Thurgood Marshall

by Chris Crowe

Overview

Thurgood Marshall changed American history by challenging it. In the first half of the twentieth century, African Americans were often treated as second-class citizens and subject to Jim Crow laws, which promoted both racism and segregation. This is the world that Marshall grew up in, and he became a lawyer to change it. As the head counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), he helped take the famous Brown v. Board of Education all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And in an outcome surprising even to him, the court unanimously ruled to end segregation in schools. Thurgood Marshall had become a hero.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440638794
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	07/03/2008
Series:	Penguin Up Close Series
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Chris Crowe was born in Danville, Illinois, and attended schools in Illinois, New Mexico, and California before his parents settled down in Tempe, Arizona, where he graduated from McKemy Junior High and McClintock High School. He attended Brigham Young University on a football scholarship (and played in the 1974 Fiesta Bowl) and earned a BA in English. He taught English at McClintock High for 10 years while attending Arizona State University part-time, earning his masters and doctorate degrees.He is the author of several books, most notably Mississippi, 1955, which won several awards, including the 2003 International Reading Association's Young Adult Novel Award. His nonfiction book, Getting Away With Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case, was a Jane Addams Honor book. His first children's book, Just As Good: How Larry Dobb Changed America's game, was published in 2012. Chris married his high school sweetheart, and they live in Provo, Utah, where he works in the English department at BYU. They are the parents of four children and grandparents of two lovely girls and three handsome boys.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 7 Up

Crowe opens by describing the restrictions that circumscribed the lives of African Americans, including Marshall, before and during the civil rights era, and then covers his childhood, education, and professional years. The author devotes several chapters to the man's brave and dedicated legal work for the NAACP, his strategy in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case, and his years as Solicitor General and Supreme Court Justice, concluding with a chapter on his legacy as a civil rights giant. The book is generally admiring of Marshall and uses excerpts from primary sources to help readers become acquainted with both the professional who worked ceaselessly to improve civil rights and the private individual who had a well-developed sense of humor and expressed opinions in blunt and occasionally salty language. The text is supplemented with average-quality black-and-white photos. Although this book draws on recently published material, it does not significantly expand upon what can be found in James Haskins's well-written Thurgood Marshall (Holt, 1992; o.p.). Additional.-Mary Mueller, Rolla Junior High School, MO

School Library Journal

Crowe offers an engaging, insightful portrait of the first African-American Supreme Court justice. Prefacing Marshall's life story with an overview of race relations in the United States prior to his birth, the narrative effectively portrays both the racist society Marshall was born into and the way the injustices of his times shaped his remarkable career as a civil-rights attorney. Focusing on his career with the NAACP-which is convincingly presented as the most compelling aspect of his life-Marshall's pivotal involvement in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision is chronicled, as are lesser-known but equally important cases. Crowe notes that although Marshall always operated within the law, he frequently faced the lawlessness of a racist society, including several narrow escapes from lynch mobs. Anecdotes and quotes effectively illustrate Marshall's folksy demeanor, humor, intelligence and sharp wit. This is a captivating portrait of a heroic champion of justice that also offers great insight into the most pivotal moments of the Civil Rights Movement. (source notes, bibliography, further reading, index, photo credits) (Biography. 11 & up)

Kirkus Reviews