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Classifications and distinctions based on race or color have no moral or legal validity in our society. They are contrary to our constitution and laws.

Thurgood Marshall

A 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 MARSHALL

Black Born Children Goal Myself Person Right True White Worth
I’m the world’s original gradualist. I just think ninety-odd years is gradual enough.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Enough Myself Thinking World
Some 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 MARSHALL

Country Melt Myself Nation Opinion Time
None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Destiny Journey Ourselves
The process of democracy is one of change. Our laws are not frozen into immutable form, they are constantly in the process of revision in response to the needs of a changing society.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Change Democracy Law Oneself Recognition Response Society
Our Constitution is the envy of the world, as it should be for it is the grand design of the finest nation on earth.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Constitution Design Earth Jealous Nation Ourselves World
None 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 MARSHALL

Help Journey Ourselves Parents Teacher
If 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 MARSHALL

Alone Business Himself Home Law Man Meaning Movie Reading Rule See
To protest against injustice is the foundation of all our American democracy.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Democracy Foundation Injustice Ourselves
Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Color Excuse Frustration Law Race
Truth is more than a mental exercise.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Exercise Mental Truth
We must dissent from the fear.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Fear One Liner
The death penalty is no more effective a deterrent than life imprisonment. It is also evident that the burden of capital punishment falls upon the poor, the ignorant and the underprivileged members of society.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Death Fall Ignorance Life Poor Prison Privilege Society
Classifications and distinctions based on race or color have no moral or legal validity in our society. They are contrary to our constitution and laws.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Color Constitution Law Moral Ourselves Race Society
Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men’s minds.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Constitution Control Government Heritage Man Mindset Power Thinking
A man can make what he wants of himself if he truly believes that he must be ready for hard work and many heartbreaks.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Believe Hard Work Heart Broken Himself Man True
The Constitution was a product of its times.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Constitution Government Production Time
Ending racial discrimination in jury selection can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Accomplishment Challenge Discrimination End Race Selection
What is the quality of your intent?
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Intention One Liner Quality Yourself
In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Humanity Ourselves Pay Recognition Respect
Today’s Constitution is a realistic document of freedom only because of several corrective amendments. Those amendments speak to a sense of decency and fairness that I and other Blacks cherish.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Black Constitution Enjoyment Fair Myself Ourselves Talk
It is a historic step toward eliminating the shameful practice of racial discrimination in the selection of juries.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Discrimination History Practice Race Selection Shame
Sometimes history takes things into its own hands.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Hands History
History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Endurance History Liberty Right Teaching Threat
The 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 MARSHALL

Color Himself Man Missing World
Mere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Access Function
It is now well established that the Constitution protects the right to receive information and ideas.This right to receive information and ideas, regardless of their social worth, is fundamental to our free society.
THURGOOD MARSHALL

Constitution Establishment Freedom Fundamental Ideas Ourselves Protection Right Society Worth

Classifications and distinctions based on race or color have no moral or legal validity in our society. They are contrary to our constitution and laws.

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Classifications and distinctions based on race or color have no moral or legal validity in our society. They are contrary to our constitution and laws.

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