By ELISABETH ANN BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C. — District of Columbia Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton was the guest homilist at the Thurgood Marshall Feast Day Service of the Holy Eucharist held at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, 555 Water Street, S.W., Washington, D.C., on Sunday, May 20, 2018, in honor of the first African-American Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Justice Marshall, who died in 1993, was a faithful member of St. Augustine’s, and the 2009 General Convention of the Episcopal Church “strongly urged through a resolution that Justice Marshall should be added to the Church’s liturgical calendar,” according to the church’s bulletin.
“May 17, the date of the court’s historic decision in Brown v. Board of Education, has been designated as his feast day and final approval is expected at the 2018 General Convention,” the bulletin noted.
Brown v. Board of Education, which held that racial segregation in public education was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, was one of the historic cases Marshall successfully argued before the Supreme Court prior to his appointment as an Associate Justice.
St. Augustine’s decided to observe the closest Sunday to May 17 annually as Thurgood Marshall Feast Day. Highlights of this past Sunday’s Feast Day – attended by Justice Marshall’s widow, Cecilia Suyat Marshall, and their son Thurgood Marshall Jr. — included a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Thurgood Marshall Gallery in the church building, followed by a luncheon reception.
Other distinguished guests included His Excellency Robinson Njeru Githae, the Republic of Kenya Ambassador to the United States.
Thurgood Marshall Committee Members include Cecilia Suyat Marshall, Ex-Officio; Josephus Nelson, Kwasi Holman, Dennis Grubb, Thelma D. Jones, Ana Carmen Nebosia and the Rev. Martha Clark, Rector of St. Augustine’s.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 2, 1908, Marshall graduated from the Howard University School of Law in 1933, and established a
private legal practice in Baltimore before founding the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he served as executive director.
President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1961, and four years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him as the United States Solicitor General. In 1967, President Johnson successfully nominated Marshall to succeed retiring Associate Justice Tom C. Clark.
Justice Marshall, who was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from October 1967 to October 1991, retired during the administration of President George H. W. Bush, and was succeeded by Clarence Thomas.
