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Summary: An account of the life of and rise to the Supreme Court of Thurgood Marshall structured around the five days of hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Probably the most shining legacy of the presidency of Lyndon Johnson were the advances he oversaw with civil rights against the opposition of southern Democrats in his own party. Among his foremost accomplishments was the appointment of the first Black Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall.

This work by Wil Haygood focuses on the showdown between Marshall and the southern members of the Senate Judiciary Committee opposed to his nomination during its hearings on the nomination before it was forwarded to the full Senate in the summer of 1967. The work is organized around the five days of hearings through which Haygood weaves the narrative of Marshall’s life. While the southern Senators on the Judiciary Committee could not block the nomination from going to the Senate, they employed strategies to slow it down and to cast sufficient aspersions on the character and judicial record of Marshall to jeopardize his confirmation.

James Eastland, the committee chairman, whose family had participated in a lynching and whose office was a shrine to the Confederacy had been thwarted in his own state by Marshall’s court efforts with the NAACP and was snubbed by Marshall, who refused to step into Eastland’s office to make a courtesy call. That office represented everything he had fought. Strom Thurmond, who had a black daughter, kept in secret until years later and Sam Ervin, known for his knowledge of the Constitution joined him. They tried to portray him soft on crime, trick him into discussing how he might rule on future cases, accused him of Communist associations and judicial activism and tried to make him look unschooled with arcane questions about the Constitution. Marshall, who had long dealt with wily white lawyers sidestepped the traps they set for him.

Against the backdrop of the hearings, Haygood tells the story of an extraordinary life. A descendent of slaves, Marshall grew up in Baltimore, went to Lincoln University as a classmate of Langston Hughes and excelled on the debate team, then to Howard University Law School. By 1936, he had joined the national staff of the NAACP, often traveling at great risk into the Jim Crow South. With the NAACP, he successfully argued 29 of 34 cases in the Supreme Court, notably Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka resulting in the desegregation of public schools. He gave critical leadership to the NAACP’s legal strategy to gain civil rights for Blacks. In 1961, President Kennedy name him to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1965, President Johnson appointed him Solicitor General, where he won 14 of 19 cases that he argued.

Haygood more briefly summarizes his work on the court, touching on the hundreds of majority opinions and hundreds more dissents that he wrote, the clerkship of future Justice Elena Kagan–more discussion of his tenure on the bench and appraisal would have been helpful in rounding out the story. Marshall stepped down in 1991, dying two years later.

I could not help but think as I read of the opposition to the confirmation recently of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, whose confirmation, if anything was far more of a close run thing despite legal credentials that if anything exceeded those of Marshall. It is fifty-five years later, but it appears that if anything, we have regressed as a country. A mark of the courage of both justices was that they did not relent in the face of the distortions of their records and character that they had to face. Haygood captures the fortitude of Marshall throughout his legal career and during those five days of interrogation. Perhaps someday someone, maybe even Haygood, will do the same for Justice Jackson. ( )

Wil Haygood's book "Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America" provides a good summary of Thurgood Marshall's life, and the unfortunate discrimination he faced and fought against during his life. The story of how a handful of Southern Senators conspired to prevent him from being placed on the Supreme Court because of their segregationist views and upbringing was a sad look back at the Jim Crow era. For the young people of our Country who didn't experience those Jim Crow years, and may have been confused by the mindset of Dylann Roof's horrific murder of those nine African American worshippers at a Church in Charleston, South Carolina in June, 2015, this book gives insights into the white supremasist attitude of that time, and serves as a sad reminder of how long it takes for those prejudices to die out in our society.

The one downside to the book, if you can call it that, is that I thought it came out second best to another book I had recently read about Thurgood Marshall's life, i.e., Gilbert King's "Devil in the Grove". King's book didn't cover the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearings on Marshall's nomination to the Supreme Court, but did a superb job describing Marshall's fight for racial equality and what he endured in his position as chief NAACP litigator. If I had only one book to read about Marshall, I favored "Devil in the Grove".
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The last two chapters of this book, regarding the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall, were the most enjoyable parts. Had the entire book been written like this, it would have received 4 stars from me. It was interesting, relevant, riveting analysis of one of the most controversial senate hearings in modern US history. However, most of the book was made up of irrelevant stream-of-consciousness tirades about individuals loosely or not at all associated with Justice Marshall, which added no value to the context or history surrounding the nomination.

If you can drudge through the chapters about random individuals who played no part in the history of Marshall, LBJ, Eastland, or the other Senate Judiciary Committee members, the author provides some analysis of the relevant times. However, the book could have easily been 180 pages and much more enjoyable.

The non-linear storyline didn't directly bother me as much as the non-relevant storyline. For example, the author utilizes the epilogue to denounce the judicial philosophy of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a conservative, with no basis in fact. Meanwhile, the rest of the book defends Marshall's judicial activism under the guise of "the opposition was racist." Most of the book, in fact, reads like a much-too-long gossip column.

If you're still interested, get it from the library; this is not a book I would want to keep on my shelf. ( )

Have you ever read a book that you loved but disliked; made you proud and "miffed;" but renewed your spirit? This was one of those books. I have always held Thurgood Marshall in high regards not because he was perfect because he was perfect in his imperfection. Growing up, I always knew he was on the Supreme Court; I knew he was the lawyer behind Brown v Board of Education but as a kid, I did not understand the depth of his selflessness to human kind. Yes, I said human kind because that is who he represented despite the focus on Blacks. Schools especially those in the USA should make this required reading. Why should it be required reading? Because kids need to understand the society from which America was formed. ( )