February 2, 2022 - Thurgood Marshall

On this second day of Black History Month in 2022, Lyles Station recognizes the role in history played by Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall, known as Mr. Civil Rights. Marshall made history in 1967 when he became the first African American Chief Justice on the Supreme Court.
Marshall’s father influenced him to stand up for his beliefs, and Marshall stated that his father "never told me to become a lawyer; he turned me into one. He did it by teaching me to argue, by challenging my logic on every point, by making me prove every statement I made."
The family participated in debates about current events after their dinners, and his father took him and his brother to the local courthouse to watch the court cases which they would later debate after returning home.
Marshall was also influenced in high school when the school’s principal thought he was punishing him for a prank Marshall had pulled by making him read the U.S. Constitution. This punishment was a blessing in disguise, with Marshall falling in love with the Constitution and memorizing parts of it, particularly Article III and the Bill of Rights.
Marshall grew up in the time of Jim Crow laws and was aware that many African Americans were not fully vested in their constitutional rights. He saw the courts as a means of rectifying this unnequal justice.
Marshall also recognized the importance of education, believing, as did the parents at Lyles Station School, that the only way for anyone, not just African Americans, to succeed was to pursue and complete an education. However, he also realized that education for whites was not the same education provided for blacks. Segregation kept their education separate but not equal. Marshall pursued cases which would lead to the end of segregation and support civil rights. He was dedicated to ensuring the rights of all citizens, no matter their individual race.
Marshall retired as a justice in 1991 and died two years later. The eighty-four-year-old Justice was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, along with several other justices.
Marshall has been memorialized around the country with buildings dedicated to his name, statues commemorating his achievements, law schools renamed in his honor, and streets named after him. The statue erected next to the Maryland State House presents passersby with a larger-than-life eight-foot tall depiction of Marshall.
The Thurgood Marshall College Fund, established in 1987, awards outstanding qualified students an average amount of $3,100 per semester, without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, disability, or national origin. During the 2019-2020 school year, these scholarships enabled 1,153 law students to remain in college.