Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!
I recently came across this in my reading concerning Justice Marshall and Dr. Martin Luther King.
After becoming the NAACP's chief legal counsel in 1938, Thurgood Marshall won several landmark court cases in the late 1940's and early 1950's banning segregation, including Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Historians see these legal victories as laying the foundation for Martin Luther King's successful challenges to segregation.
Although Marshall favored legal remedies as more efficient and effective than civil disobedience and demonstrations, yet he appreciated Dr. King, acknowledging him as a "great speaker" and that Dr. King's protests "achieved much. If you put them in the scale, they would weigh very heavy, because it reached people's consciousness."
Dr. King likewise appreciated Thurgood Marshall, writing to him 1958, "We will remain eternally grateful to your staff for the great work you have done."
In 1967 Marshall was confirmed to the Supreme Court where he remained the first and only African American justice until he retired in 1991.
Dedicated to protecting and advancing your rights on Martin Luther King Day and every day,
Rick Lundin