What is the quality of your intent?
THURGOOD MARSHALLWhat is the quality of your intent?
THURGOOD MARSHALLNone of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns – bent down and helped us pick up our boots.
THURGOOD MARSHALLEnding racial discrimination in jury selection can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely.
THURGOOD MARSHALLSome years ago I said in an opinion that if this country is a melting pot, then either the Afro-Americans didn’t get in the pot or he didn’t get melted down.
THURGOOD MARSHALLThe United States has been called the melting pot of the world. But it seems to me that the colored man either missed getting into the pot or he got melted down.
THURGOOD MARSHALLIn recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.
THURGOOD MARSHALLTo protest against injustice is the foundation of all our American democracy.
THURGOOD MARSHALLIf the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.
THURGOOD MARSHALLI cannot accept this invitation for I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever ‘fixed’ at the Philadelphia Convention… To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start. [Progressive]
THURGOOD MARSHALLA child born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi… has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It’s not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for.
THURGOOD MARSHALLThe ban directly hampers the partys ability to spread its message and hamstrings voters seeking to inform themselves about the candidates and issues.
THURGOOD MARSHALLSurely the fact that a uniformed police officer is wearing his hair below his collar will make him no less identifiable as a policeman.
THURGOOD MARSHALLTruth is more than a mental exercise.
THURGOOD MARSHALLThe First Amendment serves not only the needs of the polity but also those of the human spirit – a spirit that demands self-expression .
THURGOOD MARSHALLI’m the world’s original gradualist. I just think ninety-odd years is gradual enough.
THURGOOD MARSHALLWe must dissent from the fear.
THURGOOD MARSHALL