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68 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 226 (1993)
Thurgood Marshall's Image of the Blue-Eyed Child in Brown

handle is hein.journals/nylr68 and id is 244 raw text is: MEMORIAL ESSAYS THURGOOD MARSHALL'S IMAGE OF THE BLUE-EYED CHILD IN BROWN ANTHONY G. AMSTERDAM* At least in the years I knew him, Thurgood Marshall wasn't hot on celebrations. He had a vast capacity for joy and for sharing joy, and a fierce pride in the advances that civil rights had made in his lifetime. But he was too intensely aware of the work yet undone to waste his time reflecting on the past except as prologue.' Responding to a ceremony in his honor at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York on March 24, 1992, Thurgood closed with these words: For all of you here, please bear in mind: it's a long road ahead. It's a tough one and it's not going to get any easier. But if you all have faith in, one, our government, and, two, ourselves, we can make it. Why do I say, with faith we can make it? What the hell else have we had but faith. And we haven't made it. But, by golly we're on our way. Thanks again. I appreciate it very much.2 To try to do what Thurgood might have most appreciated, I will limit my remarks in this commemorative issue to discussing one of his accomplishments as a source of practical instruction-something that lawyers can learn from, not simply admire. I will look at one aspect of his oral arguments before the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Edu- cation 3 as an example of a master legal strategist at work. In every pub- lic role he played, advocate, civil rights leader, government attorney, judge, and Justice, Thurgood taught by example. Let us see what we can learn from a single instance of his skill as a revolutionary litigator. * Judge Edward Weinfeld Professor of Law and Director of the Lawyering Program, New York University. I I would pass on to you the answer I give to people who ask, 'What is the most impor- tant case you have argued?' My reply has always been, 'The next one.' Thurgood Marshall, The Federal Appeal, in Counsel on Appeal 141, 142 (Arthur A. Charpentier ed., 1968). 2 The Orison Marden Lecture in Honor of Justice Thurgood Marshall, 47 The Record 268 (1992). 3 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (Brown 1); Brown v. Board of Educ., 349 U.S. 294 (1955) (Brown I1). Brown I and its companion decision, Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497 (1954), covered five cases from four states and the District of Columbia, argued on December 9-11, 1952 and reargued on December 7-8, 1953. The second Brown opinion covered all of these cases after further argument on the issue of relief, heard on April 11-14, 1955. Seven lawyers argued for the plaintiffs seeking school desegregation in the five cases. Thurgood made the opening and rebuttal arguments in the South Carolina case in 1952; he shared the opening argument and made the rebuttal argument in the South Carolina and Virginia cases, and he also shared the opening argument in the Delaware case, in 1953; he made the opening argument and two rebuttal arguments in the South Carolina and Virginia cases in 1955. 226 Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Law Review

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