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Who was the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court?
Forty years ago, on August 30, 1967, Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall was one of the most important lawyers of the 20th century.
Marshall was the architect of one of America's most radical transformations by helping to remove legal racism from the nation's leading institutions. His accomplishments were most unique because he was the grandson of a slave, and had to overcome the many barriers of law and prejudice that existed during the period when he was educated and got a law degree.
Activity: The Supreme Court has been in the news recently when President Bush appointed Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. to change the balance of power toward conservatism. Thurgood Marshall served at a time when the Supreme Court was liberal and more open to changing the law to favor civil rights for African Americans.
Here are some essential questions for critical thinking that students should address in their written reports.
- What in Thurgood Marshall's background helped him to succeed in his quest for civil rights?
- How did Marshall get the opportunity to be appointed to the Supreme Court?
- What event helped him to change the law to help African Americans?
- What other successes did Thurgood Marshall have in his tenure on the Supreme Court?
- Are there any other Black Justices since Marshall and do they have priorities similar to his?
Essential questions are the tool that turns research activities from more traditional scavenger hunts for facts into an exciting way for students to learn and express their own reasoned opinions and original thought.
These questions are models that teachers may want to assign; or they may want to create others that also integrate the process of critical thinking. These questions are the key to real student learning and transfer of learning to other areas of the curriculum.
Pathfinder: Type Thurgood Marshall in the Keyword/Natural Language Search box. Assign one or more of these questions to students for their mini-research reports. Reports should use at least two sources and consist of 100 to 150 written words or an oral report of two minutes.
If students have PowerPoint skills, they can integrate some great images and video from SIRS.
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