A news & notes AP Thurgood Marshall Honored On New Stamp (NAPSA)—Thurgood Marshall, a famed civil rights lawyer and most notably the first African American to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, received one of the nation’s highest honors when the U.S. Postal Service issued a new commemorative postage stamp in January 2008. powers The stamp is the P™ 126th in the Black ‘Heritage stamp ‘series. The series ‘began in 1978 with |ithe issuance of the A: Q: Harriet Tubman stamp. Born in Baltimore, Md., on July 2, 1908, Marshall graduated in 1930 from Lincoln ow aes Eee |ea University in Pennsylvania, determined to become a lawyer. Later that year he entered Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C. After graduating first in his law school class in 1933, Mar- shall opened a private practice in Baltimore. In 1934, he also began to serve as pro bono counsel for the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). By 1936, he had closed his private practice and was working for the NAACP’s national legal staff in New York City. In 1938, Marshall was promoted to chief counsel and became responsible for running the NAACP’s legal office. Marshall is one of the best known lawyers in the history of civil rights in America. In 1954, Marshall and his legal team prevailed in the landmark Supreme Court case, “Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas,” which struck down segregation in public schools. Marshall madehistory again in 1967, when he was sworn in as the first African-American justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. His 24-year tenure was marked byhis commitment to defending consti- wevevvvvyyyy~y He pric, > Te a3] : ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ 4 ( ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ 4 ca : F : ; c f k : c , Thurgood Marshall ‘ ? 2003 @ Thurgood Marshall, a civil rights giant, was the nation’sfirst black Supreme Court justice. tutional rights and affirmative action and by his strong opposition to the death penalty. On Jan. 24, 1993, Marshall died in Bethesda, Md., at the age of 85. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom—our country’s highest civilian honor—on Nov. 30, 1998. Marshall joins 25 other honorees in the Postal Service’s Black Heritage series, which salutes outstanding African-American activists, theorists, educators and leaders. Other notable Americans in the series are: Martin Luther King, Jr., Benjamin Banneker, Whitney Moore Young, Jackie Robinson, Scott Joplin, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., Madam C.J. Walker, Patricia Roberts Harris, Roy Wilkins and Langston Hughes, who was honored in January 2002. The Thurgood Marshall stamp was designed by Richard Sheaff of Scottsdale, Ariz., and is the eighth in the Black Heritage series to feature a photograph. To see the Thurgood Marshall stamp, visit the Collector’s Corner at the Postal Service Web site at www.usps.com.
