Thurgood Marshall

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

From the acclaimed author of Eyes on the Prize, here is the definitive biography of the great lawyer and Supreme Court justice. Thurgood Marshall stands today as the great architect of American race relations. His victory in the Brown v.  Board of Education decision in 1954 would have made him a historic figure even if he had not gone on to become the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court.   As a young lawyer, Marshall dealt with criminal cases in which blacks were routinely sent to their deaths with barely a trial, and he was once nearly lynched while defending a client.

Remembered as a gruff, aloof figure, Marshall in fact had great charisma and a large appetite for life. Away from the courtroom he was a glamorous figure in Harlem circles, known as a man-about-town who socialized with prizefighter Joe Louis, singer Cab Calloway, and other black luminaries. He lived in every decade of the century and knew every president from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton.  Beneath Marshall's charm was a hard-nosed drive to change America that led to surprising clashes with Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, and Malcolm X. Most intriguing of all was Marshall's secret and controversial relationship with FBI chief, J. Edgar Hoover.

Based on eight years of research and interviews with over 150 sources, Thurgood Marshall is the sweeping and inspirational story of an enduring figure in American life, a descendant of slaves who became a true hero for all people.

PRAISE FOR Thurgood Marshall:

"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."
--Booklist

"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 system 'first as the NAACP's chief counsel, later as President Lyndon Johnson's solicitor general, and finally as the first black Supreme Court justice' Williams 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."
--Kirkus

"How does a black boy, descendant of slaves, negotiate the impossible path from portering on the B  &  O Railroad to a seat on the highest court in the land? Juan Williams's meticulous research has yielded a careful and engrossing account of Thurgood Marshall's true life. At times, the record reads like fiction. Happily, it is not."
--Maya Angelou

"Juan Williams has crafted a compelling and enduring portrait of Thurgood Marshall, an outstanding American and a giant of our civil rights history. Williams gives readers a dynamic work to savor and study."
--Senator Bob Dole