There is nothing quite like a major figure from history speaking to us directly. This is the experience we have when reading Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall (Amistad, 2011).
Thurgood Marshall was the fearless litigator for the NAACP and then the NAACP Legal Defense Fund who led countless courtroom battles (most famously, Brown v. Board of Education) that changed American culture. His casework set crucial legal precedents that enabled desegregation of schools, the military and other public institutions, and greatly improved equal opportunity under the law for African Americans.
Marshall’s legal acumen and public service were recognized with an appointment to the federal bench by President Kennedy and then President Johnson’s historic appointment of Marshall as the first African-American U.S. Supreme Court justice in 1967.
The St. Louis American spoke to Michael G. Long, the editor of Marshalling Justice, about the man who emerges in these letters, which span from March 18, 1935 to Feb. 18, 1957 and set the stage for the emergence of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The St. Louis American: In your introduction, you tell the reader, “Expect to be surprised – at his courage, his compromises, his convictions, and perhaps most of all his scope of work.” What is surprising about his courage?
Michael G. Long: I think one thing about his courage that is surprising is he just keeps going on and on. Several times in his life, death threats were made to him. At one point he is driven to a river for an apparent lynching, the Duck River in Tennessee, after he did well in a case there defending so-called rioters. The only way he escaped was some friends followed the police car in which Marshall was riding, and the police officers got concerned that they would get caught, so they took him back and dropped him off in the center of town. Even after that, he just soldiers on.
The St. Louis American: What is surprising about his compromises?
Michael G. Long: In the beginning of his relationship with J. Edgar Hoover, he was very pointed in his criticism. He would say something like, “The FBI is very capable at ferreting out spies for the Communists in remote places all over the world, yet is unable to locate white thugs who harm and kill African Americans in broad daylight.” And he asked Hoover to hire African-American agents and made them be more sensitive when they interviewed African Americans in the South. He told them not to travel with the local white sheriffs or police authorities when they interviewed African Americans about police brutality.
Through the years, though, he grows into a friendlier relationship with Hoover. By the end of his tenure at the NAACP, he is feeding Hoover and the FBI information on black militants. That definitely was a surprise to me. Marshall sidled up to power, and in some ways he blunted his criticism. As he did so, he got things in return. He did so for smart reasons. He got protection from the FBI. He also got greater assistance from the FBI in prosecuting race-based crimes. Hoover got friendly with him, too.
The St. Louis American: What is surprising about his convictions?
Michael G. Long: What surprised me about his convictions is he remains so consistent in them throughout the years, even when his mentors took a different path.
Marshall devoted a great part of his time at the NAACP to combating racism and discrimination in the military during World War II. Charles Hamilton Houston was Marshall’s mentor at the Howard University Law School. Houston really was the man who taught Marshall the tools to transform society. Marshall looked up to Houston as he did nobody else. Houston was the one who sent Marshall down the path to Brown v. Board of Education. Unfortunately, Houston died several months before that breakthrough case.
During World War II, Houston decided to put his time and energy in fighting for the best African Americans could get within the system of segregation in the military. Marshall disagrees and believes the purpose of the NAACP is to fight against segregation, period, not for the best possible circumstances or conditions within segregation. So Marshall stands up against the U.S. military, including General MacArthur, who he calls out as the Army’s biggest segregationist.
The St. Louis American: What is surprising about his scope of work?
Michael G. Long: When Lyndon Johnson was thinking of nominating Marshall for the Supreme Court, it seems he took seriously Washington, D.C. rumors that Marshall was lazy, that he was a lazy black man – you know the line. My book shows that Marshall was one of the most hard-working attorneys in the U.S.
He worked day and night to combat racism and discrimination in virtually every major corner of the U.S. For many years he did it as a one-man shop. He was the NAACP’s one and only attorney for several years. He worked with Charles Hamilton Houston at the beginning, then Houston left and for a couple of years Marshall was left alone. His legal plate overflowed and caused him to hire other people. With the influx of complaints from soldiers in World War II, he finally realized the cause of racial justice required a lot more people. So he gets legal help.
The sheer volume of work is surprising in light of the incredibly high quality of the work. Houston taught Marshall he had to dot all his i’s and cross all his t’s. He had to read his drafts more than any white attorney ever would, he had to redraft his briefs more times. The expectation was higher for an African American. He also was obliged to pave the way for others following in his footsteps.
