Bro. Thurgood Marshall

[Professor]

NAACP URGES LAWMAKERS TO RENAME BWI AIRPORT IN

HONOR OF THURGOOD MARSHALL

Maryland’s native son is the leading civil rights lawyer of the 20th century

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is calling for state lawmakers to honor Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice by passing the bill to rename Baltimore’s airport Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

The Maryland House of Representatives approved the bill in March and the Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday, April 5.

Dennis Hayes, NAACP Interim President and CEO, said: “I applaud the effort to add Thurgood Marshall’s name to BWI Airport. Marshall is an icon of Baltimore, the NAACP and in civil rights history. He persevered in the struggle for civil rights and America is now a more inclusive nation. With Thurgood Marshall’s name on BWI his story will continue to be told.”

Marshall was born in Baltimore in 1908. He graduated from Douglas High School and attended Howard University Law School. He served as legal director for the NAACP from 1940 to 1961. During this critical period, Marshall led the NAACP legal team that successfully argued the1954 Supreme Court Brown vs. Board decision.

Marshall’s lifework through the court system helped to eradicate segregation in housing, voting, education and transportation. He represented and won more Supreme Court cases than any other American before becoming the first African-American elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. He died in 1993.

Founded in 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its half-million adult and youth members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities and monitor equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.

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Contact: Mary Wright, NAACP Office of Communications, 410-580-5125
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Rev. Charles L. White, Jr., Director
Southeast Region, NAACP