School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-Crowe opens by describing the restrictions that circumscribed the lives of African Americans, including Marshall, before and during the civil rights era, and then covers his childhood, education, and professional years. The author devotes several chapters to the man's brave and dedicated legal work for the NAACP, his strategy in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case, and his years as Solicitor General and Supreme Court Justice, concluding with a chapter on his legacy as a civil rights giant. The book is generally admiring of Marshall and uses excerpts from primary sources to help readers become acquainted with both the professional who worked ceaselessly to improve civil rights and the private individual who had a well-developed sense of humor and expressed opinions in blunt and occasionally salty language. The text is supplemented with average-quality black-and-white photos. Although this book draws on recently published material, it does not significantly expand upon what can be found in James Haskins's well-written Thurgood Marshall (Holt, 1992; o.p.). Additional.-Mary Mueller, Rolla Junior High School, MO (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Crowe offers an engaging, insightful portrait of the first African-American Supreme Court justice. Prefacing Marshall's life story with an overview of race relations in the United States prior to his birth, the narrative effectively portrays both the racist society Marshall was born into and the way the injustices of his times shaped his remarkable career as a civil-rights attorney. Focusing on his career with the NAACP--which is convincingly presented as the most compelling aspect of his life--Marshall's pivotal involvement in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision is chronicled, as are lesser-known but equally important cases. Crowe notes that although Marshall always operated within the law, he frequently faced the lawlessness of a racist society, including several narrow escapes from lynch mobs. Anecdotes and quotes effectively illustrate Marshall's folksy demeanor, humor, intelligence and sharp wit. This is a captivating portrait of a heroic champion of justice that also offers great insight into the most pivotal moments of the Civil Rights Movement. (source notes, bibliography, further reading, index, photo credits) (Biography. 11 & up) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Marshall served 24 years as the first African American judge on the U.S. Supreme Court, but this biography in the Up Close series focuses on his pioneer work as a lawyer and civil rights activist and on the landmark cases in which he fought segregation in public education and elsewhere. Framed by the detailed drama of the Brown v. Board of Education case, where, as lawyer for the NAACP, he successfully defeated the established separate-but-equal argument, the chatty, immediate discussion relates Marshall's personal experience to the political history. Crowe is frank about Marshall's disagreements with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and also about the racist insults (including the n-word) that were part of Marshall's experience as citizen, lawyer, and activist. Marshall argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court and won 29 of them, and the eloquent quotes from his speeches are the core of this biography. The back matter is extensive, with Crowe including personal discussion of sources.--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2008 Booklist