9 To Marshall's surprise, the next morning's newspapers did not greet the nomination with high praise. It was "rich in symbolism," said The New York Times. But the paper did not give Marshall high marks as a legal thinker, saying he was not particularly distinguished either as a federal judge or as solicitor general. Newsweek magazine said President Johnson did not have to mention at his press conference that Marshall would be the first black on the Court. In a week of race riots across the nation, for the president to choose a black man to sit on the high court looked to a lot of people like a deft political move by a master politician. And there was the chance that the nomination could win back liberal white voters, who were increasingly turning away from Johnson over the Vietnam War. With a potential primary challenge from Sen. Robert Kennedy next year, Johnson had tied up the black vote, the magazine concluded. Newsweek did laud Marshall as a black leader who "in three decades . . . has done as much to transform the life of his people as any Negro alive today, including Nobel Laureate Martin Luther King, Jr."10 One faint line of praise for Marshall's nomination came from conservatives who thought it might stop wild-eyed black people from rioting. An editorial in the Las Vegas Sun didn't have much good to say about Marshall but celebrated the fact that his nomination "pretty much negate[s] the complaints of the Negro multitudes. . . . It is hoped the significance is not lost on the Martin Luther Kings and the Stokely Carmichaels and their rampaging followers."11 While cheering for the nomination was polite at best in most papers, the voices of criticism were full-blooded. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote that lawyers would be keeping an eye on Marshall "because he has been subject to criticism for laziness by those who dealt with him as Solicitor General and Circuit Court Judge."12 Joseph Kraft, the preeminent Washington columnist, wrote Marshall's only qualification was that he was "a Negro, not just any Negro [but] not even the best qualified Negro."13 The administration quickly responded to the critics by emphasizing Marshall's strong belief in the law and racial integration. Johnson and his top aides transformed Marshall into a living symbol of racial progress and good American race relations. Two weeks after his nomination and before any Senate hearings began, the White House arranged for Marshall to be appointed to a special commission to study whether crime and violence were the cause of rioting in Harlem. The leaders of the liberal white establishment were embracing him as their answer to angry blacks who said whites never gave a black man a chance. And yet a strong undercurrent of criticism of Marshall--he was unqualified, lazy, too liberal--continued. Marshall came under the most brutal attack from segregationists, who did not want an integrationist on the Court. President Johnson's political strategy to have Marshall quickly and easily confirmed was crumbling. And even Marshall's tough-mindedness, his amazing will to win, seemed to be overmatched. Hearings for most Supreme Court nominees began within a week of the nomination. Byron White, President Kennedy's first candidate for the Court, had been nominated and confirmed within eight days. Abe Fortas, President Johnson's first, had to wait only fourteen days. Thurgood Marshall was different. It would be seventy-eight days before his name would come up for a vote of Senate confirmation. In the two and a half months between the nomination and the vote on Marshall, his record as a lawyer, his writings, his drinking, the women he slept with, and his family came under the intense scrutiny of FBI and Senate investigations. Sen. Robert Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, wrote to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, asking if there was information about Marshall's ties to Communists. Another senator focused on uncovering evidence that Marshall hated whites; other senators loaded up on detailed legal questions, hoping to reveal gaps in Marshall's knowledge of the law that would disqualify him for the high court. But the larger topics for Marshall's opponents were still left unanswered: Who was this man? How did a black man so despised by millions of segregationists rise past Jim Crow political power to become a federal judge, the first black solicitor general, and finally to stand at the door of the highest station of American law, the Supreme Court? Simply put, where did this Negro come from? Excerpted from Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary by Juan Williams All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Table of Contents
Right Time, Right Man? Rumors flew that night. Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark had resigned a few hours earlier. By that Monday evening, Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall and his wife, Cissy, heard that the president was set to name Clark's replacement the very next morning. At the Marshalls' small green town house on G Street in Southwest Washington, D.C., the phone was ringing. Friends, family, and even politicians were calling to see if Thurgood had heard anything about his chances for the job. But all the Marshalls could say was that they had heard rumors. |
As Marshall dressed for Clark's retirement party on that muggy Washington night of June 12, 1967, he looked at his reflection in the mirror. Years ago some of his militant critics had called him "half-white" for his straight hair, pointed nose, and light tan skin. Now, at fifty-eight, his face had grown heavy, with sagging jowls and dark bags under his eyes. His once black hair, even his mustache, was now mostly a steely gray. And he looked worried. He did have on a good dark blue suit, the uniform of a Washington power player. But the conservative suit looked old and out of place in an era of Afros and dashikis. And even the best suit might not be strong enough armor for the high-stakes political fight he was preparing for tonight. At this moment the six-foot-two-inch Marshall, who weighed well over two hundred pounds, felt powerless. He was fearful that he was about to lose his only chance to become a Supreme Court justice. |
Staring in the mirror as if it were a crystal ball, Marshall could see clearly only that he would have one last chance to convince the president he was the right man. That chance would come tonight at Justice Clark's retirement party. In his two years as solicitor general there had been constant rumors floating around the capital about Marshall being positioned by the president to become the first black man on the high court. However, with one exception, no one at the White House had ever spoken to him about the job. That exception was President Lyndon Johnson. Whenever Johnson talked about the Supreme Court in front of him, the tall, intense Texan made a point of turning to Marshall, thrusting a finger in his face, and reminding him there was no promise that he would ever have a job on the high court. |
But Johnson was privately talking about putting Marshall on the Supreme Court. For a southern politician, Johnson had a strong sense of racial justice. As a skinny twenty-year-old, he had taught school to poor Hispanic children in south Texas and seen firsthand the disadvantages they faced. Now Johnson's fabled political instincts had drawn him to the idea that he would be hailed by history as the president who put the first black on the Supreme Court. The president had set the wheels in motion by making Marshall the nation's first black solicitor general. And he had confided to his wife, Lady Bird, that he wanted to appoint Marshall to the Supreme Court. But the president had been having second thoughts about Marshall. Was he really a good lawyer? And what about talk that Marshall was lazy? Was it realistic to think he could win enough votes to get by white racists in the Senate and be confirmed? As he finished getting ready for the party, Marshall replayed all the rumors he had heard about why the president was reluctant to appoint him to the high court. Thinking about it, Marshall got grumpy, then angry. His chance to be in the history books as the first black man on the Supreme Court was fading, and he felt abandoned. The word around the capital was that the nomination would be announced tomorrow. Marshall had heard nothing from the White House. |