A Defiant Life

Thurgood Marshall's extraordinary contribution to civil rights and overcoming racism is more topical than ever, as the national debate on race and the overturning of affirmative action policies make headlines nationwide. Howard Ball, author of eighteen books on the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary, has done copious research for this incisive biography to present an authoritative portrait of Marshall the jurist. Born to a middle-class black family in "Jim Crow" Baltimore at the turn of the century, Marshall's race informed his worldview from an early age. He was rejected by the University of Maryland Law School because of the color of his skin. He then attended Howard University's Law School, where his racial consciousness was awakened by the brilliant lawyer and activist Charlie Houston. Marshall suddenly knew what he wanted to be: a civil rights lawyer, one of Houston's "social engineers." As the chief attorney for the NAACP, he developed the strategy for the legal challenge to racial discrimination. His soaring achievements and his lasting impact on the nation's legal system--as the NAACP's advocate, as a federal appeals court judge, as President Lyndon Johnson's solicitor general, and finally as the first African American Supreme Court Justice--are symbolized by Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that ended legal segregation in public schools. Using race as the defining theme, Ball spotlights Marshall's genius in working within the legal system to further his lifelong commitment to racial equality. With the help of numerous, previously unpublished sources, Ball presents a lucid account of Marshall's illustrious career and his historic impact on American civil rights. From the Hardcover edition.

Howard Ball, professor of political science and University Scholar at the University of Vermont, is a leading expert on the U.S. Supreme Court. He is the author of eighteen previous books and dozens of articles in leading political science journals and law reviews. He lives in Richmond, Vermont, with his wife, Carol, their dogs, Max and Casey, and a quarterhorse named Stormin' Norman. Their three daughters, Melissa, Sheryl, and Sue, visit on occasion. From the Hardcover edition.

Chronology of ``A Life Well Lived''

xv

Acknowledgments

xvii

Foreword: Associate Justice William J. Brennan Jr.

xix

Born Into Racism and Segregation in America

1

(18)

Slavery, Race,and Racism: The Historic Context

1

(2)

Hooded Terror and the Civil War Amendments

3

(2)

Redirecting Civil Rights: The U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down Civil Rights Legislation, 1883-1896

5

(1)

Plessy v. Ferguson: Legitimizing Jim Crow

5

(4)

Race, Sex, and Lynching

9

(1)

1903: W. E. B. Du Bois's Souls of Black Folk

10

(3)

1908: Growing Up in Baltimore

13

(6)

The Rise of the NAACP and Charlie Houston's ``Social Engineers''

19

(21)

The Birth of the NAACP

19

(4)

The NAACP's First Two Decades, 1910-1930

23

(5)

Early Litigation Efforts, 1915--1936

28

(1)

Charlie Houston's ``Social Engineers''

29

(4)

The Scottsboro Incident, 1931

33

(2)

The Margold Report

35

(2)

The Du Bois Crisis, 1934

37

(3)

Marshall Joins the NAACP

40

(17)

``No Good Turkey''

41

(4)

Thurgood Marshall, Esq.: Joining the NAACP's National Office, 1936

45

(5)

The NAACP's 1936 Public Education Initiative: Beginning the Attack on Plessy v. Ferguson

50

(3)

Marshall's Colleagues in the NAACP

53

(4)

``Thurgood's Coming'': Mr. Civil Rights

57

(38)

Creating the ``Inc Fund,'' October 1939

58

(3)

Adding Staff to the NAACP's Legal Office

61

(2)

The Inc Fund's Legal Strategies, Rules, and Policies

63

(2)

Marshall, the Communist Party, and the FBI

65

(2)

Be Cool, Stay Cool

67

(2)

Mr. Civil Rights: ``Thurgood's Coming''

69

(3)

The Inc Fund's Educational Equity Lawsuits

72

(5)

Voting and Voter Registration Litigation

77

(3)

The Criminal Justice Cases

80

(2)

Segregated Transportation and Travel Cases

82

(1)

Residential Discrimination and Restrictive Covenants Litigation

83

(2)

The Politics of Race During the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations

85

(7)

The ``New Deal'' and African Americans

86

(2)

The World War II Race Riots

88

(2)

The Vital Change: Harry S Truman

90

(2)

The Assault on Public School Segregation and the Plessy Doctrine

92

(3)

Segregation in the Military: A Special Humiliation

95

(19)

Military Segregation in World War I

97

(1)

Segregation in the Armed Services in World War II

98

(2)

World War II ``Soldier Troubles''

100

(6)

From War's End to the Korean War

106

(4)

The Korean War

110

(4)

The Public Education Battles Begin: Brown v. Board

114

(34)

Marshall's NAACP Strategy Implemented: The Public School Segregation Cases

116

(3)

The U.S. Supreme Court Hears the School Segregation Cases

119

(8)

Going Back to the Court

127

(5)

