A UNIVERSAL BENCHMARK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP97M00518R000600730005-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 2011
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: January 30, 1993
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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LEVEL 1 - .4 Of 95 STORIES
Copyright 1993 The Washington Post
The Washington Past
January 30, 1993, Saturday, Final Edition
SECTION: METRO; PAGE BI; DOROTHY GILLIAM
LENGTH: 682 words
HEADLINE: A Universal Benchmark
SERIES: Occasional
BYLINE: DOR07HY GILLI AM
BODY :
Too rarely does an American institution recognize an African American as an
authority on matters that affect all our lives. More often, his or her
perspective is sought on issues related to blacks: civil rights and race.
5o when a District resident called me early this week upset about the
diminishing" of the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgaod Marshall, I knew what
he was talking about.
He was referring to those stories that, while well-displayed or prominently
aired ---maybe even well-intentioned -- still described the great jurist
primarily in terms of his contribution to African Americans.
Explosively, the caller railed: He was so much more than that?"
Indeed, he was. Thu.rgood Marshall never saw a right he didn't vindicate --
whether it was for women, gays, prisoners. A fierce proponent of individual
rights, he supported anyone who was oppressed, disadvantaged or downtrodden,
ultimately transforming the way the law operated for them.
Even when he fought to extend equal rights to African Americans, to make the
promises of equal protection a living reality, Marshall defined the rights of
citizenship for all Americans. Indeed, to some blacks, the narrow descriptions
of Marshall felt almost like a racial put-dawn.
By midweek, Marshall began to get his just due as more thoughtful
commentators were heard from and their appreciation of the broadness of his
views emerged.
At his impressive funeral on Thursday, an audience that included President
Clinton, the 12 living sitting and retired justices and thousands of people of
all races and stations gave Marshall a monumental expression of appreciation.
'Most important, he began to receive the context, perspective and historical
significance that he deserved.
Chief Justice William K. Rehnquist noted that Marshall wrote more than 300
major opinions, and he called him an advocate of "civil rights for minorities
and civil liberties for all."
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The Uashington Post, January 30, 1993
Referring to the inscription an the Supreme Court building, "Equal Justice
Under Law," he said, Surely no one individual did more to make these words a
reality than Thurgood Marshall."
Former secretary of transportation William T. Coleman Jr.. noted Marshall's
legal revolution, much of which "had nothing to do with race," with regard to
women's rights, forced confession, improper police practice, right to privacy
and habeas corpus.
Putting Marshall an a par with Abraham Lincoln, he said Marshall "gave cloth
and linen to the work that at Abraham Lincoln's death was left undone."
In her reference to Marshall's "vision of law as an agent of social change,"
former Marshall law clerk 'Karen Hastie Williams touched an another unique and
rarely mentioned Marshall contribution: an approach to law in which it is used
as an instrument of justice and transformation.
Building an the legacy of Charles Houston,. his teacher at the Howard
University School of Law and NAACP partner, Marshall furthered this notion of
solving social problems using the law and it formed the basis for many of the
other transformations of laws that occurred in the 1r/60s and 1970s.
Its important to note Marshall's contributions to the whole of America,
because he, like all blacks, is connected to the whole.
It is v%hen people are able to view others as separate and apart that it
becomes easier to dehumanize them and ignore the issues that affect them, and to
be numb or blind to what happens to- them and how that ultimately affects
everyone.
3hurgaod Marshall understood that fact, and he used his legal brilliance to
make "equal justice under the law" more nearly a reality for all.
At his funeral, they bade us to live- his legacy. *I hope that the nation has
the will and moral courage to finish these two giants' ILincoln and Marshall3
unfinished business," Coleman said.
One important part. of that legacy is to rid ourselves of the nations that
African Americans have limits on what they can contribute to America, that their
scholarship and abilities are measured by the color of their skin and not by the
depth of,their minds, courage, grace and fortitude.
TYPE: COLUMN
SUBJECT: JUDGES; FUNERALS AND MEMORIAL SERVICES
NAMED-PERSONS: THURGOOD MARSHALL
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