Marshall - A Film Review
Thoroughgood "Thurgood" Marshall was the NAACP's star lawyer, and was the first African-American appointed to the US Court of Appeals by President Kennedy, and despite a group of congressmen opposing him, he held it from 1961-65. After that, President Johnson appointed him the US Solicitor General, which was not only the first time a Black person had held that position, but it made him the highest-ranking Black member of the US government.
He argued many cases in the US Supreme Court, losing only 3. The most famous was Brown vs. the Board of Education (MD), and worked on many other cases, most of which he won. In 1934, he started helping the NAACP. In 1940, he founded and became the executive director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He worked tirelessly for equal rights and to free wrongfully accused Blacks who were being persecuted because of racism, and was praised by the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Later, he was appointed to the US Supreme Court by President Johnson, becoming the first Black to successfully become a USSC judge. His influence and efforts did not stop. In 1991, two years before he died, he retired due to ill health.
The movie, Marshall, is a fictionalized telling of a Connecticut trial in which a Black chauffeur is accused of raping his employer's wife. Although it also fictionalizes some of the facts of Mr. Marshall, it is a wonderful film to watch. It characterizes Mr. Marshall as a very forthright, assertive and intelligent man who had great skill in being an attorney, and mentored Sam Friedman, a Jewish attorney who later worked tirelessly for equal rights, too. Even if the entire movie is fiction, it is a great film to enjoy, with stellar performances by many.
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