by Pete Williams
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court's elegant marble courtroom was
the scene of a historic event 50 years ago, when Thurgood Marshall took
his place as the nation's first African-American justice.
A movie opening Friday commemorates his
arrival by featuring a lesser-known case from Marshall's pioneering work
as a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Starring
Chadwick Boseman, "Marshall" dramatizes his defense of a black chauffeur
in Connecticut falsely accused of the rape and attempted murder of his
white socialite employer.
"Thurgood Marshall was almost single-handedly responsible for creating
the concept of the civil rights lawyer," said Sherrilyn Ifill, the Legal
Defense Fund's current president. "Before Marshall, it was unheard of —
a lawyer who devoted his practice full-time to civil rights matters,
and did so with the same level of excellence as attorneys practicing at
the nation's top law firms."
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Sources: NBC News and Open Road Films
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