Two prominent women in Marshall’s life - his mother and his first wife, Buster, sacrificed treasured personal effects to support causes that were bigger than themselves (the future and education of their child and the NAACP). When was a time someone sacrificed something for you? How did it help you and how did it make you feel?

Justice Thurgood Marshall worked in law for fifty years with the mission of justice and equality for all men regardless of their race. What is a cause or an injustice that lights a fire under your passions? What are ways you’ve begun (or can begin) to pursue a mission toward justice?

Justice Marshall gives credit to his father for teaching him how to argue and debate: “he challenged my logic on every point, even when we were discussing the weather.” Who are the role models in your life that have imparted core qualities of who you are? How have those qualities shaped your life?

Unconscious bias is something we all possess (literally without realizing), and confronting those biases is a process that takes time, focused effort, and self-led education. Challenging how firmly planted structures and ideas exist is a calling we can all undertake - whether that’s within ourselves, around our communities, at our places of work, or in our legal system. Justice Thurgood Marshall, beginning as early as his college years, was able to reinvent the way the law itself worked, ultimately presenting a case that reversed the long held and damaging precedent of “separate but equal” in Brown v. Board of Education.

Confronting our unconscious biases can literally change the world in which we live. In that, there is great power.

Lester Purry, the incredible talent portraying Justice Thurgood Marshall has mentioned a a documentary he watched on Netflix regarding this confrontation of unconscious bias.

The documentary is called Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America, and in it, civil rights lawyer, Jeffery Robinson, illuminates the history of racial legal precedent leading to and during the lifetime of Justice Thurgood Marshall. Robinson addresses a wide range of topics historically, socially, politically, and culturally that contribute to the continued racially-divisive world we live in today. It’s well worth a watch!

This last year has proven to be a fascinating and highly active period for the Supreme Court. If you’d like to follow how the current justices align or differ across current cases, the National Constitution Center has created an actively updating list of Supreme Court decisions.

If you find yourself looking for a more general understanding of how the courts work, check out this great resource by the American Bar Association.

And for those who like to learn on the move, here are a few podcasts about the Supreme Court, some of the more recent socio-political cases to cross the bench, and general constitutional law.

• Serial Season 3
• Stuff You Should Know
• What Roman Mars Can Learn about Con Law
• More Perfect
  
  

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“Dear Mom and Dad: I still have so much to learn. Professor Houston says a lawyer who is not a social engineer is a social parasite. I believe that is God’s truth.”

Through numerous organizations, you too can be of service to those whom Justice Marshall sought to protect and offer routes toward restorative justice. Below is a list of organizations that accept volunteers and support of all sorts - utilizing varying talents and skills for stewardship to incarcerated individuals. Some groups are spiritual in nature, some offer educational and tutoring opportunities, and some focus on more socially-minded rehabilitation. Take a look and see if there's an opportunity for you to contribute and make an impact.

• Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

• Prison Fellowship formerly Matthew Prison Fellowship Association

• Towards Employment

• Women of Hope

• Passages Connecting Fathers and Families

• Inside Influence (Ohio Branch Opportunities)

• ID13 Literacy Project

• Catholic Diocese of Cleveland

If you are a business owner or manage a staff, check out this article about “Chopping for Change” through Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry and see if there’s opportunity for you to make an impact.

Additional information for other non-profit organizations in our community can be found here.

Public interest attorney and poet, Harbani Ahuja has teamed up with the International Center for Advocates Against Discrimination (ICAAD), a human rights organization, to do something pretty spectacular. Ahuja has created an interactive timeline of historical Supreme Court Decisions and has distilled from the published decisions of the bench a series of poems. In this process of advocacy meeting art, Ahuja recognizes history and reimagines the way it is told through her own artistic lens.

ID13 Prison Literacy Project has done something similar by creating a platform for inmates to compose their own poetry based on their own perspectives and experiences. Take a look at their work on their site.

With friends or family, find a newspaper, online article, or news post, read it, and let it inform you and inspire you to construct something of your own. It can be a distillation, a personal essay, a poem, a picture - anything that inspires you! How can you reimagine the stories of today and transform them through your own artistic lens?

Share your work online and tag it with #ThurgoodCPH, and see what others create as well.

EXPERIENCE

“My Daddy…was the most insidious of my family of rebels. He taught me how to argue and debate - he challenged my logic on every point, even when we were discussing the weather.”

Looking at an issue from a new angle and being able to interrogate and debate it is an artform - and a heck of a useful one. Whether it’s politics, school work, team leadership, or even the weather, being able to examine a subject in creative ways and then convincingly support your perspective is a terrific skill to hone.

Grab a friend or family member (without fighting) and take opposing sides of an issue and see if you can debate your case. Maybe start out with the hard hitting questions like: “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” “Does pineapple belong on pizza?” Then work your way out to tougher fare.
Choose sides arbitrarily, and then switch.

F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Are you up to the test?

If that kind of mental agility and elasticity is fun for you, think about checking out speech and debate clubs at your school or in your community. If your school doesn’t have a speech and debate club, check out the free resources supplied by the National Speech & Debate Association for lessons and materials.