THURGOOD MARSHALL During the 20th century I have read many books, newspaper articles and seen news broadcasts on two of the most famous Afro American Pioneers: Martin Luther King and Thurgood Marshall. Martin Luther King fought all his life for equal rights for Afro Americans, but Thurgood Marshall help elevate the Afro American civil rights struggles through legal precedents and timely court decisions. Thomas G. Kraftenmaker a professor of Constitutional law at Georgetown University Law Center wrote, "When I think of great American lawyers I think of Thurgood Marshall, Abe Lincoln and Daniel Webster". In this century only Earl Warren approaches Marshall. Thurgood Marshall is certainly the most important lawyer of the 20th century. Thurgood Marshall is the only black leader in American History who can argue that he defeated segregation where it really counts in court. Thurgood Marshall devised a legal strategy based on The United States Constitution; he forced rights to be extended equally to even the poorest and most disadvantaged citizens. Thurgood Marshall was born on July 2, 1908 in Baltimore Maryland. Thurgood Marshall many life accomplishments were instill upon him through his parents Norma Arica Marshall and William Canfield Marshall. Thurgood's mother Norma Arica Marshall was one of the first Afro Americans to graduate from Columbia University. Thurgood's father William Canfield Marshall was the first black person to serve on Baltimore's grand jury in the 20th century. Thurgood Marshall was a premed dental scholar at Lincoln University in Oxford Pennsylvania. As a junior, Thurgood met and eventually married his first wife Vivian Buster Burey, after graduation Thurgood went to the prominent Howard Law School in Washington D.C. Charles Huston, who later helped shape and mold Thurgood's knowledge of the United States Constitution, ran the law school. By 1934 Thurgood begins work for The NAACP.