February 24, 2000
Michael J. Petrides 623
My Journal of Thurgood Marshall
Day 1,
Today I was born, I was the second son of William Marshall, my dad. I was born on July 2, 1908, in West Baltimore, Maryland. My father worked as a dining car waiter for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This job was descent for African Americans at that time. My aunt once remarked that when I was a child I was very cute and I had big dark eyes.
Day 2,
On September 4, 1929 I married a women named Vivian Burey, although she was older then me I still accepted her. On that year I married Vivian, later we moved into a small house in Oxford, and I became a bellhoper, and waiter. During college years I was playing more than studying, and usually I got B's and C's as a grade, but Vivian turned me around and encouraged me to work harder. After that I started getting A's.
Day 3,
In 1932, I was a second year law student in college and I was asked to write an argument from my favorite teacher Mr. Hastie. Mr. Hastie was a graduate from Harvard University and was the first African American Federal Judge. Even though I lost side of the case I learned a lot about actual practice law.
Day 4,
In 1933, I was the first graduate student in my law class. Although Harvard University offered me a scholarship I turned it down, because I wanted to achieve my future dream "practice law".
Day 5,
In 1933, I opened a small office in Baltimore. Although African American lawyers were rare, because a majority of judges were white African Americans would often hire white lawyers. In the first year of working I had to pay $1000 for rent. That was a lot of money at that time.
Day 6,
When working in law I accepted people who needed lawyers for free, and news went around about what I was doing, and more and more people started coming. I was chosen to join the NAACP in 1934. I was not paid for it but I felt good to...