Resolution #1 - on Thurgood Marshall
(adopted)

13 - - - Submitted by Julian Tait , delegate, and Janet Eberhardt, alternate delegate, on behalf
14 - - - of the Vestry and Clergy of St. Augustine's, DC; the Very Rev. William S. Pregnall,
15 - - - the Rev. John T. Talbott, the Rev. Michael Marrett, the Rev. Martha K. Clark
16 - - - and the Rev. Bruce A. Eberhardt.

17 - - - - - - Resolved, that the One Hundred Eleventh Convention of the Diocese

18 - - - of Washington ask the 2006 General Convention to include Supreme Court Justice]

19 - - - Thurgood Marshall in the book of Lesser Feasts and Fasts, and be it further

20 - - - - - - Resolved, that the Convention ask the Bishop of Washington to declare May 17,

21 - - - the date of the decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, to be a day to commemorate

22 - - - throughout the Diocese of Washington the Christian witness of Justice Marshall.

Explanation: Thurgood Marshall was the grandson of a freed slave who fought in the Union army and later ran a grocery store in Baltimore , Maryland . His father was a Pullman car porter and worked in a country club whose membership was restricted to whites. Thurgood's mother graduated from college and was a school teacher in the Baltimore school system. Born in Baltimore in 1908, Thurgood attended Baltimore public schools and then attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania . In order to send Thurgood to law school at Howard University in Washington, DC, his mother pawned her engagement and wedding rings.

Thurgood Marshall had wanted to attend law school at the University of Maryland
but was denied entrance because he was a Negro. The indignity would not be forgotten.
In 1935 Thurgood successfully sued the University, causing it to open its doors to minority students. For a short while following graduation from Howard, Thurgood was in private practice in Baltimore . In 1936 Charles Hamilton Houston, chief counsel for the NAACP, called him to come to New York to be his deputy. Four years later the Legal Defense Fund, dedicated to civil rights advocacy and litigation, appointed Thurgood Marshall as its first director.

Thurgood Marshall has been called by many the most important African American
of the twentieth century. He spent thirty years crisscrossing the South, filing lawsuits
on behalf of the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. He was in great physical danger through those tumultuous and triumphant years. On more than one occasion, lynch mobs sought to hang him. In 1954 he headed a team of lawyers and successfully argued the Brown v. Board of Education case before the Supreme Court, overturning centuries of discrimination in education. President Kennedy appointed him to the Federal bench in 1961. In 1965 President Johnson named him Solicitor General and then Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1967 - he was the first African American to hold either position. Justice Marshall brought incredible change to the social, economic and political structure of the nation. Without regard for his personal safety and with immense energy, he tore down the barriers which had kept generation of African Americans from taking their rightful place in society. Thurgood Marshall was the author of major social changes from which everyone benefits. He died on January 24, 1993.

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When Thurgood Marshall moved to New York City in 1938, he became a very active member of St. Philip's Church in Harlem . He was on the Vestry (1957-82), a Senior Warden and Deputy to the 1964 General Convention. Mrs. Gladys Clark, 84 and a life long member of St. Philip's, recalls that Thurgood was in NYC frequently on business after moving to DC and would return to St. Philips for parish dinners, etc. when he was in town. She also reported that Thurgood frequently gave talks to the young people of the parish urging them to be thankful for what they have but always to strive for more When he spoke that way, it could well have been in contrast to his wrenching travels through the Jim Crow south.

When Thurgood became Solicitor General in 1965, the Marshall family moved to Washington , DC , joining St. Augustine 's Church in Southwest. The Rev. Dr. M. Moran Weston, the St. Philip's Rector at the time, kept Thurgood on the St. Philip's Vestry after his relocation to Washington , DC . Dr. Weston had a few people like Thurgood (who were not expected to attend every meeting) on the roster so their names and presence assisted the church in its organizing and fund raising efforts. Their two sons were raised in St. Augustine 's Parish and Thurgood's widow, 'Cissy,' is still a very active member there. In 1967, when he took the oath of office as Supreme Court Justice, his Bible was open to First Corinthians, 13 th Chapter, taking his oath with his hand upon that text. He chose
a text about love defined as a godly respect for the human dignity of others.

Thurgood Marshall believed very strongly in the Constitutional principle of the separation of church and state. Consequently, once he became a Supreme Court Justice, he attended church very infrequently Concerned that he would develop partisan political views which affect his judgment as a Justice, ironically, he ceased voting in local and national elections. However, as his wife has often said, "it was his deep faith in God and the teachings of our church that gave him the strength and courage to seek equal justice for all, always doing the best he could with what he had." In 1991 the General Convention, noting his impending retirement, passed a resolution, "offering thanks and profound gratitude to Justice Marshall for his long, courageous, and devoted service to the Constitution of the United States and the cause of equal rights and justice for all persons." Before he died, Thurgood joined John Glenn as the only living Americans to have a clerestory window dedicated to them at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

Delegates and all other members of the Diocese are urged to see the information about Thurgood Marshall on the diocesan website www.edow.org, which contains a more comprehensive biography along with testimony from within the church regarding his service to the Episcopal Church.

Budget Impact: There is no budget impact for this resolution.

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