The Defenders Online
Posted By The Editors
Posted By The Editors
May 17th, 2010
By Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
Earlier this spring the New York state legislature enacted and Governor David A. Paterson signed legislation designating May 17 at Thurgood Marshall Day. May 17, of course, is also the anniversary of the day on which the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 issued its decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the case that, in declaring racially-segregated schooling unconstitutional, destroyed the legal foundations of Jim Crow in America. So, it is entirely appropriate to join the anniversary of Brown with a day that honors the life and achievements of an individual who played a central role in leading the Court and the American people to that decision and the righting of a grievous wrong. In 1993 Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. delivered one of the eulogies at the funeral of Thurgood Marshall, which was held in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Jordan, a member of the board of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., which Marshall had founded, wrote about the meaning of that event for him in his 2008 book, Make It Plain: Standing Up and Speaking Out. We include both reflections here.
The passing of Thurgood Marshall, whose casket rested before me in the great sanctuary of the Washington National Cathedral, was a sad contrast to the sense of revitalization, hope and relief that just days earlier had attended the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton—the first Democratic administration in a dozen years, and one whose victory and progressive outlook stemmed from the social revolution Thurgood Marshall had played so central a role in forging.
Thurgood Marshall was a guardian of this nation’s greatest treasure. He was a keeper of the flame of the American ideal. Both an advocate and a tribune of freedom, he appeared at a critical historical moment to help rescue from the dustbin of hypocrisy that glorious declaration of the Constitution: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.
Full Obituary: http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/05/17/a-powerful-voice-not-stilled-still-heard/
By Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
Earlier this spring the New York state legislature enacted and Governor David A. Paterson signed legislation designating May 17 at Thurgood Marshall Day. May 17, of course, is also the anniversary of the day on which the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 issued its decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the case that, in declaring racially-segregated schooling unconstitutional, destroyed the legal foundations of Jim Crow in America. So, it is entirely appropriate to join the anniversary of Brown with a day that honors the life and achievements of an individual who played a central role in leading the Court and the American people to that decision and the righting of a grievous wrong. In 1993 Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. delivered one of the eulogies at the funeral of Thurgood Marshall, which was held in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Jordan, a member of the board of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., which Marshall had founded, wrote about the meaning of that event for him in his 2008 book, Make It Plain: Standing Up and Speaking Out. We include both reflections here.
The passing of Thurgood Marshall, whose casket rested before me in the great sanctuary of the Washington National Cathedral, was a sad contrast to the sense of revitalization, hope and relief that just days earlier had attended the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton—the first Democratic administration in a dozen years, and one whose victory and progressive outlook stemmed from the social revolution Thurgood Marshall had played so central a role in forging.
Thurgood Marshall was a guardian of this nation’s greatest treasure. He was a keeper of the flame of the American ideal. Both an advocate and a tribune of freedom, he appeared at a critical historical moment to help rescue from the dustbin of hypocrisy that glorious declaration of the Constitution: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.
Full Obituary: http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/05/17/a-powerful-voice-not-stilled-still-heard/
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