Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America

As the first African American nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall (1908–93) serves as a transition figure between Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and Barack Obama's presidency. Haygood (media, journalism, and film, Miami Univ.), a journalist for nearly three decades (Boston Globe, Washington Post), is also the author of biographies on Sammy Davis Jr. (In Black and White) and Sugar Ray Robinson (Sweet Thunder); he understands the arduous path to racial equality in the 20th century. This biography focuses on Marshall's upbringing in Baltimore and his pioneering work with the NAACP's Legal Defense and Education Fund, while weaving this material into the five days of Senate confirmation hearings in 1967. (Lyndon B. Johnson outfoxes Marshall's Southern segregationist foes on the Judiciary committee even during the urban violence of the time.) In contrast to the moral leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., Marshall is portrayed as a pragmatic politician who works inside the system.