The Supreme Court Overturns Plessy

132

(3)

The Brown Implementation Decree

135

(5)

Massive Resistance: The White Deep South's Response to Brown

140

(8)

The Segregation Battles Continue and the Civil Rights Movement Emerges

148

(27)

The ``New Wave'' in Civil Rights

150

(2)

The Alternatives to the NAACP: SCLC and SNCC

152

(5)

The Little Rock Crisis

157

(6)

The U.S. Supreme Court Reaffirms Brown: The Cooper v. Aaron Decision

163

(3)

Eisenhower's Civil Rights View: ``Make Haste Slowly''

166

(5)

Ike's Ambivalent Support of the 1957 Civil Rights Act

171

(2)

Marshall Leaves the NAACP

173

(2)

A New Life: Thurgood Marshall, Government Servant

175

(25)

The ``New Frontier'' and Civil Rights

175

(5)

Marshall's Appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals, 1961

180

(5)

Lyndon Johnson and Civil Rights

185

(3)

Marshall's Appointment as U.S. Solicitor General, 1965

188

(2)

Thurgood Marshall, ``General''

190

(2)

Marshall's Appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, 1967

192

(8)

Mr. Justice Marshall

200

(21)

The Outsider on the Court

201

(7)

Friends, Colleagues, and Antagonists

208

(7)

``My Knuckleheads'': Justice Marshall and His Law Clerks

215

(1)

Thurgood Marshall's Jurisprudence

216

(5)

The Meaning of Equality in the Fourteenth Amendment

221

(34)

Equal-Protection Litigation

221

(5)

Equality of Educational Opportunity After Brown

226

(12)

1970: Busing to End Segregated Schools (Swann)

227

(4)

1973: The Question of De Facto School Segregation (Keyes)

231

(2)

1974: Court Unanimity Disintegrates over the Question of Interdistrict Busing (Milliken)

233

(3)

After Milliken: A Court Divided on How to Achieve School Desegregation

236

(2)

Racially Discriminatory State Action

238

(2)

Private Acts of Racial Discrimination and ``State Action''

240

(4)

Ending Nonracial Class and Caste Discrimination in America

244

(8)

Gender-Based Discriminations

244

(3)

Wealth, Poverty, Illegitimacy

247

(2)

Resident and Illegal Aliens

249

(2)

Age and Mental Retardation Discrimination

251

(1)

Marshall's Concept of Genuine Equality

252

(3)

Bakke and the Affirmative Action Battles: ``They Just Don't Get It!''

255

(28)

1964: Affirmative Action's Beginnings

256

(2)

The Bakke Case: Defining Affirmative Action

258

(12)

The Constitutionality of Court-Ordered Affirmative Action Programs

270

(3)

Are ``Voluntary'' Affirmative Action Plans Constitutional?

273

(3)

Government Contracting and Licensing and Affirmative Action Goals

276

(4)

The Affirmative Action Battles

280

(3)

Procedural Fairness and Substantive Justice: Realities and Myths

283

(30)

The Hugo, Oklahoma, Criminal Justice Horror: Lyons

284

(2)

Marshall versus Rehnquist: The Uneven Battles

286

(1)

Protection Against ``Unreasonable'' Searches and Seizures

287

(9)

The Fifth Amendment and the Specter of Coerced Confessions

296

(4)

The Right to Counsel and Other Sixth Amendment Protections

300

(3)

Marshall's Views About the Death Penalty

303

(8)

Marshall's Criminal Justice Jurisprudence

311

(2)

Marshall and First Amendment Freedoms

313

(42)

The First Amendment: An Absolute Set of Freedoms?

314

(2)

Freedom of Speech and Expression

316

(26)

Protected Speech

317

(2)

Unprotected Speech

319

(3)

Peaceful Assembly and Association Rights

322

(6)

The Predicament of the ``Speech Plus Conduct'' Cases

328

(5)

Freedom of the Press and Clashes with Fair Trial Guarantees

333

(6)

Freedom of the Press versus the Right to a Fair Trial

339

(3)

The ``No Establishment of Religion'' and ``Free Exercise'' Clauses

342

(11)

The ``No Establishment of Religion'' Clause

344

(5)

The ``Free Exercise of Religion'' Clause

349

(4)

Marshall and the First Amendment Freedoms

353

(2)

The Constitution as Evolving Guarantor of New Rights

355

(22)

The Right to Privacy

356

(6)

Abortion as a Woman's Personal---and Private---Choice

362

(15)

Roe's Antecedents

363

(1)

Roe v. Wade

364

(5)

Roe's Progeny: The Woes of Roe

369

(8)

Justice Marshall: Always the Outsider, Always Defiant

377

(12)

Marshall for the Defense

382

(5)

Marshall's Epitaph

387

(2)

Research Notes

389

(18)

Bibliography

407

(8)

Case Index

415

(4)

General Index

419

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