◆ SpookStack

Be ee a ot ge ma” CHIEF COUNSEL FOR N.A.A.C.P. STOPS ON SUPREME COURT BUILDING STEPS BEFORE GOING IN TO HEAR OF RIS LATEST SUCCESS IN DRIVE FOR DESEGREGATION -~ et = <8 — me eee ee CHIEF COUNSEL CLOSE-UP wr ere we ee ee ee ee oe ee er. | ee FOR EQUALITY Thurgood Marshall, easy mannered but relentless, is the man who led winning fight on segregation - by OLIVER ALLEN battles for desegregation than any other man in the U.S. As chief Counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. he has harried defenders of segregation in court- room after courtroom, from the hostile territory of the deep South to the marble chamber of the Supreme Court. Last week in Washington, D.C., Marshall won his latest victory when the Supreme Court, while declining to set the deadline he had asked, ruled that the states “must make a prompt and reasonable start” toward desegregation in schools. In one of the touchiest legal issues of the day, Marshall came out on top, as he has in 12 out of his 14 Supreme Court cases. Under the circumstances it would be reasonable to expect that opposition lawyers—most of them Southerners—would take an un- kind view of Thurgood Marshall. But here are “unkind” words they have said about their Negro opponent: Joseph Greenhill, who faced Marshall in the important Sweatt segregation case in Texas: “He was an excellent lawyer in the court- room. He was courteous, he didn’t rant or rave, and he asked good questions.” Robert Figg, who fought Marshall in the South Carolina school seg- regation case: ‘He is an able lawyer and a skillful advocate. His ap- peals gain power from his dedication to the cause which he presents.” Taggart Whipple, who opposed Marshall in last year's Supreme TERS MansHait has fought and won more important legal Court case: “He was eminently fair. Certainly he is one of the top civil liberties lawyers in the country.” At 46. the leading civil rights lawyer of his time is a surprising man, full of contradictions. No solemn crusader. he is high-spirited, loud-talking_and wisecracking. Profoundly devoted to a cause, he usually looks and sounds like a man who is mainly concerned with satisfying his zest for life. This remarkable man has had a remarkable background and back- _ing. He has had 19 vears of unmatched legal experience working for the N.A.A.C.P. He has had at his command the full resources of a university law school, Howard University’s. whose faculty. graduates and undergraduates not only work tirelessly for him but provide him with a unique and invaluable “dry run” before every big case. Most of all. Marshal! has had the inspiration of a special hero and a teacher with a far vision, Charlie Houston. Though Houston died five years ago. Marshall still lives by his rules and vision. “Charlie Houston taught us all that we should be ‘social engineers,’ ” Marshail remembers. One of the most gifted and polished advocates his race has known. Houston in 1929 took over the law school at Howard University, a Negro institution in Wash- ington. D.C. His goal was to prepare for a vigorous civil rights drive for the American Negro. To do this he planned to convert Howard Law School. until then distinctly second rate, into a “West Point of Negro leadership” so that Negroes could win their own social gains CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE i4t - “= +e - - ©