Product Description

This New York Times Notable Book of the Year, 1998, is now in trade paper.

From the bestselling author of Eyes on the Prize, here is the definitive biography of the great lawyer and Supreme Court justice.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #404463 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-01
• Released on: 2000-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 504 pages

Amazon.com Review
Washington Post correspondent and TV commentator Juan Williams has produced an illuminating look at a true giant of 20th-century American politics. Williams retells the story of Thurgood Marshall's successful desegregation of public schools in the U.S. with his victory in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, followed by his appointment to the Supreme Court in 1967 for a 24-year term. But he also recounts how W.E.B. Du Bois, then the head of the NAACP, gave a cold shoulder to the younger Marshall (who eventually helped oust Du Bois from the organization), and describes the tug of war between Marshall and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, as well as the mind games Lyndon Johnson played on Marshall before nominating him for the Supreme Court. Readers also learn about Marshall's relationship with his replacement, Clarence Thomas, which was surprisingly civil given their contrary views on affirmative action. Williams has captured many examples of Thurgood Marshall's heroism and humanity in this comprehensive yet readable biography of a complex, combative, and courageous civil rights figure. --Eugene Holley Jr.

From Publishers Weekly
Thirteen years before becoming the first African-American justice on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall's place in American history was secured, with his victory over school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education. Williams (Eyes on the Prize) offers readers a thorough, straightforward life of "the unlikely leading actor in creating social change in the United States in the twentieth century." Although he was denied access to the files of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where Marshall devoted more than 40 years of his law career, and worked without the cooperation of Marshall's family, Williams has managed to fill in the blanks with over 150 interviews, including lengthy sessions with Marshall himself in 1989. Marshall is portrayed as an outspoken critic of black militancy and nonviolent demonstrations. Williams mentions, but does not dwell on, Marshall's history of heavy drinking, womanizing and sexual harassment. But his private contacts with J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, even while that organization was working to discredit Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, receives critical attention. This relationship "could have cost him his credibility among civil rights activists had it become known," writes Williams. Likewise, it would appear that his extra-legal activities and charges of incompetence and Communist connections would, if publicized, have kept him from the Supreme Court, as he himself admitted. Nevertheless, this work will stand as an accessible and fitting tribute to a champion of individual rights and "the architect of American race relations." Photos not seen by PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
These two books about a giant in U.S. legal and political history mirror each other in myriad ways, detailing the history of the NAACP, the rise of Jim Crow, lynchings, etc. Ball's (political science, Univ. of Vermont) study contains more legal lingo, which makes for a less interesting read, while Williams's portrait is more revealing of the private side of the justice.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

A Complex Personality who changed the direction of history
Williams certainly understands the value of Marshall's great contributions to the long overdue advancement of African-Americans. Often over shadowed by King and Malcom X, Marshall accomplished much with his work in the courts to pave the way for the end of segregation. The sections leading up to Brown were compelling and helped bring the reader back to time that is very different than today, but not too long ago. People unfamilar with the reality of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s will find this book invaluable. However, the strength of this book is that it paints Marshall not only as a great man, but a man with flaws. His dealings with other leaders, especially his conflicts with other great African-American leaders, his late night drinking, his womanizing all make him more human and more compelling. Not only was Marshall a significant fiqure in the Civil Rights movement, but he was also human, a man that readers can relate to and understand.

A true American Revolutionary
Despite the great number of biographies and reporting about the justices and inner working of the Supreme Court, no recent release tells the true story behind the story -- the human lives behind all the politics and power. However, in a new biography about the first African-American Supreme Court justice, Washington Post writer and Fox News commentator Juan Williams makes Thurgood Marshall come alive beyond the legal arguments and politics. Williams takes the reader throughout the course of Marshall's life, and ironically focuses only the final four chapters on his Supreme Court years.

