Thurgood Marshall and Brown v. Board of Education
Sixty seven years ago, one of the most vital judicial decisions in American Supreme Court history was decided. On May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren issued an unanimous verdict in Brown v. Board of Education declaring that the “separate but equal” regime of segregation within public education was unconstitutional under the Equal Protections Clause of the 14th Amendment. Working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), up-and-coming lawyer and future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall argued harshly against school segregation, and won both the case and respect from many across the nation.
Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from August 30, 1967 until his retirement on October 1, 1991 — becoming the first Black American to hold this position. Prior to his career on the Supreme Court however, Marshall served as the Director of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund and represented the Brown family during the legal battle.
Marshall was instrumental in even getting the case to the Supreme Court, as the NAACP’s legal strategy in fighting segregation was in flux during the 1950s. At the time of the case, he was serving as Director of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, and was perhaps the single most vital legal force in pushing segregation cases through lower local and district court systems across America. Marshall and previous leader Charles Hamilton Houston were working on a larger agenda of fighting segregation in all areas, and decided to attack education as a weak spot to start from in an effort that would eventually expand to all areas of American life.
Marshall argued in court for desegregation in local cases such as Murray v. Maryland and Sweat v. Painter, but all of these cases were granted victories because separate conditions were successfully argued to be unequal in these individual instances, rather than separation being unequal in principle. All this work made Marshall the natural choice to argue Brown v. Board of Education in front of the Supreme Court, where he compared school segregation to the Black Codes of the post-Confederate south and stated that the argument of the Topeka school board based on a lack of federal responsibility is faulty, as the “duty of enforcing the Fourteenth Amendment is placed upon [the Supreme] Court.”
The decision was monumental, and represented a meaningful shift in judicial and communications methodology within the Court. This shift has been criticized by some as being too focused on sociological concerns rather than strictly reading and interpreting the U.S. Constitution. These concerns were most vocally expressed in response to the argument made by Chief Justice Warren stating that: “To separate [Black children] from others... generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone.”
Earl Warren was serving as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court during the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Not only did Warren believe that segregation was legally insensible, but he sought to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson, a previous case which had upheld the practice of segregating schools, with an unanimous verdict. He succeeded and was able to win over each of the justices who were originally holdouts on overturning Plessy v. Ferguson.
Critics argued that psychological speculation has no place in the court of law, but missed that Warren was responding to a psychological assertion made within the shameful Plessy v. Ferguson decision that cemented public school segregation in law in 1896: “the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff’s argument [is that] the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it.” Warren’s choice to seemingly directly respond to the previous decision seems both intentional and pointed, and has stood the test of time—now, Plessy v. Ferguson stands among cases like Dred Scott v. Sandford and Korematsu v. United States as Supreme Court decisions that are nearly universally condemned by lawyers, scholars, and citizens across the nation. Interestingly, Warren seemed to see this coming, as he sought to style his written decision in a way that would be accessible to the average American, desiring a quick shift away from the segregationist policies of the moment.
The pivotal roles of Thurgood Marshall and Earl Warren on the arguing and deciding of Brown v. Board of Education makes them vital and influential players in the American story of race relations and the evolution of the American judicial tradition. While they have both passed away now, these two figures as well as many more rest in Arlington National Cemetery, just a few minutes southwest of DC. For those interested, Historic America offers tours of the grounds for individuals and small groups, led by one of our history nerds who would be happy to discuss the lives of Marshall and Warren while visiting their resting places. To learn more or check for availability, click here.
Related Content From Historic America
Tour: Arlington National Cemetery
Journal: The Formation of the NAACP