Marshall Battled Segregation in “The Belly of The Beast”

Wil Haygood’s book “Showdown” makes it clear that if Thurgood Marshall had not been the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, he would have had a place in American history as one of our most effective lawyers. In her review of Haygood’s book, Annette Gordon-Reed points out that during the 1940s and 50s Marshall tied together a string of legal victories that not only served the aims of his clients, but ultimately transformed American society by laying the groundwork for his most celebrated victory in Brown v. Board of Education. Marshall’s life was routinely threatened when he appeared in southern courtrooms to argue against segregation.