Honoring Thurgood Marshall
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- May
- 14
Thurgood Marshall, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1967 to 1991 and was the first African-American to join the court, is about to be recognized with a day in his honor.
Thurgood Marshall Day is set for Sunday and every May 17 that follows, following the state Assembly’s unanimous approval of a measure that was sponsored by Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern.
The legislation next goes to the Senate and also has to be signed into law by the governor before it takes effect. Passage of the law is expected. 
While Marshall is a highly regarded attorney and national civil rights leader, he also has important ties to Rockland.
Marshall is perhaps best known for representing the NAACP in the historic 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case, which led the Supreme Court to declare the segregation of public schools illegal in the United States.
But earlier, in 1943, Marshall stood with a group of African-American families and successfully argued for the desegregation of the Main School, now called Hillburn School, in Ramapo.
“He championed the most important premises of democratic government – freedom, equality, and justice for all and successfully utilized the courthouse to advocate for and champion the cause of equal treatment under the law,” Jaffee stated yesterday.
Some local Rockland leaders headed to Albany to be present for the Assembly’s vote yesterday.
This photo was provided by Jaffee’s office.
(Left to right, standing) Bill Thorne; Spring Valley village Mayor George Darden; County Legislator Bill Darden, D-Hillcrest; Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s president, Les St. Louis, and Willie Bryant; Spring Valley NAACP President Willie Trotman; Jaffee; Merle George, the Rev. Walter Brightman; Jesse Jones; (left to right, sitting) Spring Valley Kiwanis President Lenora McCabe; Spring Valley Democratic Committee Chairperson Pat Caldwell; and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority member Virginia Beasley. Thorne, George and Jones are members of the Spring Valley NAACP.
Above, Marshall, then-chief counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, talks to reporters in New York City in this May 31, 1955 photo. 1996. (AP Photo/File)
This entry was posted
on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 12:19 pm by Laura Incalcaterra. 
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