Robert Dallek Lyndon B. Johnson, Portrait of a President (2004)

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.:: thurgood marshallAt the same time Johnson saw the potential for better Soviet-American rela�tions as one bright spot in an otherwise gloomy world, he viewed anappointment to the Supreme Court as his principal chance in 1967 to makea major advance in domestic affairs.In its 178-year history Supreme Courtjustices had all been white males.No president had ever proposed appoint�ing a person of color or a woman to the Court.Johnson believed that, aswith desegregation of all public institutions, the Court should now reflectthe shift in social and political mood toward fulfilling constitutional man�dates on equal treatment under the law.And what better place to promoteequality and justice for all than in the institution most responsible for defin�ing the law of the land?In February, when Tom Clark announced that he would resign from theCourt at the close of its current term to assure against conflicts of interestwith his son Ramsey, LBJ s choice for Attorney General, Johnson had a sec�ond chance to appoint an associate justice.Having convinced Abe Fortasto replace Arthur Goldberg on the bench, Johnson now wanted anotherliberal who would legitimize his Great Society reforms.But he also wantedsomeone who would underscore his administration s commitment to thecivil rights revolution of 1964 65.In a discussion with advisers, he men�tioned several black jurists but declared that he was also consideringappointing the first woman to the Court.Lady Bird encouraged Lyndon todo just that.But Johnson concluded that a black had a prior claim on the position.Having made no major civil rights advances in almost two years and believ�ing it impractical to expect any to pass Congress in the current or nextsession, Johnson saw a black appointment to the bench as a compellingalternative.Such a selection would have great symbolic as well as substan�tive significance.At a time when inner-city riots and black radicalismattached a stigma of lawlessness to black behavior, he wanted to reaffirmthe commitment of blacks to American institutions and the rule of law.No one promised to serve Johnson s purposes better than ThurgoodMarshall.The fifty-eight-year-old Marshall was a seasoned jurist with arecord of extraordinary accomplishment as an attorney and a judge.Theson of a Pullman car steward and kindergarten teacher, Marshall grew upin Baltimore, as racially segregated as any Deep South city. The only thing292 :: lyndon b.johnsondifferent between the South and Baltimore was trolley cars, Marshall saidlater. They weren t segregated.Everything else was segregated. As a childand adolescent, Marshall had a comfortable existence with little impulseto rebel against the accepted social mores.During his years at Lincoln Uni�versity in Pennsylvania, a black college with a white teaching staff, he wasexposed to arguments about integrating the faculty that encouraged him tooppose separation of the races.Barred by the color line from attending theUniversity of Maryland law school, he graduated first in his class fromWashington, D.C. s, Howard University with an LLB in 1933.Under the tutelage of Charles H.Houston, the dean at Howard and laterdirector of the NAACP s Legal Defense and Education Fund, Marshalllaunched a career as an advocate of black rights.Pressuring white storeowners in Baltimore to hire blacks and the steel workers union to integrate,Marshall won a landmark case forcing the Maryland law school to accepta black applicant.Beginning in 1936, he joined the NAACP s legal officein New York, where he set legal precedents with cases ending restrictivecovenants against selling homes to blacks, bars to black voting in Texasparty primaries, and less pay to black school teachers for the same workdone by whites.His successful advocacy in 1954 of school desegregation inBrown v.Board of Education, coupled with twenty-eight other winningpleas out of thirty-two made before the U.S.Supreme Court, secured Mar-shall s place as one of the greatest jurists in American history.In 1961 President Kennedy appointed Marshall to a lifetime position asa judge of the U.S.Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which han�dles appeals for New York, Connecticut, and Vermont.His confirmationwas held up for twelve months by Senate Judiciary Committee ChairmanJames O.Eastland of Mississippi.In July 1965, Johnson nominated Marshall for appointment as SolicitorGeneral, the U.S.government s top litigating lawyer.Marshall had under�standable reservations.He had to give up a lifetime judgeship, take a paycut, and risk losing his position should the President become dissatisfiedwith his performance or leave the presidency in 1969.Moreover, Johnsonemphasized that the solicitor s job had nothing to do with any SupremeCourt appointment.I want that distinctly understood, he told Marshall.Marshall saw compelling reasons to accept.As solicitor, he would havethe power to influence what cases would come before the Supreme Courtand how they would be framed; the job would assure him of a powerfulpolicy influence throughout the Executive Branch [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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