Thurgood Marshall: The Conductor
Thurgood Marshall is remembered today as a lawyer and Supreme Court Justice, but he was also one of the most effective and innovative political organizers America has ever seen. During a twenty-year campaign (1935-1955) to end government-enforced racial segregation, called "Jim Crow," Marshall combined his exceptional legal skills with his abilities as an organizer, fundraiser, and publicist in a way that subsequent political movements - including advocates for gay rights, those on both sides of the abortion debate, and environmentalists - have replicated. This book lifts from obscurity those who responded to Marshall's leadership and pushed the country towards racial justice. Thurgood Marshall orchestrated nearly every aspect of this complicated, twenty-year campaign. For that reason, we have called him the Conductor.
