In June 13, 1967 President Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by the retirement Of Justice Tom C. Clark. Johnson said of the appointment, “this was the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place.” The confirmation vote was 69 to 11 in favor of the nomination. Marshall was the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court.

Although he was a good Justice he made his name before being nominated as a successful lawyer. He was best known for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education. He argued more cases before the Supreme Court than anyone else in history.

In total Marshall won 29 of the 32 cases that he argued before the Supreme Court. In 1940 at age 32 he won his first Supreme Court case, Chambers v. Florida. That same year he was appointed Chief Counsel for the NAACP. It was in this position that he is best remembered. There were a number of successful cases that he argued before his most famous Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. This case overturned the separated but equal case established by Plessy v. Ferguson. The court ruled that “separate but equal” in education as established by Plessy v. Ferguson, was not applicable to public education because it could never be truly equal.

Surprisingly, Marshall established a friendly relationship with J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). It is evident that this relationship developed in 1956. He privately praised Hoover’s campaign to discredit T.T.M. Howard, an individualist civil rights leader from Mississippi. Howard had criticized the FBI’s failure to seriously investigate cases such as the 1955 killers of Blacks George W. Lee and Emmett Till. He did this while on a national speaking tour. In a private letter to Hoover, Marshall attacked Howard as being a “rugged individualist” and did not speak for the NAACP.

Two years later Howard had arranged for Marshall to deliver a well-received speech at a rally of his “Regional Council of Negro Leadership” in Mound Bayor, Mississippi. This was just days before the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Marshall felt disdain for Howard. He disliked his militant tone and maverick position and was aware that Hoover’s attack served to take the heat of the NAACP. This provided opportunities for closer ties between the NAACP and the FBI in civil rights. Some say the Marshall’s criticism of Howard, all private, was a screwed way in which to endear himself in the eyes of Hoover. They make this claim because Howard was a devoted supporter of civil rights, medical doctor, and entrepreneur and supporter of many Black causes.

The excellent work performed by Marshall in arguing before the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board cannot be denied. However, it is doubtful if he could have received a favorable decision had it not been for Kenneth and Mamie Clark. They were a married couple that were successful psychologists. These two were very active in the Civil Rights Movement. They were well known for using dolls to study children’s attitudes about race. Their work contributed to the favorable ruling in Brown v. Board of education. Based on their work Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the opinion, ”…to separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone.”

In their groundbreaking studies the Clark’s investigated Black children’s racial identification and preference, by using drawings and dolls of Black and White children. They asked Black preschool and elementary school children to indicate which drawing or doll they preferred and which drawing or doll looked most like them. They asked children to color line drawings of children with the color that most closely matched their own skin color. The findings concluded that the Black children often preferred the White doll and drawing and frequently colored the line drawing of the child a shade lighter than their own skin. The conclusion was that Black children responses illustrated that they viewed white as good and pretty, and black as bad and ugly. The Clarks were able to show that segregated schools were inherently unequal and therefore unconstitutional.

The American Psychological Association, May 27, 2003 wrote:

“A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has the tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of Negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racially integrated school system. In short segregation failed to provide Black and White children equal protection under the law – a protection guaranteed by the 14th amendment. Segregation was therefore deemed unconstitutional."