Using this technique for the life story of most past and present Justices would be a meandering re-telling about growing up in a political family, attending prestigious schools, and making lots of money before landing a coveted job on the high bench. But Marshall's life is so completely different from most of the men (and they have been almost exclusively men) that have wielded this ultimate judicial power over the country. And it is that unique life story that allows Marshall to transform the nation.

Starting with his rise from a meager beginning in Baltimore, Williams guides us through the fascinating history of Marshall's activist family - from the defiant runaway slave for one grandfather to the other grandfather, a surly Civil War veteran who challenged the brutal racism of the local police. It was in this 19th century city of Baltimore, full of free blacks who owned their own businesses and ran their own private schools, that formed the community that gave birth to Thurgood Marshall. These activists, who demanded that their rights be respected even in a time of Jim Crow oppression, would nurture Marshall's social consciousness.

Marshall's childhood is filled with his own battles against the system of segregation that oppressed so many African-Americans across the country. Particularly poignant was the story about Marshall, working as a delivery boy during high school, being pulled off a trolley car and called "Nigger" because he stepped in front of a white woman. Marshall, strong-willed even as a teen, would not take that kind of abuse, and a huge fight broke out between Marshall and the white man who had grabbed him.

But Marshall's struggle against Jim Crow only increased after he went away to college. Attending Lincoln University, he fell into a friendship with the poet Langston Hughes, who was also a student at the all-male school. Their discussions about American society lead Marshall to take stronger views on race. But it wasn't until he graduated college and wanted to attend law school that the revolutionary spirit fully took hold of Thurgood Marshall. The University of Maryland would not allow him to attend because of their racist policies. So Marshall was forced to take the train everyday from Baltimore into Washington to attend law school at Howard University. There, the tough-minded dean, Charles Houston, took the bright young student under his wing and gave Marshall the training and the desire to do something radical - begin the long process of ending segregation.

Williams recounts the many years of Marshall's work with the NAACP, where as the lead attorney he won several notable cases ending discrimination in everything from housing to voting to bussing to teachers salaries. But it was his work in Brown versus Board of Education that really broke the back of segregation and made Marshall, as Williams contends, one of the most important lawyers of the 20th century. Williams goes through several of these historic cases, but the most compelling tales involve Marshall's defense of poor black men who had been accused of rape or murder and are rushed into kangaroo courts by southern, all-white law enforcement. Marshall's triumphs and failures all come out in these stories filled with both great humor and tremendous tragedy.

Thoroughly researched and with an impressive set of interviews, including over half-dozen of Marshall's colleagues on the Supreme Court, we get to see the full side of Thurgood Marshall. From his fights and surprising friendship with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, to his competition with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. It is clear through this parade of the famous and infamous that Thurgood Marshall had such a profound impact on this country. It is unfortunate that at the time of his death, he felt so forgotten and unappreciated.

This lengthy biography covers so many important issues of American life and law. While readers will not find theoretical legal analysis, they will become absorbed in a rich narrative filled with lively characters. But most importantly, this book of Marshall's life brings into focus something that has been lost in recent shouting matches about Louis Farrakhan, affirmative action, and other issues of race that divide us. And that simple truth is that individual rights must be afforded the fullest protections of the law. That was Marshall's life work and that is his legacy.

An incredible account of an amazing life
This is one of the most wonderful books I ever read. Thurgood Marshall is one of the most dynamic figures of the Civil Rights Movement. Williams not only gives an excellent and engaging account of Marshall's life, he represents the time in a manner that easily imagined. I was not alive during this period of time, but reading Williams' book made me feel as though I had experienced it. So often, when an author truly likes and admires his subject, the work that results is biased and not well-rounded. You can tell when you are reading something that is one-sided and too tributory to be accurate. Williams' admiration for this great man shines through in his book; however, it is by no means a song to Marshall. Williams' is fair in his dedication to not only Marshall's courage and brilliance, but also his fallibility and humanity. This is what brings the history to life. When you finish reading this book, you will feel as though you know Thurgood Marshall.