University of Virginia Library

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE JUSTICE THURGOOD MARSHALL RESEARCH PROFESSORSHIP IN LAW

WHEREAS, the late Justice Thurgood Marshall, as Director- Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, devised the strategy of using the courts to provide a definition of equality that assured black Americans the full rights of citizenship; and

WHEREAS, Justice Marshall's strategy led to the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954; and

WHEREAS, Justice Marshall served on the Supreme Court for 24 years, having been previously Solicitor General of the United States; and

WHEREAS, Justice Marshall's distinguished career emphasizes the power of the law in effecting justice; and

WHEREAS, more than one hundred donors, most of them African-American alumni of the School of Law, have given generously toward the establishment of a chair honoring the contributions of Justice Marshall;

RESOLVED, the Board of Visitors establishes the Justice Thurgood Marshall Research Professorship in Law, to be held in the School of Law, thanks the donors who have made the Professorship possible, and pays tribute to the memory of Justice Marshall and the contributions he made to the national life of the United States.