Thurgood Marshall: Classroom Lesson

Lesson at a Glance

Grades: Grades 6–12
Time: One class period (20–40 minutes)
Standards: NCSS Themes 6 (Power, Authority, and Governance) and 10 (Civic Ideals and Practices); C3 D2.Civ.4, D2.Civ.12, D2.His.1
Reading: Thurgood Marshall (profile)

Big Idea

Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP’s lawyers dismantled the legal foundation of Jim Crow through a patient, case-by-case strategy that used the Constitution’s own promises against segregation.

Before Class

Students read the profile of Thurgood Marshall, including the Key Dates and Sources.

Discussion Questions

Why did Marshall and Charles Hamilton Houston attack segregation in graduate and professional schools before challenging public schools directly?
Marshall’s first major victory came against the law school that had rejected him. What does Pearson v. Murray show about how personal experience can shape strategy?
What is the difference between a court ruling that segregated schools are unequal and a ruling that segregation itself is unconstitutional?
In 1987 Marshall said the Constitution was “defective from the start.” Do you agree? What evidence supports or challenges his view?
As the Court grew more conservative, Marshall wrote more dissents. What purpose does a dissent serve if it does not change the outcome of a case?

Activity

Students read the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the key paragraphs of the 1954 Brown opinion from the National Archives. In groups, they build a staircase diagram of the cases named in the profile (Pearson v. Murray, Smith v. Allwright, Sweatt v. Painter, McLaurin, Brown), writing on each step what the case decided and how it prepared the next. Groups then answer: why did the NAACP need so many steps before the Court would overturn “separate but equal”? (30–40 minutes.)

Primary Sources

Cite this page

MLA: “Classroom lesson: Thurgood Marshall.” Black-History.com, 30 Sept. 2026, https://black-history.com/classroom/thurgood-marshall/.
APA: Black-History.com Editors. (2026, September 30). Classroom lesson: Thurgood Marshall. Black-History.com. https://black-history.com/classroom/thurgood-marshall/
Chicago: Black-History.com Editors. “Classroom lesson: Thurgood Marshall.” Black-History.com. September 30, 2026. https://black-history.com/classroom/thurgood-marshall/.

Editorial Note

By the Black-History.com editors. Last reviewed 30 September 2026. To suggest a primary source or a correction, write to editors@black-history.com or use our corrections form.