page_title: Thurgood Marshall
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Thurgood Marshall / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Public School 103 in Baltimore. US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall attended this school 1914-1920. Located in the Old West Baltimore Historic District, on the NRHP since December 23, 2004. The district is roughly bounded by North Ave., Dolphin St., Franklin St. and Fulton Ave. in west Baltimore. The school is located about 1315 Division Street.
context_page_description: Thurgood Marshall was an American lawyer and civil rights activist who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court's first African-American justice. Prior to his judicial service, he successfully argued several cases before the Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education.
  Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Marshall graduated from the Howard University School of Law in 1933. He established a private legal practice in Baltimore before founding the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he served as executive director. In that position, he argued several cases before the Supreme Court, including Smith v. Allwright, Shelley v. Kraemer, and Brown v. Board of Education, the latter of which held that racial segregation in public education is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.
  In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Four years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Marshall as the United States Solicitor General.
context_section_description: Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 2, 1908. He was descended from enslaved peoples on both sides of his family. His original name was Thoroughgood, but he shortened it to Thurgood. His father, William Canfield Marshall, worked as a railroad porter, and his mother, Norma Arica Williams, as a teacher; they instilled in him an appreciation for the United States Constitution and the rule of law.
  Marshall first learned how to debate from his father, who took Marshall and his brother to watch court cases; they would later debate what they had seen. The family also debated current events after dinner. Marshall said that although his father never told him 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."
  Marshall attended Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore and was placed in the class with the best students. He graduated a year early in 1925 with a B-grade average, and placed in the top third of the class. He went to Lincoln University, a historically black university in Pennsylvania. It is commonly reported that he intended to study medicine and become a dentist. But according to his application to Lincoln University, Marshall said his goal was to become a lawyer. Among his classmates were poet Langston Hughes and musician Cab Calloway. Initially he did not take his studies seriously, and was suspended twice for hazing and pranks against fellow students. He was not politically active at first, becoming a "star" of the debating team.
  In his first year Marshall opposed the integration of African-American professors at the university. Hughes later described Marshall as "rough and ready, loud and wrong". In his second year Marshall participated in a sit-in protest against segregation at a local movie theater. That year he was initiated as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first fraternity founded by and for blacks.
  In September 1929 Marshall married Vivien Buster Burey and began to take his studies seriously, graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American literature and philosophy in 1930.
  Marshall wanted to study in his hometown law school, the University of Maryland School of Law, but did not apply because of the school's segregation policy. Marshall attended Howard University School of Law, where he worked harder than he had at Lincoln. His mother had to pawn her wedding and engagement rings to pay the tuition. His views on discrimination were strongly influenced by the dean, Charles Hamilton Houston. In 1933, Marshall graduated magna cum laude and first in his law class.
caption: Henry Highland Garnet School (P.S. 103), where Marshall attended elementary school
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "COOLPIX S4100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 7.6.6", "Image DateTime": "2012:03:16 14:55:08", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.6.8", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "270", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "58210", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6077", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "16/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:03:15 14:13:09", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:03:15 14:13:09", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "17/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "23/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4320", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3240", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "26", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Portrait", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}