Thurgood Marshall, “Mr. Civil Rights” (1908-1993).
Enrolling at Pennsylvania’s Lincoln University in 1925, Marshall graduated cum laude in 1930, but was denied admission to the University of Maryland School of Law due to his race. Fortunately, he then enrolled at Washington, DC’s Howard Law School where he met its dean, Charles Hamilton Houston (1895-1950), another transformational Civil Rights legal hero, who became his mentor.
Above, writing on his N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Educational Fund letterhead in 1955, the victorious Civil Rights attorney declines a speaking invitation due to his involvement with the pending and increasing numbers of school desegregation cases following the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Decision the previous year.
In his reply, Marshall mentions Virginia, where one rural district closed its public schools for an entire year due to its unyielding opposition to racial integration.