Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as 1st Black Justice of Supreme Court on this day

[octoberlib]

Link to tweet

Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first black Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States on this date August 30 in 1967.





Need a good book to read? I highly recommend Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
* Nominated for a 2013 Edgar Award
* Book of the Year (Non-fiction, 2012) The Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor

n 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor. To maintain order and profits, they turned to Willis V. McCall, a violent sheriff who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old Groveland girl cried rape, McCall was fast on the trail of four young blacks who dared to envision a future for themselves beyond the citrus groves. By day's end, the Ku Klux Klan had rolled into town, burning the homes of blacks to the ground and chasing hundreds into the swamps, hell-bent on lynching the young men who came to be known as "the Groveland Boys."

And so began the chain of events that would bring Thurgood Marshall, the man known as "Mr. Civil Rights," and the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century, into the deadly fray. Associates thought it was suicidal for him to wade into the "Florida Terror" at a time when he was irreplaceable to the burgeoning civil rights movement, but the lawyer would not shrink from the fight--not after the Klan had murdered one of Marshall's NAACP associates involved with the case and Marshall had endured continual threats that he would be next.

https://www.amazon.com/Devil-Grove-Thurgood-Marshall-Groveland-ebook/dp/B005MMO0IY/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1504110133&sr=1-3&keywords=thurgood+marshall

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. It would be nice if we still had an African American supreme court justice on the court today.

:/

[radical noodle]

2. I just finished reading that book

This took place in Lake County, and one of the trials in Marion County. I live in Marion County and the Lake County line is about a mile from our house. I can't tell you how shocking it was to know this went on in this area not all that long ago.

I learned a lot about Thurgood Marshall I didn't know, and while the book wasn't enjoyable (due to the subject matter) it was certainly eye-opening. I highly recommend it.

[jalan48]

3. One of the best.

"Devil in the Grove" is a great account of Marshall's work when he was with the NAACP in the 30's and 40's.