OCDLA
Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association
The Thurgood Marshall Appellate Advocacy Award
Thurgood Marshall, the grandson of a slave, was born in 1908 in Maryland . In 1930, he was denied admission to the University of Maryland Law School due to the fact that he was black. This event was to direct his future professional life.
In 1934, he began his association with the NAACP and dismantled school segregation in his 1954 victory of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka . He later desegregated graduate schools with his victory in McLaurin vs. Oklahoma State Regents. As a Justice for the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, he made 112 rulings that were all upheld before the United States Supreme Court. As Solicitor General for the United States , he won 14 of 19 cases argued before the United States Supreme Court. In 1967, Thurgood Marshall was the first African American appointed to the United States Supreme Court. He was often the lone voice of dissent against the death penalty and always spoke for voiceless Americans in his opinions. He died in 1993.
