Tragic Justice

Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary, by Juan Williams (Times Books, 480 pp., $27.50)

THIS book recounts one of the saddest tales of a Supreme Court Justice ever told. Thurgood Marshall emerged from modest circumstances to lead a crusade against racial discrimination, culminating in the victory of Brown v. Board of Education. He was appointed to the Court as a symbol of racial equality. But when he resigned from that position a few years before his death, he was a bitter and querulous character, a shadow of the charismatic and courageous leader America once knew. What happened to him?

About the Author

John O. McGinnis

John O. McGinnis is the George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law at Northwestern University and the author of the forthcoming Why Democracy Needs the Rich.

Featured Tags

Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary, by Juan Williams (Times Books, 480 pp., $27.50)

THIS book recounts one of the saddest tales of a Supreme Court Justice ever told. Thurgood Marshall emerged from modest circumstances to lead a crusade against racial discrimination, culminating in the victory of Brown v. Board of Education. He was appointed to the Court as a symbol of racial equality. But when he resigned from that position a few years before his death, he was a bitter and querulous character, a shadow of the charismatic and courageous leader America once knew. What happened to him?

About the Author

John O. McGinnis

John O. McGinnis is the George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law at Northwestern University and the author of the forthcoming Why Democracy Needs the Rich.